Get inspired and adopt the ideas you like.
If you are afraid to use bright colors in the interior, take a look at the apartment of our heroes, perhaps it will change your mind. Yana and Filat designed an incredible two-room apartment in St. Petersburg: they provided maximum storage on an area of 59 m², thought out as many as 43 outlets, made it beautiful and honestly talked about mistakes.
We purchased this apartment in a rough version: there were no walls, ceilings, or screeds. We clearly knew what we wanted to see in the interior, but in order to competently plan the location of all the rooms, we decided to turn to designer Svetlana Kuptsova for help.
Since the sky in St. Petersburg has been covered with gray clouds for five months, we relied on bright colors. I also wanted to get the most functional space with all the necessary zones. Together with the designer, we thought out in detail all the electrics, lighting, switches and sockets, and the location of the router, so that later we would not have to drill into the walls and spoil the appearance of the interior.
As a result, we got a large kitchen-living room, a bedroom with a work space, a hallway, two bathrooms (one is a full bathroom) and another room, which we will design in the future.
Three primary colors are used here – beige, terracotta and green. We chose shades from pictures on Pinterest. Initially, the apartment did not have a single load-bearing wall, so they were able to build the premises based on their needs.
The kitchen area is painted in bright green. The lower facades are MDF in enamel, the upper ones are laminated chipboard. We’ve been living here for about six months now, and all the facades have performed amazingly! The kitchen itself is L-shaped: a niche was built specifically to fit a column with appliances (oven and built-in microwave).
The countertop is made of quartz agglomerate: I dreamed about it for a long time, but as operation has shown, it is not at all practical – dark marks from water remain, stains cannot be wiped off with anything.
Pink Spanish tiles are laid on the splashback; white epoxy grout is very practical to use. The joint between the countertop and the splashback is made with white sealant.
We installed a round stainless steel sink; it is glued underneath the countertop: it’s very convenient to use and clean! We thought of built-in dispensers for liquid soap and detergent, a mixer with a flexible spout, and a shredder for small household waste.
The wall near the kitchen is decorated in beige: a niche for pencil cases was built specially. The hatch hides the distribution of all the water in the kitchen, one of the sections contains a built-in refrigerator and freezer, and the other contains storage. In the outermost section is my pride – sorting recyclables.
There is a laminate on the floor – it is laid in a single contour throughout the entire apartment, the joints with the tiles are made through sealant. The living room is divided into two zones – dining and relaxation. The dining group is represented by a table with a table top made of MDF in veneer and chairs in soft upholstery. We specifically chose models of different colors. The wall is decorated with a handmade panel – it was ordered from Kirovo-Chepetsk.
The living room has a folding sofa with legs, opposite there is a comfortable hanging bedside table. And this combination is very comfortable: when we start the robot vacuum cleaner, we don’t have to put in any additional effort. The wall above the sofa was decorated with a triptych of posters – it was selected according to the color scheme. An interior TV hangs on the wall: it disguises itself as a painting, all the wires go into the cable channel in the cabinet.
The lowering of the ceiling is dictated by the design feature of the apartment: a load-bearing beam passes through here, so we decided to play around with it and make the transition smoother. By the way, all the ceilings in the apartment are made of two layers of plasterboard – this increases sound insulation.
In the bedroom, we decided to make one wall an accent wall: we hung a panel of washable non-woven wallpaper. A bed with an interesting headboard: it has no lifting mechanism, but has legs—a robot vacuum cleaner can easily fit under it. On each side of the bed there is a nightstand decorated with rose quartz handles. There are also switches for general light and lamps on each side.
The fronts of the cabinets are made in a soft blue color and are made from floor to ceiling – this visually increases its height. Mortise handles on furniture are not only a beautiful, but also a functional solution.
In the bedroom we placed wardrobes that replace an entire dressing room. We spent a lot of time on design: we measured the height of each shelf so that the item we needed would fit. An ordinary chest of drawers was repainted, the top drawers were recolored, and beautiful hardware was added.
Filat designed the workplace himself: the tabletop was made to order, the depth was 70 cm, so that there was always support for the elbow. Another common problem: office chairs are not always comfortable or do not fit into the interior – this was ordered from IKEA in Finland.
As in the entire apartment, there is laminate flooring and the walls are painted with semi-matte paint. The front door was painted the same color as the wall – this is a very cool solution, it looks uniform. The slopes were formed into door frames to protect them from damage.
There is a shelf to the left of the entrance: you can throw your keys or bags there. There is a pull-out shelf for small items, with space below and above for shoes and hats. The slatted shelf prevents dust from accumulating and minimizes wasted time on cleaning.
The closet provides storage for outerwear, as well as a utility section for household items. At the bottom there is a hidden station for the robot vacuum cleaner. There is a full-length mirror on the front door so you can look at yourself before leaving. Another life hack is a fingerprint-operated door lock—you don’t need to carry any keys with you.
The area of this room is only 3.5 m². And at the same time, we managed to fit a full-fledged bathtub 150 cm long here! Three types of tiles and two types of paint were used in the decoration. All plumbing fixtures are white – this is very practical, there are no traces of drops or limescale deposits. A vertical heated towel rail with removable hooks is installed; in the corner of the bathroom there are built-in shelves with a slope of 3 mm to prevent water from accumulating.
The cabinet with a 60 cm wide sink is made of MDF veneer, with pull-out shelves. Above it hangs a mirrored cabinet with two mirrored opening doors.
The main feature of the room is a drying cabinet with slots in the facade. The handles are integrated, and there is storage for towels inside, an unusual drying system, and a heated floor built into the wall behind it.
The bathroom is decorated in dark blue: the tiles on the floor and in the area behind the sink have something in common. We wanted to make this room monochrome, so we painted the washbasin and toilet blue.
Instead of a cabinet, we found a slab of the depth we needed and fit it into this niche. The mirror is made in a wooden frame with a walnut veneer – the shade perfectly matches the color of the slab. Storage is organized above the installation; a shield is installed on the top shelf. And behind the doors there is a laundry area and storage for detergents!
