Designer Alla Senicheva revealed the historical brick, emphasized the gorgeous view from the window and added art to the interior.
This two-room apartment in an old apartment building is intended for daily rent to guests of St. Petersburg. The tasks that designer Alla Senicheva faced were to create a stylish and inviting interior to which she would like to return. At the same time, it was important to maintain the historical character of the house – to combine original brick, stucco and modern materials, to focus on the view from the windows.
Functional tasks – comfortable accommodation for a family of two to four people. No redevelopment was done: they just dismantled the extra plasterboard partitions from the previous renovation and combined two bathrooms into one. The result is a spacious kitchen-living room, bedroom and spacious storage systems.
The kitchen is not expected to be used intensively (there is a famous restaurant street next door), but everything necessary for preparing food has been provided. The apartment has electricity and no gas, as the open plan was important.
We only installed the lower cabinets in the main part of the kitchen and at the base of the island. The kitchen was made to order in a private carpentry workshop. The hood is recirculating, sewn into a plasterboard box.
The island is quite spacious, so some of the equipment (toaster, juicer) is located on it. The dishwasher is in the island next to the sink. The microwave can either stand on the countertop or be stored in cabinets.
In the kitchen-living room, bedroom, and hallway, historical brick and painted walls were combined. The brick is cleaned and coated with matte varnish; if necessary, it is easy to make cosmetic repairs by simply repainting the walls. The rosette on the ceiling in the living room is a small tribute to Northern Art Nouveau, and the friezes in the hallway are made of plaster.
“My favorite part of the interior is the reproduction of Kandinsky’s painting “The Singer”. Originally it was supposed to hang in the bedroom. But since it was brought to the site a little earlier than we could hang it, the canvas was temporarily leaned against the wall between the windows in the living room. And it became clear that the painting should only live there. In combination with a chandelier and oak parquet, a rather solemn atmosphere is created. Moreover, right across the river opposite the windows is the famous Concert Hall,” says Alla Senicheva.
The building in which the apartment is located is famous for its arches. You can see them from the bedroom window. That is why a door with a semicircular element on the top transom appeared in the opening between the bedroom and the hallway. To allow light to pass through the entire apartment, it is made of frosted corrugated glass – it is visually light and bright.
There is a dressing room as a storage system. “I don’t like closets, so I always try to create a separate room for things where they can be ventilated. The shelving in this dressing room is a modular system from Leroy Merlin. They also found an IKEA storage system from the old collection for the bedroom,” says Alla Senicheva.
The bathroom is only 4 square meters. m. On the floor there is mosaic porcelain tile, the style is a reference to the Metlakh tiles, which have been laid in the front door since the foundation of the house. The bathroom includes a spacious shower 1200×900 mm, a long countertop made of quartz agglomerate, under which there is a washing machine and a laundry basket.
Photo of the apartment before renovation
