Today we are talking about the design of an apartment located in a villa built during the interwar period. With a wonderful view of the park, this apartment has a special atmosphere but also a generous usable area of 130sqm. The owners, a family with one child, with a very active lifestyle, wanted a bright, modern and elegant house. Preserving the brightness and height of the rooms, optimizing the storage space and keeping the mosaic were clear requirements from the owners. But let’s see more in the following lines!
We started the apartment renovation by replacing all the installations, we removed the parquet (implemented with the house, on a floor support, wooden beams and slag filling) and we restored the support layer. The owners did not want major structural changes because the apartment is very well compartmentalized. The only modification related to the compartmentalization consisted of demolishing the wall between the pantry and the kitchen, thus increasing the space intended for it. Thus, we kept the existing compartmentalization, changing only some of the rooms’ role and the positions of the installations.
The concept of the entire apartment renovation started from the black and white mosaic found in the hallways as well as in the kitchen, ceramic mosaic, from the interwar period, which the owners did not want to give up on. Its reconditioning represented one of the main challenges of this project: we removed the mosaic from the balcony area – an open balcony, part of the living room – and installed it in the kitchen, in the area related to the pantry, an area that has become part of the kitchen.
Living Room
The living room is open to the balcony and benefits from plenty of natural light. It is a bright room, modernly decorated with elegant accents. We opted to create borders from decorative profiles that highlight different lighting fixtures or areas in the living room.
The balcony was transformed into a relaxation area, with two bookcases running the full height of the room. One of the owners’ requirements was to create a reading space, and this was the optimal place for it.
The Master Bedroom
For the master bedroom, we opted for an elegant decor, highlighted by the wallpaper with golden accents, the decorative profiles used to decorate the walls, as well as those used for the scafes. We relied on a play of lights, generated thanks to the scafes. The colors that we used are warm, soothing shades.
The Child’s Bedroom
For this room we opted for practical, easy-to-maintain furniture that would serve all the essential roles: desk, bookcase, wardrobe. We also created a reading and relaxation area here by the window – due to the orientation towards the park. We chose turquoise paint for the blackboard on one of the walls so as to create a point of interest and attraction.
The Office
Open to the living room area, the office was decorated in a modern style, with elegant accents. In this space we relied on light accents – LEDs in the sconces. The office fulfills several functions: home office area, guest room (thanks to the extendable sofa) and relaxation area – games on TV or watching movies with the family.
The kitchen
Although small and cramped at first, after the re-compartmentation it became a generous kitchen, in which all the necessary appliances and storage were perfectly fitted. Thus, we opted for creating a wall of soldiers – to incorporate the refrigerator, oven, boiler and to benefit from as many storage spaces as possible. As a chromatic scheme, we opted for white with turquoise accents and natural wood. The floor was redesigned and enhanced with the mosaic pattern from the balcony.
Bathroom
Although the apartment is generous in size, it has only one bathroom, and not a very large one. The owners wanted a generous walk-in shower, a stand-alone bathtub, a washbasin with a generous countertop and a storage unit, all in 6 square meters. We chose a glossy, marbled tile, in accordance with the elegant style of the house. From the chosen tile, we made a mosaic for the walk-in shower area. We chose to make a mirror along the entire length of the washbasin unit to create the illusion of a much more larger space.
Hallways
We chose to highlight the hallways by preserving and refurbishing the mosaic. We created elegant spaces through the decorative borders used and the decorative LED light strips that add extra elegance to the space.
We tried to preserve as much of the house’s interwar charm as possible – we kept and reconditioned the mosaic and parquet, and opted for classic scafa shapes as well as for decorative profiles.
Pictures source: iDecorate