Renovating apartments on the secondary market often involves completely dismantling the interior walls and creating a new layout. This two-room apartment was no exception. After the renovation, it now has a large kitchen for the hostess who loves to cook, a walk-through living room for receiving guests, and a private bedroom. There was also enough space for storage systems and a convenient bathroom.
The clients, a married couple, quickly found a common language with the architect Alena Chmeleva. The couple bought an apartment in a Stalin-era building on Frunzenskaya Embankment and were ready for a major overhaul and radical redevelopment. And it was really needed to implement all the wishes.
First, all existing non-load-bearing partitions were dismantled, and some of the utility lines were redone. Two bathrooms were combined into one and the passage was moved towards the kitchen. The focus was on a U-shaped set with a sink and a work surface near the window: the customer loves to cook, so all the space was used. The gas stove was re-welded and moved closer to the wall. And the meters were hidden behind the wall cabinets.
The entrance to the living room was designed with two 2.5-meter-high glass hinged doors. The living room area itself is located in the center of a relatively large window: symmetrical book shelves, a sofa, and an extendable dining table for 6–8 people were installed here. The entrance to the bedroom is provided from the living room area. A work space and a full-fledged dressing room were placed here.
In the front area and kitchen, marble was used as a floor covering — the customer loves it very much. In the living rooms, solid boards of tinted oak were laid. The walls were mostly painted, plus the bedroom interior was decorated with English hand-made wallpaper on silk De Gournay. The perimeter of all ceilings was decorated with plaster rods.
The walls in the bathroom were covered with Spanish tiles Adex with decor. On the floor – Mettlach tiles “carpet”. This tile has a matte texture and is very durable. In the kitchen, an apron was created from hand-painted tiles, the pattern on which completely repeated the pattern on the curtains.
The main volume of clothes is in the dressing room , plus in the hallway there is a built-in closet 80 cm deep, where in addition to outerwear, a washing vacuum cleaner was hidden. In the bedroom, at the request of the owner, the architect provided a comfortable workplace opposite the window with shelves for books, office equipment, and perfume. Printing equipment was hidden in the lower cabinets, and file folders were hidden in the upper ones behind the doors.
“The customers wanted a warm interior with bright accents. One of the wishes was to fit paintings into the interior, so we took some of the shades from the canvases,” says Alena Chmeleva.
The furniture is mostly American and English. Some items were made to order: for example, a turquoise-colored sideboard 2.4 meters high made of solid wood with hand carving was made according to the architect’s sketches. All wishes were taken into account: the lower shelves were made of 25 mm thick MDF – for heavy dishes, and the upper ones – of glass, so that the sideboard looked less bulky. The color was matched to the fabric of the sofa.
Photo of the apartment before renovation
