Dear client,
Our proposal for your flat revolves around the idea of warmth and pulling people together. A family of three, each with their own respective space and a request for a studio - this led us to organise the flat in a dual manner: the "family", "private" space (main bedroom, single/child's room, a master bathroom), the studio space (whether for guests or for air-bnb-like purposes) with its own bathroom, and a "middle" space, where the two intersect: the living area (with dining and open kitchen) and a small guest toilet. The central theme is warmth - hence the use of wood in furnishing and cladding, as much as possible, with metal frames and fittings for accents.
We opted for a single open space for kitchen, dining area and living room - this shared proximity forms a welcoming space for guests, friends, relatives - the perfect environment for an outgoing family who enjoys entertaining people in their home. The furnishing is minimal, yet rich in texture and warm in colour, with the use of as much wood as possible. The room is, visually, composed of layers: the kitchen, with it's wall-sized worldmap-themed wallpaper, provides a backdrop for the dining. The dining table, a custom made solid wood slab mounted on metal frame, provides the accent and the articulation between the kitchen and the living room area, which stands for the foreground of the room. The living room area is defined by the custom wooden bookcases on either side of the sofa, united at the top by a solid wood piece, thus providing a frame for the entire image of the living area. The minimal quantity of storage furniture (which is usually present in copious amounts in living area) is made up for by using a row of suspended cupboards, just under the ceiling, running around the edges of the room (except for the windows area) - the storage cupboards morph into an open shelf above the TV console,useful for displaying books, travel sounvenirs, decorative objects and other valuables.
The "family" space, accesible by way of a small hub at one end of the hallway, consists of the master bedroom and the single room. In the master bedroom we opted for an open dressing tucked away behind a central wall. The bed takes up most of the space, so we chose to treat it as the centerpiece of the room. This was achieved by simply multiplying the surface of the headboard (3 more Ikea Mandal headboards, mounted one above the other in order to create a vibrated wooden texture backdrop for the bed, with ample room for personal effects on the small shelves mounted above the bed. In order to expand the storage space, we have adopted the same solution as for the living room: suspended (high) cupboards, running, this time, only on one side of the room.
The child's room is neutral in tone, yet lively by its use of yellow, white, gray and natural ash veneer for the wood pieces. The wallpaper wall-map (this time an antiquated version) and the solar-system-themed wall sticker speak of travel in the way of exploration - a fitting theme for a younger person's room. We placed the bed in the nook created by the wall and so we proposed a wooden single bed, with shelves at the foot of the bed and a storage trunk at the head. We used the same high cupboard storage solution, running along the wall above the bed and door. This is a bright room, therefore interior wooden blinds are recommended.
On the other end of the hallway lie the "guest" studio and its annexes (one private bathroom and a guest toilet), for which reason, the studio may be viewed as a stand-alone area of the flat, that can function almost independently. The studio has minimalistic furniture, designed and arranged so as to provide maximum flexibility of the room - a portal-like custom storage unit that shelters an extendible sofa. The foldable table located on the wood-clad wall next to the door has a double function: when lowered, it acts as a table or desk, with two cubic poufs (with storage capability!) acting as chairs; when folded, the table becomes a wall-mounted mirror, that captures the light coming from the room's only window - it creates the illusion of having one more opening to the outside - and the two poufs become stools tucked below the mirror.
The bathrooms of the flat are treated so as to fit with their respective "areas": the master bathroom, with no windows, is clad in white tiles, to brighten up the room and displays a slightly classic, minimalistic look. The studio bathroom, which has one window, sports a modern look, softened and warmed by the waterproof wooden cladding. The guest toilet is.. playful.
All in all, the project capitalises on custom design furniture in order to extract the maximum potential of the flat.