Eclectic Apartment Gives New Functions To Simple Designs
The key to a beautiful interior design, one that’s successful from every point of view, is not necessarily linked to an array of sophisticated materials or to a particular style. What really matters is the way in which all these elements interact with each other and the ambiance they create.
An inspiring example is the apartment designed by INT2architecture, a multidisciplinary team composed of architects, designers, artists and photographers with a name derived from the combination of two defining terms: intuition and intelligence.
The apartment is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia and measures a total of 62 square meters divided into a common area, a hallway, a bedroom, a bathroom and a balcony. The renovation of the space was completed in 2015 using simple and inexpensive materials such as hardwood for the floors, white ceramic tiles for the walls, birch plywood and concrete.
The concrete floors on the hallway and balcony and the concrete ceilings throughout the apartment were left unfinished. They make a statement and, at the same time, they establish a general direction regarding the eclectic style chosen for the interior design.
The common area contains the kitchen, dining room, laundry area as well as a lounge space. It has access to a balcony which serves no particular purpose but which could be used in a lot of interesting and useful ways such as for storing bikes for example.
The living room’s focal point is a concrete block partition wall. Similarly to exposed brick walls, this surface adds an industrial touch to the décor and gives texture to the whole interior design. The concrete blocks in the upper section of the wall allow light to pass through and also help with natural ventilation.
The wall separates the living room from the entrance hallway and coordinates nicely with the rough concrete flooring.
A sliding door in the living room leads into the bedroom. This room has an odd angled shape but this doesn’t interfere with its inviting ambiance. The wall behind the bed has been partially painted a dark shade of green and the design is intentionally featuring rough, unfinished lines.
A lot of the furniture and accessories in the apartment were custom made or modified by the team on site. This includes a particular interesting design: the plywood structure below the windows which runs the entire length of the wall.
These boxes have a double function: they serve as storage and display spaces for books, souvenirs and other things and, at the same time, they’re also a decorative screen for the radiators. The same type of plywood window boxes can also be seen in the kitchen and dining area where they’re mostly used for storage.
Apart from these structures, things like the dining table, the chairs, TV console, dresser, bedside tables, kitchen shelves, sliding doors, lampshades, sink vanity and towel holders were also wither custom made of modified to suit the desires style and space.
The TV console in the lounge area was made from two Besta modules from Ikea and several other features also use Ikea products. Another example is the sink vanity which is basically a repurposed laptop table. These projects allowed the team to maintain a small budget while also being creative and inventive.