Work as an architect and interior decorator in the city of St. Petersburg is a noble occupation, but rather difficult. It is necessary to take into account the historical value of buildings in which apartments that used to be communal apartments are often found. The layout of these residential premises is unconventional, and the peculiarities of the climate in this area do not have the best effect on the security of the facilities.

But the designer Ekaterina Chernova managed to create a project that is perfect for a young married couple. Look how she could profitably emphasize some details: the windows and the amazingly beautiful brickwork that the owners inherited.

Katya Chernova graduated with honors from the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the State University. She did not stop there and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Painting named after I. Repin.

And now for about 6 years she specializes in the design of country houses, re-planning of apartments, offices and beauty salons.

Katerina set to work on the new task set before her. It was an apartment that was located in an old house with a unique history. It was built by the well-known architect Karl Brunt in the middle of the XVIII century for personal needs. After that, the house was transferred to the dance school of Maria Petipa, and only then the communal workers divided the premises into many small separate living rooms.

After the distribution of a 50 square-foot odnushka with a height of about 3 meters, the young couple got it, but the state was simply terrible, and without a major overhaul it could not be lived.

The apartment is on the first floor, and even despite the 4 windows, it has too little natural light.

The tasks

At first it seemed that the requirements put forward to the project for this room could not be met. The clients wanted to have a separate bedroom, a comfortable dressing room, an office, a living room in order to arrange noisy events, a cozy corner for guests who stayed with the overnight stay, a laundry and an anteroom.

Remodeling

It is very good that the apartment has no load-bearing walls, so all partitions were demolished. It turned out to reconsider the entire room to make it the way its customers wanted to see it.

After long meditations they decided to create a second level, on the floor this can not be called, since the height is only about a meter, but that's enough for a sleeping place.

Under it there was a dressing room. Thanks to the maximum rational use of this space, it was possible to create roomy cabinets and boxes.

But outside the wardrobe was equipped with book shelving, which housed a large-sized library of customers. A table for work was put in place of a window sill.

As for the kitchen, it is small, but, nevertheless, it was able to contain everything necessary. The dinner table was perfectly replaced by the bar counter.

With the help of a false column, it was possible to separate the space at the entrance from the main room, behind it were put a clothes hanger. The bathroom was made joint to allocate a little space for a pantry. It housed things that look unpresentable, but are needed in everyday life.

Style Selection

As Katerina admitted, she became very close to the idea of ​​loft after watching the movie "Interview", where the apartment of the main character was in this style. The designer believes that the whole space should be as open as possible and perfectly suited for a young family who does not have children.

The author likes to combine in one room completely incompatible details. Thus, in this design there appeared an absolutely flat brick laying, which was painted in a gentle light tone, heavy curtains made of velvet rich red and a large number of glossy surfaces that create many broken reflections.

Ceramic rubbing dark tiles surprisingly in harmony with the wooden parquet board of natural color, but the bath is tiled, which mimics the rough surface of the metal, with a slight hint of a mosaic of golden hue.

Choosing furniture

Due to the fact that the terms were rather tight, most of the furniture for the kitchen was bought in IKEA. All the rest of the furniture was made according to a special project from good manufacturers in St. Petersburg.

Some details had to be brought to the mind by yourself, for example, table top of a coffee table. Now it is laid out with a mosaic, the color of which is perfectly combined with other elements of the interior.

Shades

To make the room seem overloaded, the walls were painted in a white color that blended well with the light floor.

The dark color of the bookshelves attracts them to the view, but thanks to the fact that most of the shelves in the room are open, they do not seem heavy.

Also, a few juicy accents have been added. Harmony of white and black, and a few bright colors - this is a feature of the loft.

Lighting

As for lighting, it is full in the apartment. In addition to its main purpose, it should also emphasize zoning. In the kitchen, extra lamps were hung over the bar counter, in the living room - an amazingly beautiful chandelier. The staircase was equipped with its illumination, installed many point lighting devices.

The main techniques that help to increase the space

Despite the fact that the apartment was oversaturated with functional areas, it had to be bright and spacious. The best way to solve this problem was to use mirrors that help add volume and ease.

Thus in the house there were mirror tiles, linings on door leaves and many glossy surfaces.

Also throughout the apartment are hung many mirrors of different shapes and sizes: an apron in the kitchen, a bathroom wall, decorative elements on a false column.

Complex moments

From the artist Brant, clients inherited the amazing beauty of the ceiling moldings, which he did not want to touch. But due to the fact that it was necessary to demolish all partitions, it was not possible to save it, so the designers used moldings.

My pride

In the work of any designer, the main thing is to hear the client, to try to find out about his priorities and the features of life. You need to know what it means for comfort and convenience. Only after taking into account all his wishes, it is possible to create an amazingly pleasant and cozy design. Do not be afraid to offer your new unusual ideas. If they are interesting, customers often accept them.

Architect's advice

• Never be afraid of experiments, especially with flowers and textures. The most incredible combinations in the end can give an incredible effect.
• If you want to create a second tier in your apartment, first make sure that you have enough space for it and it's completely safe.
• Equip, as in this project, the steps of the staircase are illuminated, which can work all night.