Houzz Tours
Baltic Houzz Tour: A Slice of Tropical Summer in Russian Winter
With bright patterns and pops of colour, this couple's Russian holiday home revels in resort-style living
The owners of this apartment in Svetlogorsk, Russia, wanted a bright and energising interior for their holiday home. Given their clients’ bold intentions, designers Vladislava Peterson and Natalya Zabanova of Make Interiors went for the marine motifs that are popular in the region, but with an unusual twist.
“Though the project was carried out over the winter, the apartment has a summery atmosphere all year round. We probably wanted to be in warm countries so badly that even the cold outside the windows couldn’t hold us back,” Peterson says.
Apartment layout – 1: entrance; 2: bathroom; 3: children’s room; 4: living room; 5: kitchen and dining room
Bedrooms are obviously missing from this floor plan. As this apartment is used primarily as a holiday home, the owners preferred to have two living rooms with fold-out sofas instead.
This layout would have allowed the kitchen and living room to be combined, but the couple chose to keep these rooms separate. To avoid a cramped feeling with so many enclosed spaces, the designers proposed separating the kitchen and living room with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors. These doors have mirrored inserts, so they visually expand the space, even when closed.
Bedrooms are obviously missing from this floor plan. As this apartment is used primarily as a holiday home, the owners preferred to have two living rooms with fold-out sofas instead.
This layout would have allowed the kitchen and living room to be combined, but the couple chose to keep these rooms separate. To avoid a cramped feeling with so many enclosed spaces, the designers proposed separating the kitchen and living room with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors. These doors have mirrored inserts, so they visually expand the space, even when closed.
Matched with the grass-toned wallpaper and curtains, the timber slats of the sliding door reference bamboo and fit well within the interior’s tropical theme.
A carpenter from Lithuania made much of the furniture and built-ins in this apartment, including the sideboards, dining table, kitchen cabinets and the joinery in the bathroom.
“In this job every inch mattered, so we constantly discussed with the carpenter how to engineer all of the apartment’s built-ins so that everything would work correctly and comfortably,” Zabanova says.
“There is a lot of complex carpentry work here, and we wanted all the parts of the interior to come together into an integrated whole.”
“In this job every inch mattered, so we constantly discussed with the carpenter how to engineer all of the apartment’s built-ins so that everything would work correctly and comfortably,” Zabanova says.
“There is a lot of complex carpentry work here, and we wanted all the parts of the interior to come together into an integrated whole.”
The wallpaper in the living room features palm trees and sets the tone for the tropical ambience of the interior. The azure, banana and coral accents were each inspired by tropical landscapes.
The glassed-in niche just above the custom-designed sideboard cleverly allows light to move freely between the living room and the hallway.
“This horizontal insert has an interesting story,” says Peterson. “We first planned to put an ethanol fireplace here, but then ruled it out. However, we did not want to give up on the niche, so we set it up to be both decorative and functional.”
“This horizontal insert has an interesting story,” says Peterson. “We first planned to put an ethanol fireplace here, but then ruled it out. However, we did not want to give up on the niche, so we set it up to be both decorative and functional.”
A spacious cabinet hangs over the niche on the hallway side. This arrangement takes up about the same amount of space as a traditional closet would, but it adds more visual interest.
Marine motifs dominate the dining room and kitchen in small details, such as the shell sculpture seen here, and large gestures, including the textured fish-scale tiles on the kitchen wall.
The light fixture illuminating the dining space evokes the underwater world, and a custom painting of a seahorse hangs above the table.
Fish-scale relief tiles spice up the kitchen, which is otherwise more minimalist and features lots of natural wood. The tiles’ texture is an interesting contrast to the cupboards’ wood fronts.
The kitchen’s bright yellow cabinets are another interesting detail. The rear wall of the kitchen features smoked-glass cupboard doors, adding a sense of lightness while still partially concealing the cabinets’ contents.
The biggest problem during the renovation was posed by a gas pipe that ran above the ceiling from the entrance through the whole hallway and kitchen. The designers and contractors came up with the idea of installing a dropped ceiling in the hallway and the kitchen to conceal it. The vertical lines of the doors and cupboard fronts make up for the lost height.
The second room in the apartment is used as a children’s room.
All the windows in the apartment are floor-to-ceiling. Although this made for a beautiful panorama, it was also problematic: As it is south-facing, the sunlight coming in through the tall windows can sometimes be too bright. A colour scheme in shades of blue and white was chosen to ‘cool down’ this interior.
A living area, enhanced by parquet-board paneling with the appearance of timber, runs from floor to ceiling directly in front of the window. This helped balance out the room’s elongated shape.
All the windows in the apartment are floor-to-ceiling. Although this made for a beautiful panorama, it was also problematic: As it is south-facing, the sunlight coming in through the tall windows can sometimes be too bright. A colour scheme in shades of blue and white was chosen to ‘cool down’ this interior.
A living area, enhanced by parquet-board paneling with the appearance of timber, runs from floor to ceiling directly in front of the window. This helped balance out the room’s elongated shape.
It is no coincidence that the children’s room was designed in a grown-up style: The owners wanted to be able to use it as a second living room.
The designers are convinced that it is important not to go small in small apartments, hence the oversized wall decor, paintings and furniture.
“It is a kind of visual deception: Large objects make it seem like the space is much bigger,” Zabanova says.
“It is a kind of visual deception: Large objects make it seem like the space is much bigger,” Zabanova says.
The bathroom vanity was made according to the designers’ drawings. And the owners? Their brief for a bright, tropical-style holiday home was certainly fulfilled.
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Tell us
What’s your favourite space in this home? Tell us in the Comments, save your favourite images, like this story if you enjoyed it and join the conversation.
More
Don’t miss last week’s Paris Houzz Tour: Big Presence in a Tiny 20-Square Metre Studio
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple from Moscow uses this apartment as their holiday home
Location: Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Region, Russia
Size: Approximately 65 square metres
Interior designers: Vladislava Peterson and Natalya Zabanova of Make Interiors
“Light blue shades with amber inserts are a cliché in the Baltic region, so the concept we proposed incorporates a tropical feel,” Peterson says.