Houzz Tours
Moscow Houzz Tour: A Chic Grey Interior for a Colourful Life
This modern Moscow apartment reflects its owner's philosophy of life, work and design with its calm, timeless elegance
“It’s not the interior that needs to be bright, but your life. I always select shades of grey for my interiors, because it is the most comfortable for living,” says Alexey Polikarpov, who designed and owns this apartment in Moscow, Russia.
“I have lived here for two and a half years. In this time, trends have already changed, shapes have become a little different. But everyone who comes here says that it’s cool. My eyes don’t get tired, I don’t feel that I want to move the furniture around. It is very important that there should not be anything that will quickly go out of style,” says Polikarpov.
Polikarpov works at Mail.ru, a Russian internet group, and is the author of the popular Vkusonomika (‘Tasteonomics’), which offers restaurant reviews for Moscow and St Petersburg. He lives in this apartment with his bengal cat, Morrison – named after The Doors’ Jim Morrison. “He has already moved five times in his life,” says Polikarpov, referring to his four-legged companion.
Morrison on the desk in his owner’s study.
Polikarpov designed the apartment himself, “Completely and entirely, from conceptualisation to final touches, I did everything myself,” he says. “I did not have a finished project with renders, I pictured everything in my imagination. I made a sketch for the construction crew, and a day later I was monitoring it – I have already had experience with renovations. Interior design is not actually my career, but right now I buy flats and design them, as I would for myself, then sell them. It’s hard to call this a business – it’s rather my hobby.”
Polikarpov designed the apartment himself, “Completely and entirely, from conceptualisation to final touches, I did everything myself,” he says. “I did not have a finished project with renders, I pictured everything in my imagination. I made a sketch for the construction crew, and a day later I was monitoring it – I have already had experience with renovations. Interior design is not actually my career, but right now I buy flats and design them, as I would for myself, then sell them. It’s hard to call this a business – it’s rather my hobby.”
In the three years since the renovation, Polikarpov has received many requests to design interiors. “Friends might reach out to me, and indeed I have more than 17 thousand followers on [social media]. I now have a team that can take on a project, including visualisation and renders. But now the requests exceed my capacity, moreover I don’t like doing project work for someone else, rather than working from my own preferences. I always go for minimalism myself, without bright accents, so that the interior is airy.”
Polikarpov’s own home is in a building five minutes’ drive from the Kremlin. The apartment is practically square in layout, with two plumbing lines and three floor-to-ceiling windows.
“I planned a big open space with a bedroom behind a glass divider and a separate room for a nursery – I thought I would be able to live here with a family, with a partner and, someday, a child. But then I realised that for me this would be impossible in 56 square metres,” he says. “Now the flat is designed for a maximum two occupants.”
Browse more stunning modern sleeping spaces
“I planned a big open space with a bedroom behind a glass divider and a separate room for a nursery – I thought I would be able to live here with a family, with a partner and, someday, a child. But then I realised that for me this would be impossible in 56 square metres,” he says. “Now the flat is designed for a maximum two occupants.”
Browse more stunning modern sleeping spaces
The view from the dining zone in the open-plan kitchen/dining/living room. On the left is the door to the bathroom, behind the wall is a hallway that leads to the office. On the right is the glass divider that cordons off the bedroom.
The separate room, which Polikarpov had first planned to be a nursery, became his office. It is opposite the front door and separated from the kitchen/living room by a small hallway. To the right of the entrance is a built-in cupboard for storage. Beyond it is the work zone of the open-plan kitchen. On the wall to the left of the entrance is the door to the bathroom. For the bathroom and study, Polikarpov went for flush-mounted doors in the same colour as the walls.
The separate room, which Polikarpov had first planned to be a nursery, became his office. It is opposite the front door and separated from the kitchen/living room by a small hallway. To the right of the entrance is a built-in cupboard for storage. Beyond it is the work zone of the open-plan kitchen. On the wall to the left of the entrance is the door to the bathroom. For the bathroom and study, Polikarpov went for flush-mounted doors in the same colour as the walls.
“Interior doors should,” says Polikarpov, “be floor-to-ceiling in a veneer the same colour as the floor; or solid-wood doors with two wings, like in old Soviet interiors; or invisible, the same colour as the walls – I went for the third version here: 2.3-metre-high doors look high-end and beautiful.”
Polikarpov always has to keep the door to the bathroom ajar, so Morrison can access his litter box – Polikarpov did not want to cut a hole in the door itself. “In one of my recent projects, I created a walkway for the cat in one of the compartments of a built-in storage unit in the hallway by the bathroom. But here, the only thing that the design would have allowed would have been a pocket door that could be left open seven to 10 centimetres. But the ventilation shaft behind the bathroom got in the way of this option.”
Polikarpov always has to keep the door to the bathroom ajar, so Morrison can access his litter box – Polikarpov did not want to cut a hole in the door itself. “In one of my recent projects, I created a walkway for the cat in one of the compartments of a built-in storage unit in the hallway by the bathroom. But here, the only thing that the design would have allowed would have been a pocket door that could be left open seven to 10 centimetres. But the ventilation shaft behind the bathroom got in the way of this option.”
As for the style of his apartment, Polikarpov says, “I couldn’t call this minimalism, there is too much decor here. I like it when it is cosy – candles, statues, pillows, throws, framed photographs, dried flowers”.
“There is nothing here from the old flat. When I sold it, they asked me, ‘what will you take with you from here?’ I answered, ‘Clothing.’ I think that if you change the place where you live, then there is no point in bringing anything from the old home. Only objects that are very dear to you – like a mirror from your grandmother. And then tell the designer that it absolutely has to fit into the [concept for the] interior.”
A styled vignette completes the dining space atop a handsome run of drawers.
The wall behind the sofa in the living room was white at first, but Polikarpov repainted it in a colour that doesn’t show dirt as easily: light khaki.
For the dark-grey of the walls in the entrance, hallways and part of the kitchen/living space, Polikarpov matched the colour of an already-completed chest of drawers opposite the sofa. He also repainted the white wall to the right of the kitchen in the same dark grey. “After that, the kitchen started to look like a monolith,” says Polikarpov.
For the dark-grey of the walls in the entrance, hallways and part of the kitchen/living space, Polikarpov matched the colour of an already-completed chest of drawers opposite the sofa. He also repainted the white wall to the right of the kitchen in the same dark grey. “After that, the kitchen started to look like a monolith,” says Polikarpov.
Under the ceiling of the kitchen/living room is a non-standard moulding that’s wide and flat in form. “This is an ordinary skirting board, turned on its side. I deliberately ordered the kitchen to be 15 millimetres lower than the ceiling, so that I could fit the skirting board overtop. But I still had to plane the moulding to take off two millimetres – it is impossible to calculate everything precisely down to the millimetre ahead of time.”
Polikarpov found the right shade for the kitchen cabinet doors the second time around. “Many colours look different in a small samples. Looking at a 10 x 10-centimetre sample, I chose ultra white. Once installed, the doors ended up having a rosy tinge, which ruined the whole concept of the beige-grey interior. I had to order new doors. But since the manufacturer made a slight mistake in the frame colour, I was able to reorder them at cost.”
For the splashback, the owner selected large-format, black-marble-look porcelain tiles. He placed a round dining table, with three different chairs, between the kitchen and living area. Polikarpov found three models that were similar in form but in different designs and colours.
Polikarpov took the idea for the glass divider, which separates the bedroom and the kitchen-living room, from the design of his previous apartment. For the walls, he selected a clay-beige colour – the ceiling in his study is painted the same colour.
“I had only four colours made, so that I could combine them and duplicate at least one. I liked everything in the bedroom from the first time I painted it.” The ceiling in the bedroom is dark grey, like the hallway. The moulding is the same colour. The deep, dark colour of the ceiling also zones the space.
Polikarpov put a narrow bed, with small bedside tables on each side, into the space between the window and the glass divider. “The bed is only 140 centimetres wide. This is enough for me,” he says. “The bed is from Ikea, but many people ask what kind of design model it is. What’s important is how everything is decorated. It only costs 12,000 rubles [AU$220], and not 120,000 [AU$2,200], but the linens are chosen to make the bed look very stylish. Interior design is like a wardrobe. There need to be some status symbols.”
The restrained and selective paint palette extends to the cabinetry for cohesion.
Polikarpov put bouquets of dried flowers in each room of the apartment. They take the place of live flowers, which would have needed care, and they underscore the interior’s monochrome palette.
The floor and walls in the bathroom are finished in 120 x 60-centimetre porcelain stoneware tiles. “It looks coherent, like real marble.” To the right of the door is the bathtub. Polikarpov repainted the vanity in grey and added a porcelain stoneware vanity top with metal edging.
What the owner thinks is lacking in this apartment is a separate laundry, where he might have placed the washing machine, dryer and vacuum cleaner. “I could have included a laundry room in the layout only if the flat had been more rectangular. A few extra square metres would have solved the problem. I am dreaming of a room like that in my next home. And I recommend that those who are going to buy a flat consult a designer before selecting it,” he says.
“Now, I never go to [inspect] properties I am going to buy without a digital measuring tape, and I immediately sketch out what will go where on paper. That’s because afterwards, I don’t sell a property, but a life concept.”
“Now, I never go to [inspect] properties I am going to buy without a digital measuring tape, and I immediately sketch out what will go where on paper. That’s because afterwards, I don’t sell a property, but a life concept.”
Polikarpov initially painted the walls of his study bordeaux, but then decided it didn’t work, and repainted it in a dark grey, like in the entrance, hallway and parts of the kitchen/living room.
He also had to replace the curtains to get the right effect: “I was offered champagne-coloured day curtains,” he says. “I was too obsessed with white. But when they were hung, I didn’t like them at all. The finished fabric had a slightly green tinge – one piece of fabric wasn’t enough to see how light would go through it, and that it would bring a strange green out of the shade. The company helped me out – they took the curtains back for one of their projects, and made a new version from white tulle at cost.”
Opposite the desk is a spot for relaxing, with a comfy chair. A TV is fixed to the wall. “I turn on YouTube when I’m working,” says Polikarpov.
Polikarpov believes that setting off a separate room, which eventually became the study, was one of the best decisions in this project. “I have Zoom meetings here. I don’t work in pyjamas. I have been working remotely for a year and a half now, and I couldn’t possibly work at the dining table or on the sofa. I come here, dressed as if for work, only without shoes – but sometimes even in shoes. Exiting the study, I change into home clothing. This is how I keep myself sharp.”
Having undertaken several other renovations after this project, Polikarpov recommends turning to a designer. “If you are planning to renovate for under 3 million rubles [AU$55,200], saving 250,000 [AU$4600] on planning, then in reality you will spend 3-and-a-half million [AU$64,400]. A designer is always on your side, they can argue in your interest when negotiating with the construction crew. The designer has experience, and knows how everything will look together. Moreover, a designer is not only a person who realises your wishes and brings a professional perspective on many things, but they are also a buyer,” he says.
“Now, I have enough experience and have everything in order to make a technical project with renders. But if you haven’t had practice, then you will definitely get burned – I learned this from my own experiences.”
“Now, I have enough experience and have everything in order to make a technical project with renders. But if you haven’t had practice, then you will definitely get burned – I learned this from my own experiences.”
Your turn
Which elements of this apartment do you love? Tell us in the Comments below. And if you enjoyed this story, like it, save your favourite images and join the renovation conversation.
More
Missed our previous Houzz Tour? Catch up on more great global design with this Berlin Houzz Tour: How 2 Apartments Were Remade as 1 Penthouse
Which elements of this apartment do you love? Tell us in the Comments below. And if you enjoyed this story, like it, save your favourite images and join the renovation conversation.
More
Missed our previous Houzz Tour? Catch up on more great global design with this Berlin Houzz Tour: How 2 Apartments Were Remade as 1 Penthouse
Apartment at a Glance
Who lives here: Alexey Polikarpov with his cat, Morrison
Location: A new building in Moscow, Russia
Size: 56 square metres
Designer: The owner
Is this the year you renovate? Find interior designers near you, browse images of their work and read reviews from previous clients