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APARTMENT WITH BAY VIEW IN PAŘÍŽSKÁ, PRAGUE
ARCHITECTS — Ivanka Kowalski | | PRODUCTS — Berker Serie 1930 Bakelit white
Interior designer Ivanka Kowalski was faced with a real challenge: to renovate a small apartment in the center of Prague with a completely inadequate layout into a form that fulfills today's ideas about quality living. Although the investor will use the apartment occasionally rather than for permanent living, the location itself – representative Prague's Pařížská street – did not allow the reconstruction to get stuck somewhere halfway. The apartment in the art nouveau house hid several original elements that directly called for preservation and reintroduction to life: stucco ceilings, original handles on the windows or coffered paneling in the bay window. After all, it was the bay window that represented the dominant and key characteristic element of the apartment, which deserved to be emphasized and used sensitively.
During the renovation, it was primarily necessary to use every centimeter of precious space, but also to deal with some problems: the window coverings were damaged and had to be replaced with quality replicas during the renovation. The entrance to the apartment, which consisted of sliding glass doors and ugly paneled doors in a metal frame, was also stylistically completely at odds with the character of the apartment and the entire house. What has proven to be the biggest challenge? "The 67 m2 apartment did not have a good layout before the renovation," reveals designer Ivanka Kowalski. "It was created from half of the original bourgeois apartment, which was insensitively divided into two smaller ones. Before the renovation, the apartment consisted of 2 interconnected rooms. It was not easy to come up with an arrangement that would correspond to today's ideas about representative housing," adds Ivanka Kowalski.
After a successful reconstruction, the apartment is materially based on a combination of bleached original oak parquet floors with creamy white painting and lacquered cassette tiles, complemented by gray and white Karar marble and brass details. The noble atmosphere of the apartment with high stucco ceilings is completed by cast iron radiators and retro rotary switches and sockets from the Berker series 1930. All these details underline the overall character of the space. Furthermore, the interior was suitably complemented by handmade lamps from Michael Anastassiad or Giopato Coombes and a collection of fittings and handles from the Belgian manufacturer Maison Vervloet, all from the portfolio of the Monobrand design store. "In a small space, it is all the more important to work with details such as quality switches or door fittings. With their timeless appearance and material honesty, they can add the famous cherry on the cake to the interior," explains Katrin Grund, owner of the Monobrand store.
"Even though it is a small apartment, thanks to the newly chosen layout and the materials and colors used, it appears much more spacious than it actually is."
— Ivanka Kowalski
The kitchen also required an innovative and somewhat daring solution. It is newly made entirely of marble, including doors and drawers. If it is not needed at the moment, it is also possible to completely close the kitchen using special doors that fold when opened and slide into a pocket on the sides. Another interesting element was the carpentry assembly at the entrance door. The entrance door to the apartment, the entrance to the toilet and to the technical room after the reconstruction look like period paneling.
