Sunrivera-
An apartment for a young family with two children in a new Kyiv residential complex on the bank of the Dnipro River. The owner asked us to create a minimalist, modern, comfortable interior where they could start their life from scratch.
Our architectural journey began by seamlessly merging two neighboring apartments into one, so more common spaces such as the living room, kitchen, and guest bathroom are now located in one part of the apartment, and all the bedrooms and the master bathroom are separated in the other. Upon entering, one is greeted by a spacious dressing room, ingeniously designed to accommodate bicycles as well.
Once we enter the apartment we can see that there’s a lot of space in the living room, a little further forward we can see a large kitchen niche with an appealing island. This culinary haven not only provides a space for preparing delicious meals but also offers breathtaking views of the sunset.
Also in this part of the apartment, we found a separate place for a technical room with additional storage and a guest bathroom. In the second part of the apartment, we have 3 bedrooms; 2 children's bedrooms and a master suite with a separate dressing room and tiny home office. We decided to make a home office at the balcony, having previously taken care of a comfortable stay in this part.
Residencial Interior design
year 2021-2022
area 130m2
location Kyiv, Ukraine
photographer Mykhailo Lukashuk
The main concept of this apartment is a blank sheet. A space that nurtures, rather than distracts, a space where you can recover from the city noise and frantic rhythm, exhaling as they replenish your spirit. That's why we built the concept on simple geometric shapes, eye-comfortable proportions, and natural materials in a calm color palette. All the materials and fabrics are very tactile and evoke different emotions. So in the common areas, we covered the walls and ceilings in a plaster that resembles the clay decoration in old huts. This textured treatment instills a raw and authentic aura, gently erasing the boundaries of perfection. The decor was based on contrasting black objects, simple vegetation, and interesting sculptural forms. To keep the space from being overloaded, we refused to use overhead skirting boards and doors with moldings, and preferred shadow joints and flush-mounted doors. We painted the door sheets and applied decorative plaster finishes on site so that the doors did not differ from the walls.
The kitchen is a set built into a niche and a large island combined with a dining table. The fronts and the table are made of natural wood veneer, and the worktop and backsplash are made of stone. The kitchen has a double faucet for drinking and process water. There are local water filters and a waste shredder under the sink. All appliances have been tastefully concealed, preserving the clean lines of the design.
The milled handles are a complicated element: the kitchen front itself is made of MDF and covered with natural veneer. And the handle itself is a solid milled wooden element, tinted perfectly with the veneer in the same color.
Above the dining area hang incredibly beautiful sculptural chandeliers from the Italian brand, which add a touch of texture, sculpture, and play to the rather rectangular space.
The lounge area is a very cozy zone with a large modular sofa from the Ukrainian brand ‘Interia' made of linen fabric, complemented by a woolen carpet and large comfortable coffee tables.
The guest bathroom has very cozy and ambitious lighting. The walls are partially covered with decorative plaster and ceramic tiles. A large wash basin is the main design element. Decorative gypsum panels are painted to match the plaster and perfectly match the tiles, which gives a sense of integrity to the space.
To enhance the space's sense of unity, decorative gypsum panels, painted to match the plaster and seamlessly blended with the tiles, imbue the room with a harmonious aesthetic. To achieve this result, the furniture craftsmen took measurements from the gypsum panels and cut MDF sheets with exactly the same dimensions, and glued them to the cabinet front. They also provided hidden handles. Therefore, at first glance, you may not even realize that there is storage in the room. Another interesting point is that the ceramic tiles in this room have a rough, beautiful surface, so we decided to emphasize this with built-in lights on top, which highlight the texture of the material in a very monumental way.
The master bedroom is combined with a dressing room and has access to a small home office. A large bed by the Ukrainian brand ‘GIA’ takes center stage in the room. To add a playful atmosphere, we decided to use different types of lamps on different sides.
To separate the bedroom and the dressing room, we put up thin wooden partitions.
We made the wardrobe facades out of fabric. The same fabric was used on the headboard and on the wardrobe fronts to maintain a sense of continuity. The owner of the apartment wanted to bring a bit of color to the bedroom. So that's why we suggested using green color in textiles and a soothing carpet, carefully selected to evoke calmness and natural beauty, harmonizing splendidly with the other materials adorning the space. The small home office was placed on a glassed-in balcony, having previously thought about the thermal conditions and comfort of staying in this room. A large work table in natural veneer from the Ukrainian brand ZEGEN and chairs from WOO furniture look great against the background of a wall made of wooden panels. For a more intimate mood in the evening, touch-sensitive ambient lighting was provided on the shelves.
The master bathroom is made in the concept of contrasts. Here we combined light marble tiles with dark textile tiles. The textile tiles give an incredible cozy effect. A recessed bathtub nestled within a niche and a dedicated shelf for washing products add to the functionality and aesthetics of the space.
The children's rooms became a real reflection of their owners. The girl is very fond of animals, so we reflected on this in the form of a neon sign in the shape of a cat. And for comfortable studying, we provided a huge console table near the window, with hidden sockets and large storage cabinets.
In the second children's room, tailored to a young adventurer, a sports wall boasting a climbing segment becomes an exciting new hobby for the kids.
An interesting and challenging element to implement was the plain blue coloring of the niche. Because we needed five different contractors to paint their elements in the same color to achieve a unified result in the end. Therefore, painting the air conditioning unit, cabinet facades, sports wall, climbing wall, and ceiling walls was a real test of the luck and skill of all participants in the process. But in the end, we got an amazing result.
In general, the final result is 90% in line with the project, which is a special honor for us and all the professionals involved. The interior design has transformed into a seamless reflection of the owners' personalities, delicately accentuating their unique essence.
