Monochrome, natural textures and a love of natural imperfection, this interior is made at the junction of Wabi-sabi and Scandi styles. 

Customer and tasks

This apartment is owned by a young girl who wanted to create an interior as close to nature as possible. The interior was inspired by photographs from the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet, they are located in the south of France and are known for their rock paintings. 

In the interior, they wanted to recreate this atmosphere: untouched, in some ways even primeval, beautiful imperfection. With this task, the girl turned to the designer Olesya Leshchenko.

Redevelopment

The studio is an elongated space. The developer has provided a bathroom, a separate laundry room. And two more windows, which is rare for studios. They are located at the end of an elongated room. 

In order to fit more storage systems in the entrance area and in the bathroom, the designer proposed a redevelopment. The bathroom was combined with the laundry room and the partition between the wet areas and the hallway was slightly shifted. Since the hallway and laundry room are considered non-residential areas, the redevelopment can be coordinated.

Finishing

The finishing materials correspond to the chosen concept. There is decorative plaster on the walls and ceiling. To visually raise the ceiling, plaster was chosen for it a couple of tones lighter than the walls. There’s a micro-concrete on the floor. A material that is applied without seams and joints. Visually, micro concrete and plaster are similar. This made it possible to recreate the “cave” without transitions and baseboards, one material from the floor flows smoothly to the walls and then to the ceiling. 

To finish the shower in the bathroom, they chose porcelain stoneware for wood. The shower floor is made of black mosaic. A section of the wall with hooks for towels is also decorated with granite. Behind it, they laid a heating system such as they do for floors. This solution made it possible to abandon the bulky towel rail. The wood texture supports the countertop under the slab sink. The rest of the wall area is painted, and the floor is decorated with the same micro-concrete. 

Furniture and storage systems

In order to provide enough storage in a small space, a redevelopment was made, which we wrote about above. This made it possible to fit not one, but two cabinets in the hallway. The first one is suspended, there is a place for everyday shoes and a robot vacuum cleaner at the bottom. The second one is for everyday things.

There is also a compartment for storing small kitchen appliances. This is done because the kitchen is super-compact, besides, it was decided to abandon the upper cabinets. We installed a minimalistic wooden shelf on which you can place a microwave oven and a kettle, and thereby free the work surface from unnecessary household appliances. The oven in the kitchen was also abandoned, they opted for a built-in dishwasher. 

The room also has a small storage system. This is a narrow but elongated cabinet by the window, fully decorated with a mirror. Access to the cabinet is closed with braided ropes. It is assumed that the hostess will use it to store bedding. Various little things can fit in a TV cabinet. 

The bathroom has its own storage system. This is a closet built into the entire wall, where a washing machine is also placed. The facades of the cabinet are made in an unusual way, the rounded shapes of the doors echo the shape of the mirror in the bathroom, but also correspond to the idea of a natural “cave” interior. There is a storage space for household items in the closet. The cabinet under the sink was abandoned, replacing it with a wooden countertop. 

Lighting 

The designer has worked out different lighting scenarios, including hidden lights that allow you to emphasize the texture of the walls and art objects, for example, such as a three-dimensional painting next to the sofa. Two spot spots are placed above it, and when turned on, it is the picture that becomes the focal point.

Another art object is a concrete suspension above the dining table, made to order.

Hidden lights highlight the ledge of the wall in the TV area, the kitchen, the shower room in the bathroom. The main lighting is spotlights. Some of them are put on the ceiling with open wiring, but this is done intentionally. “In fact, all the conclusions are hidden in the plaster layer, and we see the connection of the lamps only in the places where it was intended, that is, only as a decorative element,” explains Olesya. 

Olesya Leshchenko, Lo-Design studio Designer, author of the project

The trend for wabi-sabi today is not entirely due to love for Japan, but mainly due to the simplicity of this style and its proximity to nature. Imperfect details, imperfect geometry allow us to show the natural course of life, including aging. Due to this, the nuances that appear over the years in the process of its operation do not catch the eye in the interior. The scandi elements in this project are rather about functionality and comfort, about handmade things and natural wood. The lamp above the dining area, the papier-mache floor vase and the concrete sink are handmade by craftsmen specifically for this project. And the notes of minimalism reflect the way of life of a person getting rid of everything superfluous for the sake of a high goal, each element stands in its place and not just like that, but has a certain function.

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Kitchen

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Hallway

Hallway

Hallway

Bathroom

The editorial board warns that in accordance with the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, coordination of ongoing alterations and alterations is required.

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