This project has become the most difficult and longest for designer Maya Baklan. And the most long-awaited! Because she had to design her own apartment. Maya told ELLE DECORATION about how it happened

The living room is combined with the kitchen. Sofa, Roche Bobois. Plants, “The First Flower Company”.

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Andrey Bezuglov

“It is difficult for designers to design their own housing. We spend our days spinning in an endless cycle of objects, finishing materials and all kinds of solutions, and sometimes it’s hard to stop at something specific and give preference to one item out of a million. Whether it’s the case to delegate this activity to colleagues. But here another point is triggered: who should I choose for the most responsible and intimate project? And then how is it, I’m a designer myself and I can’t handle such a thing? After all, I know myself and my family best of all! And there are also a lot of doubts: suddenly everything will go wrong and how will I sleep here peacefully when everything goes wrong there — in general, I made a strong-willed decision to do everything myself from beginning to end!

Living room. Sofa and green armchair, Roche Bobois. Furry armchair Little Petra, &Tradition. Coffee table September, Menu. Chest of drawers and bookshelves, BoConcept. Carpet, Zv’yazani. Chandelier, Verpan. Wall lamp DCW Lampe, Gras. Vase on the shelf, Fornasetti. Curtains, Carlucci fabric.

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Andrey Bezuglov

Living room. Sofa, Roche Bobois. Furry armchair Little Petra, &Tradition. Chest of drawers and bookshelves, BoConcept. Carpet, Zv’yazani. Chandelier, Verpan. Wall lamp DCW Lampe, Gras. Curtains, Carlucci fabric. Plants, “The First Flower Company”.

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Andrey Bezuglov

The whole process together with the design took more than a year. We even had record-breaking items that we had been waiting for for ten months (yes, in other countries people also make mistakes in factories and offices, because this is a great example for my dear customers who believe that if the chair goes for a long time, then it’s the designer’s fault!)

Living room with a “home theater” area. Sofa and green armchair, Roche Bobois. Furry armchair Little Petra, &Tradition. Coffee table September, Menu. Chest of drawers and bookshelves, BoConcept. Chandelier, Verpan. Wall lamp DCW Lampe, Gras. Decor, Tom Dixon, Fornasetti, Rosenthal.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Kitchen-dining room. Kitchen, Nobilia. Dining table, Norr 11. Chairs, Hay. Lamp, Menu. Brass tray, Pols Potten. Vases, Villeroy&Boch. Bowls, Alessi. Table clock, Newgate London. On the wall there is a drawing based on Matisse’s “Dance” by the artist Victoria Tchaikovsky.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Why else did it take a long time: the apartment is located in one of the residential complexes in Kiev, where, as luck would have it, there were no large enough single-level apartments, so we had to combine two apartments (three-room and one-room). For example, the area occupied by the kitchen-living room in the current apartment used to be a whole studio apartment.

Dining room, fragment. On the wall there is a drawing based on Matisse’s “Dance” by the artist Victoria Tchaikovsky.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Library. Armchair, BoConcept. Lamp and table, Verpan.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Kitchen, fragment. Kitchen, Nobilia

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Another factor that greatly influenced the timing is large—scale sound insulation. It’s no secret that in most new buildings in Kiev there is a very strong audibility between apartments and floors, because our fundamental requirement was to provide ourselves with good sound insulation.

However, at first it was necessary to demolish absolutely all the piers and even the screed from the developer in order to make a new one that already meets all the requirements, without compromising the height of the room (the ceilings there are already low). But with the help of visual techniques, such as high interior doors and the absence of a ceiling skirting board, we managed to visually increase the height of the rooms, and now there is nothing “pressing on the head”. And the feeling is like in an expensive hotel! No unnecessary sounds, no one sneezes at your side and does not swear behind the wall.

Bedroom. Bed and banquette, Bolzan Letti. Bedside tables, Novamobili. Wallpaper, Arte. Lamps, Petite Friture and Marset. The painting by Roitburd is a portrait of Savina based on the painting by Sofia Junker-Kramskoy, a series of “Copies for substitution”.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Bedroom, fragment. Wallpaper, Arte. Desk and shelves, BoConcept. Accessories, Vitra and 52 Factory.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Bedroom, fragment. Bed and banquette, Bolzan Letti. Lamps, Petite Friture and Marset. Plants, “The First Flower Company”.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Bedroom, fragment. Bed, Bolzan Letti. Bedside tables, Novamobili. Wallpaper, Arte. Lamps, Petite Friture and Marset. Plants, “The First Flower Company”.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

As a result of our machinations, the total area turned out to be 125 square meters – exactly as much as is needed for a comfortable life of four people and a cat. It has everything you need: an isolated hallway with a wardrobe and a guest bathroom, a children’s room and a separate bathroom with a bathtub and a bidet for children, a master bedroom (which resembles a room in a hotel, because it has its own wardrobe, bathroom and workplace), a guest room, a kitchen-living room and even a small library with a vinyl player and a place to read.

Children’s room. Furniture, Lifetime Kidsrooms. Mini Lampe de Marseille wall lamp, designed by Le Corbusier, Nemo Lighting. Fly Chair, &Tradition. The carpet was brought from the Moroccan market.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Initially, it was planned that each child would have their own nursery, but when I sat down to draw the layout and analyzed our lives, I realized that this could not be the next five to seven years. Since the girls have a small age difference (2.5 years), they have a lot of common things, places of storage, interests. We decided not to complicate our lives, not to multiply by two identical lockers, not to think in whose room exactly to put each toy, not to be torn in the evenings in reading fairy tales before going to bed, and so far we have identified both girls in one nursery. But it also turned out to be a separate guest room in which the nanny can live when we leave. And in the future one of the children will move there.

We really like to read, so there are enough shelves for books in each room. And to read even more, there is no TV in the bedrooms. It stands only in the living room, and even then it is used exclusively as a home theater (which is greatly helped by a comfortable sofa with reclining backs from Roche Bobois).

Childish. Furniture, Lifetime Kidsrooms. Table lamp, Moooi.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

As for the style, then, as in all projects of our studio “Neevroremont”, absolute eclecticism reigns here and there is no pronounced uniform style. I wanted to combine elements of constructivism (blue and orange are taken from a box of Soviet-era children’s plasticine, walnut veneer is used in furniture, one of the chairs is a model of the 1960s, and the pattern on the interior doors is an echo of communal apartments), French Provence (floor-to-ceiling windows, pistachio walls, French Christmas tree parquet) and Scandinavian style (almost all lamps and much of the furniture here are from Scandinavian manufacturers).

Hallway. Parquet, Listone Giordano. Interior doors, Ghizzy&Benatti. Chest of drawers, BoConcept. Ceiling lamp, Nuura. Wall lamp, Nemo Lighting. The masks were brought from Kenya. On the wall is a painting by Maria Primachenko, the property of the customer.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Hallway. Parquet, Listone Giordano. Tiles on the floor of Cuban Block, Peronda. The “sheep” stool was brought from Estonia. Chest of drawers, BoConcept. Wall lamp, Nemo Lighting.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Hallway, fragment. Tiles on the floor of Cuban Block, Peronda. Wall composition of hooks Muuto, Normann Copenhagen, Hay. The poster is the work of Olga Fradina.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

I feel comfortable living in such eclectic interiors, they allow me to painlessly add children’s crafts, grandmother’s rarities, tourist finds. I like to mix seemingly incompatible things: classic kitchen facades, handmade Ukrainian carpet, fur armchair, brands and mass market. This is quite a difficult job, for which there is not enough academic knowledge, you still need some experience, “watching” and inner flair.

But by giving all these things the right colors, textures, fittings and pattern, we get an unexpectedly beautiful picture at the output. I call such interiors very “touching” (both emotionally and tactically). What the upholstery on the sofa in the living room alone is worth — the uneven color and rough soft surface resemble grandma’s tweed jacket, it’s just impossible to tear yourself away from it, you want to hug. The same can be said about the Little Petra chair from &tradition, which looks like a sheep.

Guest room. Furniture and carpet, IKEA. Wooden beads and a pillow were brought from Morocco.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Many will say that all this is very impractical: the shelves will get dusty, books will need to be wiped endlessly, the chair will be licked by a cat, the sofa will be soiled by a child. But we live here and now, and the house exists for us, not we for the house. Nothing lasts forever, and beautiful things, yes, require attention, so I prefer to enjoy the moment.

Guest bathroom. Tile Fragments, Equipe Ceramicas. Woodland Honey floor tiles, Equipe Ceramicas. Wallpaper, Cole & Son. Lamp, Menu. The lamp by the mirror, Nuura Miira. The mirrors were brought from Morocco. Furniture handles, Zara Home.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Guest bathroom. Tile Fragments, Equipe Ceramicas. Woodland Honey floor tiles, Equipe Ceramicas. Wallpaper, Cole & Son. The lamp by the mirror, Nuura Miira. The mirrors were brought from Morocco. Furniture handles, Zara Home.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

The bathroom of the owners, a fragment. Tile Art Nouveau, Equipe Ceramicas. Glass partition, Liberta.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

The owners’ bathroom. Tile Art Nouveau, Equipe Ceramicas. Washbasin, Cielo. Heated towel rail, Cordivari. Glass partition, Liberta. Lamp at the mirror Bulb, Menu.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

Our separate pride is that there is not a single fake and copy in this project, all the items are orginal and original. This is the principled position of the studio “Neevroremont”: you can’t or don’t want to afford an original / real thing — replace it with something authentic. There are millions of chairs and lamps in the world, do not order an exact copy of the one you like, but expensive, buy something cheaper, but original or invent yourself! After all, a copy will never bring that pleasure to anyone and will not last even half the term of the original.”

DesignerMaya Baklan, founder of the studio “Neevroremont”, http://neevroremont.com, T. +380981501155, [email protected]

Guest room. Furniture and carpet, IKEA. Wooden beads and a pillow were brought from Morocco.

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ANDREY BEZUGLOV

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