Personal experience: dacha of designer and gallery owner Ekaterina Nechaeva

A wooden house has grown on an old suburban plot surrounded by century-old fir trees to replace the old one. Ekaterina Nechaeva, designer of BHD Studio, artist and co-owner of Art & Brut Gallery, tells about how the traditions of country life were transferred to new interiors and how they coped with construction and decoration in the pandemic

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

We inherited this piece of land. My husband’s great-grandfather was an architect, and in the late 1960s he received land for the construction of a summer cottage in the Odintsovo district. We had a real country house with the spirit of an intelligent Moscow family in love with life, where they drank port and collected a library, played cards and lived in summer in cotton sundresses and straw hats, went to the river.

The house had the main “captivity” — a semicircular glass veranda with a buffet. And when you passed through it from the depths of the house to the garden, you could hear the tremulous ringing of glasses and glasses in the cupboard, the doors of which were not closed.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The house was old, his drawings on millimetre, drawn by the hand of his great—grandfather with a plot plan, and a flowerbed – a flowerbed with tulips, a flowerbed with lilies of the valley, an array of peonies!  The cottage had to be repaired all the time, homeless people got into the house in winter, cooked pasta, but washed the dishes after themselves. They were breaking the lock all the time, we were very tired of it, besides, the last “guests” demolished the house, turned everything upside down.

This was the last straw, and we decided to demolish the old house. In addition, the heating finally failed, and the foundation had a crack, and no builder could guarantee the safety of the building. For a while, the plot stood empty and overgrown: apples were falling, tulips had outlived their usefulness, and no one enjoyed the smell of garden flowers.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

One January morning we went to look at the houses, there were good reasons for that — we were expecting the baby soon. Probably for the first time in my life I thought more than six months ahead, deciding that when the baby is born, it would be nice to live outside the city. So in the evening we returned with a construction contract and a complete misunderstanding of what to do next, this was our first experience with the house.

On February 11, 2020, piles were already driven in, and in April we were already painting the facade of the finished house.  I didn’t have to think about the layout, it still seems to me successful. We just came to the exhibition of houses, and we were captivated by the panoramic windows of this project — I liked the opportunity to admire the garden from them.

The great value of the plot is a garden with mature trees. On 14 acres there are three hundred-year-old spruce, hazel, acacia, three old birches and a young maple brought by the wind. And seven apple trees of different varieties! Now they are vintage, because the apple trees are about 50 years old.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The house was built almost urgently: in March 2020, the pandemic began, and the demand for construction increased greatly, so the brigade accelerated its pace. We also dreamed of spending the summer at our own dacha, as it turned out, it was an illusion. We did the finishing work until the end of the summer, and we managed to get the right amount of kilowatts only by the heating season. By the way, there is also gas on the site, which earned as a gift for the New Year.

The house is made of glued beams, so there were no special finishing options — wood and that’s it. Wood on the floor, on the walls and on the ceiling. The only thing that happened to be done was to paint the doors and stairs in a covering gray to slightly break the monotony of the shades of wood.

In the living room, we increased the height of the opening to 240 cm under the old doors, which were stored at the cottage in the utility house. These doors from the apartment in which we now live are ordinary pine doors with a classic layout that were just waiting in the wings.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

As for the decoration (because it is difficult to call it design), the starting point was the purchase of two parts of a vintage mosaic triptych on the theme of art (we got the parts about cinema and chess). And the third part turned out to be in the house of our clients-collectors — they have a plot with music. This panel once decorated the dining room at some research institute, which would have been better told by the guys from Chronofactor, where we found these mosaics.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Vintage mosaic panel, Chronofactor. A custom-made carpet from Morocco, benifez.ru . Pillows, Trobadour shop. Ceramics on the table, Forest Calling.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Two vintage armchairs also found a place in our house, they used to stand in the recreation area, most likely, of the same institute where the panel was located. I wanted to drag the chairs into a softer texture fabric and add an ornament, the previous upholstery was very practical and prickly. I found a leather sofa B&B Italia on Avito, it still smelled like a factory conditioner for leather. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but something prompted me to go and see it, because the sofa that Antonio Chitterio came up with was perfect for us in color.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Sofa, B&B Italia, diz. Antonio Citterio. Vintage chairs are re-upholstered with Jerome Botanique fabric. Coffee table of the 1970s, Modeldom.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

An ordinary inexpensive bourgeois can become the main item in the house, especially in late autumn and winter. However, for the sake of beauty, I had to spend money on a German chimney — it cost about as much as the stove itself. The ultra-thin porcelain stoneware helped to make a beautiful background for it, because there must be a tile or something non-flammable behind the stove.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Porcelain stoneware behind the stove, Arch-Skin.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The main decoration of the dining room is panoramic windows. The chairs were left from the last house, I pulled them under the panel, which dictated the color scheme, and in general I wanted to merge with the Christmas tree outside the window. There is a modern ceramic on the table, we present it in our gallery with Irina Markman.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Blue Vase, Mila Hatsuk, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

On the wall there is a huge canvas under the museum glass “Spyros”. For me, this is the personification of wealth and prosperity, and at the same time, these are the ordinary hands of a man who got his own food, as if a fisherman caught the same fish. This is the work of the artist Daria Semenova, once she attended the classes of Tahir Salakhov, in her family such names as P. Konchalovsky and I. Surikov can be traced. And her dad is the most famous screenwriter of the USSR. Such a legacy could not but affect the choice of vocation and the character of the artist.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Painting “Spyros”, Daria Semenova, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Art is an integral part of life for me, having an Art&Brut Gallery encourages me to collect all the time. With the construction of the house, I began to write more as an artist, there was both a place and a desire to create. I now have my own workshop, its design developed by itself: I just moved the furniture from the old house, then pulled over the couch, chairs, bought pillows, collected everything by color. However, I have to twist the kilim when I paint on large canvases on the floor.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Masterful.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

“Creating this house was a kind of shamanism, like collecting beads from different objects”

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Workshop, fragment.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Workshop, fragment.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The large walls were ideal for format art. So a picture of Kirill Basalaev, our “headliner”, appeared in the stairwell. Kirill now lives in London, he has become an international artist, and it’s time to invest in his work. The next picture is the work of Yakov Khomich Comfortable Silence, as a reaction to the events of recent months. This is one of a series of works by the artist that we have already presented at two fairs. In the house you can notice several paintings by Yakov, he is very different, with an incredible irony, I really love his paintings.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Textiles, Tkano. Paintings by Alexander Zabolotny, Yakov Khomich, Niki Zimov, Maria Kostareva, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Paintings by Kirill Basalaev and Yakov Khomich, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Then we go up to the second floor and get into the “grandmother’s room”, which formally does not live in the house — only a couple of times a year someone comes and spends the night in this bedroom. Old furniture from the last summer cottage from the grandmother’s room is collected here. The interior turned out to be very cozy, the room was decorated with interesting textiles and works by artists from our gallery — for example, here you can see paintings by Alexander Zabolotny, Yakov Khomich, Niki Zimov, Maria Kostareva.  

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Textiles, Tkano. Paintings by Alexander Zabolotny, Yakov Khomich, Niki Zimov, Maria Kostareva, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The bedroom is the darkest room in the house, due to the fact that the dense part of the spruce is located directly opposite the windows, and we took this into account when choosing a place for construction. On the wall there is an abstract embroidery by the artist Katerina Lime Blossom called “My skin is your love”. The basis is pieces of suede sewn together. The work was created by Katerina after a trip to Morocco, in which the artist was inspired by the Berber culture and local ornamental rhythms and proportions.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Carpet and chairs, H&M Room. Panel with embroidery “My skin is your love”, Katerina Lime Blossom, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

In the bedroom, I used natural materials, wool carpets, linen bedspreads, and hand-embroidered pillows. I have a special attitude to bed linen and manual processing: when you do something yourself with your hands, it’s like creating a charm, like creating a ritual doll. I painted the pillows myself in the technique of hot batik, which I have known since studying at the Department of DPI. The ceramics were made by Sofya Karnukayeva. When she brought a series called “Fairy Tales” to the gallery, I immediately realized where these strange fairy-tale characters would go to live and where I would find a place for them. Creating this house was a kind of shamanism, as if you were gradually collecting beads from different objects.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Bed linen, Atelier Tati. Pillows with embroidery, Trobadour shop. Ceramics, Sofia Karnukayeva, Art&Brut Gallery. Panels with embroidery, Katerina Lime Blossom, Art&Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The bathroom is designed in the same color scheme as the bedroom, the burgundy tile on the wall goes to the floor. On both sides of the mirror there are sconces of the Soviet era, they were bought at Chronofactor, according to the guys, such lamps used to be used in passenger train cars.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

The children’s room and bathroom are solved as much as possible according to the age of the child. The evergreen fir tree outside the panoramic window creates the feeling of a fabulous forest. In support of the fairy tale story, a carpet with a big fox and a vintage sideboard were useful, which I painted, giving it a modern look. On the wall is a vintage poster from a Soviet kindergarten, found in Tarusa in an antique shop.

My daughter plays with toys made of natural materials, excellent design. I really love unusual toys, and I believe that children’s furniture and objects should carry the mission of educating taste from infancy.

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Carpet, Art de Vivre. Toys, Vritra. House, SOVA.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Sheep Chair, EO Design. Carpet, Art de Vivre. Toys, Vritra.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Sideboard and poster — vintage. Toys on the sideboard, Vitra.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

In the bathroom, the mirror and shelves made of carved wood with solar Old Slavic signs also remind of the motifs of Russian folk tales.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

Личный опыт: дача дизайнера и галериста Екатерины Нечаевой

Painting, Orla Ananda, Art & Brut Gallery.

Photo
Sergey Krasyuk. Style: Daria Soboleva

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