Townhouse

Our clients are a young and charming couple. They both play sports, love to travel and throw big parties. When we first met, they said they wanted their home to accommodate up to 30 people and have a "wow" effect. All this, of course, on the condition that it was very cozy and comfortable for two persons. Demanding, right? We thought so too and immediately agreed.

When we designed the floor plan, we calculated the routes that people would take during future parties in the house and on the terraces: Five people stand here with cocktails and four people sit on the sofa, people dance here, the grill, bar and sauna are there. (Yes, one of the clients' most urgent requests was a sauna, so we first contacted the property management and checked the load on the ceilings). The sauna was installed on the first floor terrace and is accessible from the bedroom. There is also a relaxation room and a cold outdoor shower.
As the planning progressed, the client's appetite grew: initially we were to be satisfied with decorative solutions, but eventually the project was extended to include the renovation of the staircase and the redesign of the interior.

The total area of the townhouse is small (125sq m), but there are terraces on three levels and the bold advantage of huge sliding windows that turn the garden into an extension of the interior. We used the mirrors to increase the effect and blur the boundaries between inside and out. The kitchen, which looks more like a bar than a kitchen, is doubled by the mirrored wall to which it adjoins. The half-island next to the mirror wall looks like a free-standing island.

The ceilings in the house are low, so we used our favorite trick - painting the ceilings and walls the same color. On the first floor, it's Elephant Breath by Farrow&Ball. We did our best to convince the clients - they were afraid that a color other than white would make the ceiling look lower. We promised to repaint the ceiling at our expense if they didn't like it. Thank goodness they did! The secret is simple: the height of the ceiling is determined by our vision and perception of the transition between the colors of the walls and the ceiling. If there is no transition, you can't see where the wall ends and the ceiling begins.

We used the same technique on the first floor. In the bedroom the walls, ceiling and even the fronts of the built-in wardrobes are in the same rich berry tones. The radically dark color ('Brinjal' by Farrow&Ball) was immediately approved by the clients, who wanted a mysterious evening mood, an enveloping atmosphere for the bedroom. The bedroom is fitted with blackout curtains.

The second bedroom, the guest room, is the most colorful room in the house. It has turquoise walls and ceiling, a lemon yellow chair, and a neon orange coffee table. When there are no guests in the house, the owners chill here with laptops and headphones.

There is also a lot of color on the first floor, but more as an accent than a background. The wall in the study, the hallway, and the circular wall covering the guest bathroom are painted in shades of blue (Stiffkey Blue by Farrow & Ball). The colors are not bright, but they are intense, and the orange chairs from Miniforms and the red fixtures from Image stand out even more because of the contrast.

When combining saturated colors, we always consider which surfaces residents will be looking at the longest and most often, and avoid active colors here so people don't tire of them before the next renovation is objectively necessary. Hallways, entryways, bathrooms, stairwells - where we often spend only a few seconds - are ideal for a splash of color. In rooms where we spend most of our time (living room, study, kitchen, dining room), active color accents should be used carefully, preferably not visible from the chair or sofa.

A particular stroke of luck was the meeting with the artist Alexander Luferchik, whose work fits so well into the interior as if it had been integrated into the project from the beginning. Fragility and boldness, brightness and delicacy, challenge and balance - everything we wanted to bring into the interior is present here.

The roof terrace in the middle of the city is a real treasure! We put a round bed for sunbathing and several large tree pots that glow beautifully at night. And on the ground floor we installed a four meter long bar table for noisy parties.

Brands:
Color: Farrow & Ball
Lighting: Eichholtz, Umage, Slamp, Paulmann
Sofa: Fest Amsterdam
Armchairs: Kave home, Maisons Du Monde
Dining room and bar chairs: Miniforms
Dining table: Miniforms
Office table: Menu