From a Living Space to a Functional and Attractive Home

How to design home right, or even a small apartment can be spacious and functional!

Who of us wouldn’t be able to tell some interesting story about good old “khrushchevka”, or well-known apartment in Mustamäe. Generally, a discussion on this topic can last long… Someone had an explosion of water heater, someone was in trouble installing the furniture, since, first of all, there were windows in all the walls and, second, rooms were so small that even if furniture was installed, still it was possible, for example, in the kitchen, to walk only one at a time. And let’s be honest, many of us are living in such apartments still today. However, it does not really have to be that way, since even a small apartment may turn into a spacious and comfortable home with the help of skilful design and functional choice of furniture, which can accommodate even more than poorly designed big apartment.

Even if we are not living in a small apartment anymore and have reached a better order of things in our lives, let’s recall the time of our early life, when family was growing while acquiring a bigger home was yet not possible. Correct design is a key issue of home. 41,2% of inmates in Estonia are living in overcrowded houses or apartments (Eurostat Research 2011). We are usually able to solve the problem of tiny apartment rooms with our intellect by taking down one wall, then another one…. We put very expensive tiles onto walls and floors and sanitary engineering in the bathroom, we order the most fashionable furniture and very thin curtains for the apartment… All this is quite expensive, but we are still not pleased with the end-result, since there are still some boxes with books and summer clothes somewhere, and it is absolutely true that in case we buy a new winter coat or new shoes, we’ll have to throw something away in order to put these new things into a wardrobe. While designing an apartment we do not usually think that a bathroom or a kitchen probably shouldn’t be there where they are right now, instead we keep criticizing such an ignorant design. We convince ourselves that when the “crisis” is over and the salaries become higher again, we’ll move into a new nice and spacious apartment.

Actually it is absolutely possible to design an apartment with the help of simple means so that these few square meters could accommodate us and our property in our home more rationally. For example, the biggest mistake when installing the furniture is often unreasoned open living room-kitchen solution, whereas it is forgotten that in case of open kitchen the aim is not a massive furniture complex spread in the corner of the living room, but rather emotional and design relation of the kitchen both to living room and its furniture. Placing the sofa, the presence of space-saving and spacious wardrobes as well as the choice of suitable colours of the walls and floors is also not less important. Families with children are often faced with the problem that children do not have their own room. Creating an additional room is not that difficult using correct allocation of less deep multifunctional furniture.

For the first time in the history of the interior fair in the hall of the fair there will be created two intelligently designed and furnished apartments with an area of approximately 50 m2 (classical home of a young family and modern home).

The idea of the plan and design of modern apartment is to demonstrate a home, where it is great to be in. What else could you be hungry for other than a small but good sauna, large kitchen bar, from where it is comfortable to move onto the sofa in front of a TV set, a modern movable partition so that you could hide a room, which may be sometimes a bit messy, or to create some privacy. The apartment stands out for its surprising details, for example, quilted kitchen cabinet doors, concrete level, clay-plastered walls, vertical design radiators, monochrome colour solution, where emphasis is rather added to materials and not colours. Everything is possibly natural, soft and functional, many different textures and a play of the materials are exhibited. The apartment with one bedroom is made for a young or youthful couple. It is made especially exciting by the fact that the kitchen and the bathroom have changed their places in the apartment, and the bedroom has accommodated a comfortable sleeping place and a spacious wardrobe.

The second home of apartments exhibition is created for a young family. A small two-room apartment turned into a fully functional three-room apartment. It is still small by square meters, but still a great home for a family with a child, since a child’s small bedroom is now where there was a kitchen according to the initial plan. Let the home be how ever small, a large wardrobe is still necessary – it is nicely and resourcefully accommodated by the room.

The apartment is designed in the bright colour spectrum on the contrary to grey colours of a modern home, with an emphasis added to colourful accessories, classical items of furniture and details. The apartment stands out for its timeless cornice, high plinths and romantic luxurious curtains, kitchen with panelled doors, herringbone parquet and yet a lot of unbelievable, glamorous and luxurious details. Apartment displays are especially exciting due to the fact that they look as if their inmates have left home for just a short while – clothes are in the wardrobe, magazines are on the table and very little is left for pasties to be in the stove!

The goals of the whole project is to show that everyone can acquire a functional and attractive home. If you can manage with designing a small home, then planning a big one is just “peanuts”! Intelligent solutions will be helpful for beginning home designers and inspirational for professionals.

The apartment project is a joint-project of Aet Piel Disain, home portal Inkodu.ee and Estonian Fairs.

Come and take a look, what we have done to good old “Khrushchevka” – this is just unbelievable!

Gallery modernne klassikaline