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Name: Robert & Wowa
Location: Krakow, Poland
Rent or own: Own
Size: 1600 sq/ft
Years lived in: 5
Robert and Wowa live on the top floor of a 19th-century building in the Kazimierz district of Krakow, the old Jewish district in the center of town that was rediscovered in the late 90s. They live in a building that once housed executives from the gas company next door, and the apartments are generously sized. "It's very spacey," says Robert, who speaks excellent, self-taught English with the kinds of endearing mistakes you hope nobody ever corrects.
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Robert helps run the annual Krakow Jewish Culture Festival that's on now and Wowa is a lawyer who works out of an office downstairs. Before buying their spacious loft from the cash-strapped city of Krakow, which offered huge discounts to residents who were willing to fix up buildings on their own dime, they lived together for six years in a 250-square-foot apartment. "The good thing about our old place was that everything was in hand-reach," Robert says. "But we wanted more space and light."
Robert is from Western Poland and Wowa was born in Belarus, so the two men say their apartment doesn't look like your average Krakow flat, with its generations of memorabilia on the walls and bourgeois aesthetic. "We wanted something created by us," Robert says, "that had our personality." The renovation took seven months. They painted and varnished a pine floor red, put sliding Japanese doors between the bedroom and the living room and on built-in closet doors, installed a large comfortable bathroom and have kept furnishings to a minimum. "We tried doing that feng-shui whatever," Robert says, "but it got so complicated!"
In addition to the open living room, dining room and kitchen, they have two bedrooms (one which functions as a den when guests aren't visiting) and there's an upstairs level that is sparsely furnished for extra guests at the moment, but that they dream of turning into a winter garden -- if they can get permission from the historical society to put glass on the roof. They're not holding their breath, since requests to add extra windows that would allow them a view over the Old Town was rejected.
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Before they began renovating, an interior designer friend proposed a semi-opaque glass bathroom wall and steel and glass sliding doors throughout, but they chose to install heavy, dark-stained classic wood doors to keep it feeling grounded and livable. "We wanted it to be modern," Robert says, "but we didn't want it to look like something you'd find in a magazine. That's why we decided to put in regular doors, and to paint the floor this crazy red."
- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. If you have an idea for a European house tour, please write kristin @ apartmenttherapy . com
The slide show isn't working for me, but I love the kitchen! I'm not sure about the red floor. It's a little too intense.
view jooly's profile
Oh, wow, I love it! Hurray for Polish power! I think the red floor is awesome. Not to everyone's taste, but it's a cool, unique decision for them to have made. I love it when home tours don't feature the same few pieces of furniture or trendy art, and the non-US tours tend to be a bit more unique.
view visualingual's profile
still not loving the slide show, so not looking at every slide.
but otherwise the space is impressive, love the kitchen and all the floors, esp. the red.
and what a lovely, wellbehaved kitty. mine would have destroyed the flowers before they were settled in the vase.
view sassydo's profile
The red floor is eye-poppingly amazing. You have just enough furnitures and enough light that the floor doesn't make your house feel too brooding. And whoever said European apartments have those nice looking radiators as a rule - I have one of those ugly-ass radiators commonly seen stateside in my Italian apartment. It's a little heartbreaking that mine has to be the exception to the rule.
view somedudeinvicenza's profile
Much of their furniture is placed on angles. I like it! Wish we had the space to do that at our house but the house is to small and the furniture too big to go like that.
Nice!
view Elizcrtv's profile
Loving the red floors! Really makes a bold statement. Kitty is adorable too!
view suzy8track's profile
It is a nice place but can you see out of the windows?
view hrhprincessfiona's profile
Love the red floors!
view LilyC's profile
hrhprincessfiona,
You can see out of the windows, esp. when you are walking up and down the stairs. But it's a top floor attic, so while it feels very spacious, the windows aren't prominent. They couldn't get permission to put in any lower windows because it's a registered building, but the glimpses you do see are of the Old Town of beautiful Krakow. Sadly, I am not a skilled enough photographer to have captured the view.
view Kristin Hohenadel's profile
Not for nothing but I would also like to see a layout. All of the house tours give me great ideas but without a visual of how the space is laid out, it makes it hard for me too how well ppl have worked their space out.
view MuffinGal's profile
*I meant floor plan. ::sigh::
view MuffinGal's profile
Amazing place and amazing red floors. Can anyone tell me what the make is of the two headed lamp in the bedroom? I have been looking for something just like that!
view kwak's profile
ooh the floors are beautiful!
view Lesley's profile
LOVE the red floors and great lighting! Yay for Poland =]
view Finally Woken's profile
Hi everyone,
It's not intrusion but an humble request to the community here.
I have recently started an articles website and would request you (I will appreciate if you can) to please spare some time and post articles at my site.
Thanks
Prashant
http://www.depositarticles.com
view Prashant's profile
The slide show isn't working but the red floor is beautiful.
view axist's profile
"the old Jewish district in the center of town that was rediscovered in the late 90s"...since the original owners of the apartments had been dead for at least 50 years. Similar to how District 6 (an area in the centre of town where people of mixed race lived) lay vacant decades in Cape Town after it was razed by the government of the time.
I wonder how many of the current occupants in the Jewish district in Krakow understand the fate of the previous owners in the 1940's?
view Sandrat's profile
Dear Sandrat,
this is robert - one of the owners of the described apartment. Maybe this is my not good enough knowledge of English but I find your comment, especially last paragraph a little bit inaccurate. I do not think you may call us, living here in Kazimierz 'occupants'. And yes, we all here know very well what was the fate of former inhabitants of the buildings here. And when you read article carefully, you will probably learn why I am the one who has right to say that.
Anyway, thanks for all your comments! I really appreciate that you like the space we created.
That lamp that is search for by KWAK - is easily to be found in IKEA stores.... In fact it has three lamps - on the photo the third one is not visible
take care and greetings from Poland!
R&W
view robert&wowa's profile
los scandalos!
view s...'s profile