Designer Levicheva Olya relied on many visual tricks with light, angles and bold-patterned wallpaper to make the most of this chopped up space in Moscow's City Center:
Sometimes when you get an apartment in a really old building it seems like there was one house, then they build another one inside it, then they destroyed some parts and all these without any master plan. This was the way that thia apartment looked like when I got the project.
The main problem was the very complicated living-room's shape. It looked basically like the engine problem light on a car's dashboard. None of the walls were removable, so I had to find a colour solution to bring the disconnected parts of the room together — to make the living-room space look "whole".
The first trick I used same floral wallpapers (with a white background) on the closest and on the farthest wall as seen from the entrance. This I believe makes the distance to the farthest wall appear shorter. When you enter the living-room and look backwards, you see 2 parallel walls instead of one whole. I decided to apply on those walls similar pattern wallpapers with a black background. Those wallpapers make the parallel walls work as one and also distract attention from this very strange room shape.
One of the external angles I hid behind a bookshelf, another one I separated with olive and white colours to make it invisible. Third external angle had one of its legs turned to the part of the room which had not enough lightning. This leg initially was perpendicular to the window and didn’t reflect any light. I asked workers to apply more plaster on it and turn its surface 2 degrees towards the window. So now this angle coloured with white pearllescence paint reflects natural light and brings it to the dark appendix of the room.
Thanks Levicheva!
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Bedroom's ok, but the rest of the apartment is incredibly scary- on the edge of the spectrum that if I was apartment hunting, I'd open the door and walk right back out. Particularly loathe the wallpaper.
I like the gray textured wall (except I'd like it better in a different house), but everything else is just wrong. My mom spent months trying to get rid of very similar floral wallpaper at their house 10 years ago.
I love the bookshelves! that blue built in with the nice finish is just fabulous. The apartment does appear to be very tied together, though I don't think I am daring enough to use those big print wall papers personally.
It took me a while to figure out the photos weren't the "before" shots. O_o;
I actually like it- it has a sort of quirky, vintage vibe. Though I don't like the kitchen cabinets at all, it IS cohesive and that surprises me with such daring choices. I generally oppose wallpaper (and dislike florals) but this apartment looks like the set of an Anthropologie catalog shoot, which I would expect to be better received than the previous comments indicate.
Don't forget the simple element of culture shock here. Russia is a very different country. Our eyes need to adjust, with time and education.
I think I would really like this place in person. It has many nice elements, like the shelving. The kitchen has something interesting going on with the cabinets floating on the textured field of the tile. I like it.
i have to laugh at the comments about the crazy wallpaper... um, tastes are very different in other parts of the world guys... if nothing else, it is interesting how the space's problems were tackled.
What, moderators, I'm not allowed to say it's hideous? That's my legitimate opinion. Sorry if I didn't dress it up for you.
I can only imagine what it must have looked like, based on the general aesthetic of the area! I think it looks cozy and more tied together without going ultra-modern and rehabbed! Plus, that kitchen is the weirdest thing ever, and so I love it.
First things first. Don't do the good drugs in this apartment.
I love me a good cabbage rose, particularly in a rose color, but here . . . . I wonder if this is what people think when they see my bedroom.
I think there are some fine solutions here to some tricky problems, especially slanting the wall for light. Good job.
I dunno- I think it's pretty cool. I like the two wallpapers together- so random- yet somehow works.
The textured gray wall and the kitchen is very interesting, my favorite part of the apartment.
The bedroom seems almost "flat" after all the color and texture in the other rooms- but I guess it gives your eye a place to rest -so you can rest.
Overall, very daring, very interesting...I'm glad to see AT showing something as different and unusual as this apartment.
please get rid of the hideous wall-paper
this seems so disjointed.
I love this. I really do. I have a more eclectic taste than most... but I don't see why everyone hates this so much. Love it!
I find it really difficult to piece together the layout of the apartment from the pictures - I'd have to see a floorplan, I think. I wouldn't want the wallpaper in my apartment, but I'm ok with it here. What's going on with the light fixtures though - isn't it super dark in the apartment when it's grey outside?
I really, really don't like to flame, but some of these comments sound pretty provincial and parochial. This is a Russian apartment. People of other tastes and cultures won't necessarily enjoy our choices, either, although I hope they will be polite when expressing their opinions. I thought a recent AT post was a grotesque display for shock value, but it doesn't seem right to insult her just because I don't appreciate her style. Tact, people.
FYI the designer's name is Olya Levicheva, not the other way around. In Russian, there is no set order for first name/family name, but it IS disrespectful to mention someone by their last name only. Also, I have to agree with eliabee, Russia has very specific views on what is attractive and tasteful, some of these traditions going back thousands of years. So please, if you don't agree with the designer's artistic choices, try to be courteous.