Houzz Tour: This Resort-Style Vacation Home Has No Bedrooms
With marine and tropical motifs and living rooms instead of bedrooms, this tropical themed home by the Baltic Sea is gorgeous
Photos by Evgenii Kulibaba
Houzz at a Glance
Who vacations here: A couple from Moscow uses this apartment as a vacation home and for short stays
Location: Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Region, Russia
Size: 65 square metres (about 700 square feet)
Interior designers: Vladislava Peterson and Natalya Zabanova of Make Interiors
Houzz at a Glance
Who vacations here: A couple from Moscow uses this apartment as a vacation home and for short stays
Location: Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad Region, Russia
Size: 65 square metres (about 700 square feet)
Interior designers: Vladislava Peterson and Natalya Zabanova of Make Interiors
Apartment layout: 1) entrance; bathroom; 3) children’s room; 4) living room; 5) kitchen-dining room
Bedrooms are obviously missing from this plan. As this apartment is used primarily as a vacation home, the owners preferred to have two living rooms with fold-out sofas instead.
This layout would have allowed the kitchen and dining room to be combined, but the owners chose not to. To avoid a cramped feel with so many enclosed spaces, the designers proposed separating the kitchen and living room with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors. These have mirror inserts, so they visually expand the space even when closed.
Do you know how to read a floor plan?
Bedrooms are obviously missing from this plan. As this apartment is used primarily as a vacation home, the owners preferred to have two living rooms with fold-out sofas instead.
This layout would have allowed the kitchen and dining room to be combined, but the owners chose not to. To avoid a cramped feel with so many enclosed spaces, the designers proposed separating the kitchen and living room with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors. These have mirror inserts, so they visually expand the space even when closed.
Do you know how to read a floor plan?
Matched with the grass-toned wallpaper and curtains, the wooden slats of the sliding door recall bamboo and fit well into the tropical theme of the interior.
A carpenter from Lithuania made much of the furniture and built-ins in the apartment, including the sideboards, dining table, kitchen cabinets and the closet in the bathroom.
“In this job every inch mattered, so we constantly discussed with the carpenter how to engineer all of the apartment’s built-ins so that everything would work correctly and comfortably. There is a lot of complex carpentry work here, and we wanted all the parts of the interior to come together into an integrated whole,” Zabanova says.
“In this job every inch mattered, so we constantly discussed with the carpenter how to engineer all of the apartment’s built-ins so that everything would work correctly and comfortably. There is a lot of complex carpentry work here, and we wanted all the parts of the interior to come together into an integrated whole,” Zabanova says.
The wallpaper in the living room features palm trees and sets the tone for the tropical interior. Azure, banana and coral accents were inspired by tropical landscapes.
The glassed-in niche just above the custom-designed sideboard allows light to move freely between the living room and the hall.
“This horizontal insert has an interesting story: We first planned to put an ethanol fireplace here, but then ruled it out. However, we did not want to give up on the niche, so we set it up to be both decorative and functional,” Peterson says.
“This horizontal insert has an interesting story: We first planned to put an ethanol fireplace here, but then ruled it out. However, we did not want to give up on the niche, so we set it up to be both decorative and functional,” Peterson says.
A spacious cabinet hangs over the niche on the hallway side. This arrangement takes up about the same amount of space as a traditional closet would, but it adds more visual interest.
Marine motifs dominate the dining room and kitchen. The light fixture evokes the underwater world, and a custom painting of a seahorse hangs above the dining table.
Fish-scale relief tiles spice up the kitchen, which is otherwise more minimalist and features lots of natural wood. The tiles’ texture is an interesting contrast to the trim wood fronts.
Take a look at spaces enriched with fish-scale tiles
Take a look at spaces enriched with fish-scale tiles
The kitchen’s bright yellow cabinets are another interesting detail. Another wall features smoked-glass cabinet doors, adding a sense of lightness while still partially concealing the cabinets’ contents.
The biggest problem during the renovation was posed by a gas pipe that ran above the ceiling from the entrance through the whole hallway and kitchen. The designers and contractors came up with the idea of installing a dropped ceiling in the hallway and the kitchen to conceal it. The vertical lines of the doors and kitchen fronts make up for the lost height.
The second room in the apartment is used as a children’s room.
All the windows in the apartment are floor-to-ceiling. Although this made for a beautiful panorama, it was also problematic: As it is south-facing, the sunlight coming in through the tall windows can sometimes be way too bright. A colour scheme in shades of blue and white was chosen to “cool down” the interior.
A lounge area, enhanced by wood-look parquet-board panelling from floor to ceiling, was arranged right in front of the window. This helped balance out the room’s elongated shape.
All the windows in the apartment are floor-to-ceiling. Although this made for a beautiful panorama, it was also problematic: As it is south-facing, the sunlight coming in through the tall windows can sometimes be way too bright. A colour scheme in shades of blue and white was chosen to “cool down” the interior.
A lounge area, enhanced by wood-look parquet-board panelling from floor to ceiling, was arranged right in front of the window. This helped balance out the room’s elongated shape.
It was no coincidence that the children’s room was designed in a grown-up style: The owners wanted to be able to use it as a second living room.
The designers are convinced that it is important not to go small in small apartments, hence the oversized wall decor, paintings and furniture. “It is a kind of visual deception: Large objects make it seem like the space is much bigger,” Zabanova says.
Here’s how to live large in a small apartment
Here’s how to live large in a small apartment
The bathroom vanity was made according to the designers’ drawings.
Read more:
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Tell us:
What did you like the most about this home? Tell us in the Comments below.
Read more:
Houzz Tour: A Snug, Warm Haven Within Mumbai’s World One Tower
Tell us:
What did you like the most about this home? Tell us in the Comments below.
“Light blue shades with amber inserts are a cliche in the Baltic region, so the concept we proposed incorporates a tropical feel. Though the project was carried out over the winter, the apartment has a summery atmosphere all year round. We probably wanted to be in warm countries so badly that even the cold outside the windows couldn’t hold us back,” Peterson says.