If you have read my blog before- you know that I am a Canadian living in Warsaw, Poland. I have a shop here where I paint furniture and do small design projects. I have an up and coming project in the city of Gdynia on the Baltic coast. If you know any history about Gdynia- it is a new city built in the 1930’s and a lot of its buildings are designed in the Art Deco style.
By default of its surroundings this apartment will be decorated with a touch of Art Deco….it has to!
So I thought I’d put together a mood board with the concept of the new apartment. This is a one bedroom apartment and by North American standards it is quite small- but there is no need to sacrifice style just because the space is limited.
This is the floor plan with the design proposal completed by the builders architect. Small, isn’t it?! I will most definitely change a few things around- I don’t think the kitchen will stay like it is, but these are things that I will take my time to work on. Now, I wanted to show the concept.
I must add that in Poland when you buy a new build apartment or house it is delivered shell and core- which means that it is literally a concrete box. The owners are responsible for installing everything from top to bottom. Everything. But- it gives us a chance to design a house that suits how we live- not how a builder thinks we should live!
So…dream living room!
Starting with the floor- I have always loved the classic European styled herringbone floor. It is timeless- not trendy and it will be in every room except the bathroom. On one or more walls I want to have reclaimed brick. We have this in our house now- sometimes I just sit and stare at it! It is a pain to install but it completely changes the feel of a room.
The kitchen will be a medium grey colour with a greyish glass backsplash and of course Carrera marble for the counter top.
So….if you can imagine the apartment with these finishings…..
Next, the furniture.
I came across a very cool whole home store online called Arhaus. www.arhaus.com Unfortunately for me- this company is only in the U.S…..but I can certainly take inspiration from their beautiful furniture and home furnishings!
I started with the sofa.
Arhaus has amazing sofas- actually a lot of their furniture is really great. Super stylish- I found it really difficult to pick one for my dream living room, but I finally decided on the Brekan Upholstered sofa because of its button tufting and mid century styling. I did say in the beginning that I wanted to have some Art Deco influence. I still do. If you have a look at any of the design styles originating in our recent past (1900’s) you can see there is some overlap between Art Deco and Mid Century Modern- so I am quite confident that the merging of these two styles will be cohesive as opposed to something like Art Deco and French Country 😉 (even thought they both originated in France!)
Because this apartment has size restrictions I decided on the Nico armless chair because it doesn’t block the space visually.
I was also debating on a sectional sofa- incidentally, Arhaus has some beautiful options. Have a look at this page sectional sofas, I just fell in love with the Flanders two piece but I think a regular three seater sofa for this apartment will be the better option- but I could totally see myself enjoying a good book on one of those sectionals!
Next for the dining area:
I found this amazing reclaimed wood table. If I could have this shipped here- I would in a heartbeat. I love it when a company uses reclaimed materials. According to the description of this table on their website, the wood comes from a variety of sources –>
“Tabletops are handcrafted from solid reclaimed pine that has been salvaged from old doors, homes, boats and barns in rural farming regions.”
This is simply awesome.
As for the dining chairs- I am a huge fan of button tufted furniture. It adds a certain elegance to a room and again the open arms so there is more visual space. The Laila chandelier follows the shape of the table and has a bit of an Art Deco feel to it.
Some other things that I would add to complete this apartment would be copper lighting, linen draperies, probably in a very light blue, some character pieces like a coveted card catalogue and authentic Art Deco door handles and a very neutral wall colour.
So……this will be the general concept of the apartment. A mix of Art Deco and Mid Century and a mix of new and reclaimed. Luckily I have a lot of time for this project- the building is still under construction….which gives me enough time, I hope, to find a card catalogue and Art Deco door handles!!
design disorder 