The apartment offers a comfortable environment

Yana Molodykh presents the design of a typical Pied-à-Terre apartment for a family living in a Kyiv suburb. As a family that often comes to the city center on weekends to immerse themselves in social and cultural life, the apartment offers a comfortable environment for time spent with family and friends.

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Photo credit: Yevhenii Avramenko

The designer faced the task of turning the technical shortcomings of the room into advantages, placing everything necessary in the space between the metal columns and the walls. The interior of the apartment corresponds to the context of Podil, one of the most picturesque districts of Kyiv.

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Photo credit: Yevhenii Avramenko

Podil vibe

The clients chose an apartment in Podil as their city residence because that district of Kyiv reminds them of Kherson, a resort town by the sea in southern Ukraine, where they are both originally from. Podil is one of the city's oldest districts, which historically was a center of craftsmen and traders, and a district known for welcoming visitors from all over, and its mix of cultural traditions that form its cosmopolitan flavor today. Numerous cafes and shops occupy the ground floors, and luxurious high-rise hotels rise near empty industrial shops. The pearls of Podil are the monuments of modernism: Zhytniy Market and Zhovten Cinema.

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Interior

The attic space under the roof had some design features that required consideration. Beams and metal columns were left exposed, only partially hidden behind shelves in the living room and closets in the bedroom. That was how the designer turned the apartment's shortcomings into advantages. The owners like to cook and host guests, so they needed a comfortable and functional kitchen and a cozy living room. One of those "airy" accents was an Akari floor lamp from Vitra (designed by Isamu Noguchi).

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Photo credit: Yevhenii Avramenko

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The bedroom is the smallest room, with an area of 6.4 square meters. It has everything for a comfortable stay: a bed raised on a podium, a wardrobe behind a column in a niche, shelves and drawers near the bed. The massive beam on the ceiling was sewn into a plasterboard box to visually lighten it and avoid the feeling of a heavy metal structure overhead.

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Photo credit: Yevhenii Avramenko

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The entrance area has tiles on the floor and a blue accent door. That small hallway is a buffer space between the street and the house. There is also a separate dressing room, where the wardrobes are inserted between the structures of beams and columns. It was essential for the apartment owners to have a bathtub and a shower cabin. Tiles in the bathroom are a tribute to constructivism.

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Photo credit: Yevhenii Avramenko

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The color range of the interior is a combination of light wood shades with modernist accents of red, black, blue, terracotta, and white. The walls are painted with Argile paint from the "earth colors" collection with a warm shade of wet clay.

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About Yana Molodykh

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Yana Molodykh graduated with the most prestigious degree in design from the Details Design School, a leading European school for interior design which has produced a number of world renowned decorators. Bringing a sense of beauty and admiration to the everyday life of her customers, and inspired by her studies in design, she continues to learn from nature and art through her travels while contemplating the chef d’oeuvres of the world of architecture and design. Yana creates exclusive designs for homes, as well as interiors for commercial use in restaurants, offices, boutique hotels, etc.