Apartment of 140 m2 in the "House of polar explorers" in Moscow
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17 Feb 2023
Mardi Bureau designed an apartment in one of the most beautiful Moscow houses of the 1930s
Living room. Vintage furniture and decor, modern art objects and ready-made elements have turned a complex geometry space into a comfortable home for a large family.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The apartment is located on the attic floor — it was conceived as a solarium for polar explorers who returned from the expedition. The facade was decorated with bas-reliefs, and there was a sculpture of a polar bear on the stairwell.
For the last half century there has been a multi—room communal apartment - with a wide, long, dark corridor painted with green oil paint. In Soviet films, children ran around in such a noisy crowd, and housewives hung tin basins for washing and cleaning duty sheets on the walls.
Major repairs and redevelopment have turned a dark elongated room into a modern bright dwelling with a separate master area, two bedrooms and a living room with a fireplace.
Living room. A modular sofa with a length of more than 4 meters, which is easy to reassemble and deploy depending on the mood, the whole family can fit on it for home games and watching movies.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The new owners of the apartment needed a children's room for two small schoolchildren, a room for a nanny and a large living room for family and friends. Several points were strictly stipulated: white painted walls in all rooms, a workplace in the living room and a mix of modern and vintage items.
A workplace in the living room is one of the main wishes of the owners.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Despite the willingness to experiment, customers did not immediately accept some of the designer's proposals: for example, the black window frames that frame the magnificent views of the center of Moscow caused them doubt, but when the windows were installed, everyone agreed that the decision was correct. The window sills were made of granite to emphasize the graphic quality of the interior.
Living room, fragment.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Vintage objects soften strict lines and materials, make the room lively and warm."When it came time to pick up the carpet, the owners chose a vintage wool artifact with the symbols of the Moscow Olympics in 1980," recalls designer Maria Semkina. — Unfortunately, it categorically did not correspond to the scale of the room. After a month of searching, another similar one was found in Tula — our foreman personally delivered it to the facility. The carpets are really unusual, not at all a "grandmother's" ornament and a nice thick wool made me reconsider my attitude to textiles with history."
To get rid of the feeling of a "tunnel", fake beams were made on the ceiling in the elongated living room, and the end walls were decorated with decor. On the one hand, there are bookshelves made of eco-friendly plywood (the company "Pevka—Mebel"), on the opposite wall there is a Soviet carved triptych made of wood "Cosmonauts" ("Chronofactor").
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Living room, fragment. The carved triptych "Cosmonauts" is the absolute center of the composition. The work of an unknown artist attracts the eye, but does not press, you want to look at it, it's nice to touch it, feel the texture of wood and the warmth of human hands that created this unique object.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The spacious, welcoming kitchen, as in the former communal apartment, has remained the heart of the apartment, a place for family meals, quick breakfasts and buffets with a view of old Moscow.
Kitchen, fragment. The flying saucer chandelier has been waiting for almost 8 months. Paintings in the style of primitivism were brought from Africa.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Kitchen, fragment. A huge table for feasts and lessons is made of roughly processed wood. 12 people can easily fit behind it.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The working area of the kitchen is made in a minimalist style on the contrast of dark wood and smooth white cabinets and countertops. Engineering is partially hidden behind the high facades. All modern amenities, to the delight of the hostess, fit: a wine cabinet, a large hob and all household appliances.
Kitchen, fragment.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Bedroom. A dressing room is hidden behind a rack partition.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Bedroom, fragment.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Dressing room.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The guest room turned out to be tiny, its area was reduced by adding a nursery space. But it remained functional and no less stylish than other bedrooms. The asymmetrical headboard and bedside table are painted in the color of the walls. The builders at first decided that there was a typo in the drawings, and did everything "smoothly", redid it with disbelief, and later agreed that it turned out to be convenient, and visually more interesting. There was not enough space for symmetry in this room.
Guest room, fragment. Console, La Redoute. Armchair, Mebel Dom.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The combination of modern and vintage objects in the interior was one of the three mandatory conditions set by the customers to the designers of the project
Guest room, fragment. Above the headboard is the chasing "Oak leaf", "Chronofactor". Lamp, vintage.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Children's room, fragment.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Children's room, fragment.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
"The wide and long corridor of the classic communal apartment has become a real gift for us," the authors of the project say. - A new bathroom with an "Italian" shower, lined with pebble mosaic, and a modern utility block fit within its borders."
Hallway. The long corridor does not look gloomy due to the light walls, the absence of bulky furniture, a large mirror and a mirrored door to the bathroom in the end, reflecting light and visually enlarging the space.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Hallway. Someone tried to wipe the old blue bench during the general cleaning, and it's good that he was stopped in time. Under the historical blue layer, an even more ancient one began to appear — yellow, which did not fit into the concept in any way.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Bathroom in the master area.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
The guest bathroom, which used to be the only bathroom of the communal apartment, has turned into a snow-white toilet with mirrors and a bathtub. The lava mosaic frames the niches with a delicate sheen and creates a soft illumination. On the wall is a vintage plaster panel, presumably the work of the sculptor Natalia Opiok.
Guest bathroom, fragment.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
There is a vintage plaster panel on the wall of the guest bathroom.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
Authors of the project: studio Mardi.Interior, semkinam@mail.ru , T. +7 (926) 223-33-34The new owners, purchasing this apartment, appreciated not only the uniqueness of the object itself, but also the excellent infrastructure of the area.
The road to school is completely visible from the window, and a huge walking area gives rare freedom for the metropolis.
Photo
Olga Shangina-Lesterlen. Style: Alexandra Pylenkova
