Giving new life to furniture: adapting them after a move

Giving new life to furniture: adapting them after a move

Facing a move means turning your life around, renovating your home and introducing new furnishing accessories.
Beginning to pack, you make a natural selection of the objects to take with you, recognizing for each their own emotional value.
Many times, this process also involves the world of furnishings, which accompany the owners in this moment of transition.
Giving new life to furniture also means renewing the context in which they are inserted, managing to adapt them in terms of aesthetics and functionality to the new environments.

Adapting furnishing to a new context

When the furnishings are custom designed, their conformation responds to the needs of the customers, perfectly matching with the architectural context in which they are inserted. In doing this, a strong link is born between the rooms in which they are inserted and the shapes, proportions and mechanisms of use of the furnishings.
This would suggest an indissoluble bond between the two components, which would break when the furniture undergoes a relocation.
It is absolutely not said!

In fact, among the potential of custom-made furniture there is a flexibility factor that allows us to give new life to furniture by making few changes.
These make it possible to transform the general imprint of the furniture in order to adapt it to the new context both in terms of aesthetics and functionality.

A perfect example are the adaptations made to these furnishing extrapolated from an apartment between classic and contemporary. Let’s discovery this apartment among transformed furniture and new additions.

The kitchen: increases the work space and storage volumes

The kitchen certainly represents the beating heart of a home.
In the case of this apartment between modern and contemporary, its conformation was born from a natural reading of the architectural context in which it was inserted.

The corner development made it possible to exploit the side part with service columns with anthracite gray lacquered MDF doors.
These are equipped with column ovens on the right, pantry with removable trays and a central compartment for the free-standing refrigerator. The front is made up of lower volumes with large drawers and service doors and upper wall units in a brilliant white Lacobel.

The new arrangement has provided additional useful space for the overall dimensions. Being able to use additional space on both sides, the most natural solution was to exploit the remaining gaps with additional volumes.
On the right, we provide a service column which houses a modern wine cellar accompanied by a door with height-adjustable internal shelves.

On the opposite end, the main problem arises when the worktop is made of natural stone, which has undergone a chromatic change over the years.
To avoid incurring a visible difference between the added part and the existing one, a wooden top was thus created. It also acts as a cutting board for preparing meals. An element that not only solves an aesthetically weak point, but also provides a functional solution.

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The living area: a new contemporary aesthetic

To equip the living area, we recovered the furniture made in 2006.
The choice of colors was already avant-garde at the time. Even in a contemporary reworking they can adapt perfectly, resulting elegant and current. The TV cabinet in glossy anthracite gray lacquered MDF alternates flap doors with service drawers, whose recessed handles give visual lightness.

In this case, giving new life to furniture means adapting them to the new context in which they are inserted, managing to exploit the flexibility of the same.
Small changes have been made, mostly considered maintenance. Re-lacquering where necessary or remaking of structural parts.

The same approach was then applied to the service hanging columns, which are made up of doors in the upper part and small drawers in the lower part. Their new position side by side allows them to welcome guests introducing them to the living area and, at the same time, create a visual divider from the more intimate dining room.

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Children’s bedrooms: new tailor-made solutions to exploit architectural voids

The sleeping area houses the two small bedrooms whose conformation alternates architectural voids with important structural elements.
A tailor-made solution was therefore designed in both rooms in order to include all the necessary furnishings without sacrificing practicality and visual freedom.

For the first bedroom it was therefore decided to take advantage of the basement that leads to the mezzanine area to equip it with a shaped wardrobe.
Since the room is intended for a child, the dimensions and heights necessary for the clothes have certainly facilitated the design. Despite having little space available, taking advantage of the inclined height of the basement, it was still possible to create a double-height wardrobe with alternating shelves with fixed hangers.
The wardrobe is accompanied by a standing alone chest of drawers which is also used as a support surface.
The large one and a half bed is inserted in a niche. The latter used in the depth to fix shelves with hidden lighting.

In the second small room, the depth of the niche is useful for a certainly wider wardrobe. Full-height doors with push opening accommodate fixed tubulars, drawers for linen and shelves for folded items to satisfy the needs of a young girl.

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The master bedroom: a wardrobe like new

The master bedroom is best equipped with a large wardrobe with sliding doors placed parallel to the bed.
Its linear aesthetic combined with spot ceiling lighting allows at the same time to hide its grandeur.
The result is a capacious and functional volume which, in the aesthetic impact of the room, tends to disappear while giving character and elegance.
Relocated from the old house, the different internal height has led to a reduction in height which has thus made it possible to better adapt to new environments.

The composition of the wardrobe comes from a natural division into three departments, corresponding to the division of the sliding doors.
On the outside, the double-height hanger houses removable glass shelves in the center. These are particularly suitable for storing folded shirts using the external sliding mechanism to reduce the internal height between the trays.
In the central compartment, the large linen drawers are accompanied by a pair of shelves for folded items and hangers in the upper part.
The left compartment instead houses a double hanger to accommodate long dresses and coats whose greater height compensates for the reduced space reserved for folded trousers and skirts.

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Giving new life to furniture does not only mean rejuvenating it and making changes to its aesthetics. The bespoke design allows you to create furnishings that are versatile and able to adapt to new environments. Restoring a balance between aesthetic conformation in relation to the room and functional needs becomes the main goal.

If you want to deepen the theme of furniture flexibility, we suggest you this article in which series furniture and tailor-made solutions help each other!

Optimizing spaces with functional furniture: a studio apartment in Milan

Optimizing spaces with functional furniture: a studio apartment in Milan

A studio apartment in the suburbs of Milan able to optimize the available space with functional furniture. The choice of materials expresses simplicity and naturalness, to make the bespoke interiors of this welcoming apartment contemporary.

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A cozy looking studio apartment in Milan

We have already addressed the issue of living in small spaces with this minimal style apartment in the heart of Milan. After a few years, the need to optimize spaces has not lost interest but has instead increased the demand for functional furniture. The example of this studio apartment in the suburbs of Milan best expresses the concept of practicality combined with a natural aesthetic line.

Starting from the original structure of the apartment, the renovation project began primarily with the spatial organization of the rooms. The entrance, working as a filter, acts as a pivot for the management of internal flows. From the front opens the view of the kitchen, essential but well equipped, which visually communicates with the loft living area where a large bed is located.

On the left of the entrance is the anteroom, equipped as a closet with service wardrobes. From here, direct access to the bathroom with a large glass shower and sink area with service cabinet.

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Furniture designed to optimize space

To make the most of the available space, the furniture of this studio apartment has been custom designed by obtaining service rooms from structural voids and architectural constraints. The best example is certainly the creation of the under-stairs compartment with doors and push-pull trays useful for arranging objects of various sizes. In fact, starting from the modularity of the risers and treads of the access ladder to the mezzanine, doors are created with a vertical reading whose opening takes place via push pull. Depending on the need, each internal compartment takes up the space of two or more steps, equipping itself with additional extractable volumes where necessary. From this perspective, the dining table can also be in a resting position, attached to the equipped wall of the TV area and used as a desk, or moved to the center of the room to accommodate other diners.

Even the equipped wall, to gain additional service space, is made up of three distinct modules, the sides of which are slightly inclined. The shaping of the different elements allows an optimal management of the architectural corners, also creating a greater sense of welcome.

The architectural void then becomes the new design theme, equipping cavities and niches with shelves and open compartments. This is the case, for example, of the main pillar, incorporated in the dividing structure between the kitchen and the living area. The lower part houses internal shelves accessible through a door with push opening, while the upper part consists of exposed shelves in the niche.

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Functional but also conceptual steps

Another focal point is the anteroom, which from an environment required by law also becomes a useful space for the storage of cleaning products and service cabinets. Drawers and doors with height-adjustable internal shelves are used for the products storage of different sizes.

Even in the bathroom, the design of the furnishings in order to make them functional gives life to a large and bright environment. The change of flooring marks the transition not only physical but also conceptual and visual to a more intimate and reserved environment. The front view on the window offers ample natural lighting, diffused throughout the room thanks to the choice of materials. The glass closure of the shower minimizes the aluminum details, while the large mirror attached to the service cabinet expands the perception of space.

Optimizing the space in the bathroom means taking advantage of all the service cavities: an example is the open oak cabinet under the window. The service shelves for toilet paper and small personal hygiene products in wooden finish in fact obtain their space on the side of the radiator, without however being oppressive. Small accessories such as the pull-out towel holder enrich the functionality of an aesthetically simple and clean bathroom cabinet. Simple and authentic forms are thus valued.

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Natural colors and materials for a contemporary studio apartment

The practicality of the furnishings is not only found in their composition and spatial arrangement, but also in the choice of materials that characterize them. For horizontal surfaces, the choice fell on oak, a natural wood par excellence with great resistance and workability characteristics. Its aesthetic line with warm veins makes it welcoming and transmits spontaneity and tradition. From the parquet floor to the kitchen top and shelves of the open compartments, its presence becomes the touch of authenticity of the stylistic line adopted. For the vertical surfaces, on the other hand, the canvas bilaminate was chosen, whose warm but neutral tones make it delicate but incisive at the same time. Among the major advantages of this material, it certainly has high resistance combined with a very affordable price. Its finish also makes it soft to the aesthetic impact and textured to the touch, expressing attention to detail.

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The renovation of this studio in Milan involved all levels of reading of the project. From the planimetric distribution of the rooms to the choice of materials and finishes. The choice of functional furniture allows you to optimize spaces by providing environments that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also practical and easily livable.

Architectural voids and structural elements hide great potential, just look at them with creative eyes!

To see other examples of small rooms optimized in spaces with functional furnishings, you can take a peek at this minimal style studio apartment or at this shabby chic style creation

Adapting standar furniture with tailor-made solutions

Adapting standar furniture with tailor-made solutions

Custom-made furniture and stardar products belong to two different worlds, bringing with them a large repertoire of solutions and projects. Each has great strengths and opportunities, but both also know their weaknesses. Sometimes it happens that these two worlds come into contact, helping and supporting each other. After all, it is well known: unity is strength!

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A master bathroom with elegant series furniture.
On the side, made-to-measure valances hide the support rails of the curtains

Standard and customed furniture: eternal rivals? Not at all!

It is common belief that standard furniture and custom-made solutions are ruthless competitors. Nothing true!

In fact, these are different realities that provide valid project proposals to customers, offering them a market capable of satisfying every request. Tastes, needs and desires of customers often interface with intrinsic constraints.
These include: budget limits, production restrictions, delivery times, availability and variety of alternatives.
Within the world of furniture design and production there are in fact an infinite number of secondary aspects that define the strengths, but also the limits of each company.

We can imagine the world of furniture as a range of parameters, at the extremes of which lie the cardinal principles of the two worlds.
On the one hand, standard furniture at super cheap prices capable of destroying any competitive market.
Its philosophy is certainly linked to a democratization of design that exploits large industrial production to contain prices and make its products accessible to all.

At the opposite end, a niche market, linked to the concept of “exclusivity”, chosen for its impossibility of identical reproduction and the opportunity for customization.
The choice of this type of furniture is linked to a feeling of privilege in its availability.

Between these two opposites there are the infinite number of companies that experience design on a daily basis.
Embracing the entire range of the market in this sector would be impossible and counterproductive, leading to poor results both for the manufacturer and for the customer himself.

It necessarily follows a specialization in the type of products and an identification of the reference target.
Precisely for this reason, standard furniture and tailor-made solutions cannot be considered competitors because they embrace different philosophies, targets and production systems. Their relationship is instead collaborative and mutually supportive, making the most of the potential of each party.

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Potential and constraints of standard products

One of the main advantages of series furniture is the vastness of the market to which they belong.
This makes it possible to satisfy the tastes of each customer, providing a wide choice of solutions and variants. To this is added an economic advantage deriving from the optimization of production.In fact, by exploiting the industrial production and the repetition of the pieces, it is possible to optimize the production phase in the best possible way, managing to contain costs. This also implies an ever more careful precision and improvement of the single elements.

On the other hand, this specific reproducibility limits the scope for intervention and customization. The world of mass-produced furniture works in reproducible and combinable “modules”.
Customization consists in knowing how to combine the individual elements and organize them in a different way, but it certainly does not allow for specific product customization as in custom-made furniture.

So here are island, peninsula or monobloc kitchens that take on different shapes depending on the environment in which they are inserted.
However, these find their first obstacles when there are architectural constraints or special requests from customers.
Customization does not cover all levels of furniture reading.

This is where bespoke design comes in, offering its attention to detail and custom design.

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When standard and customed furniture meet each other: a full-height shaped mirror fits into a SPA context with scenographic furnishings from important manufacturers

Works of tailor-made workmanship: a contemporary style kitchen

Where the supply of standard furniture reaches its limit of customization, the flexibility and spirit of adaptation of bespoke furniture comes into play.

An excellent example of this, is this luxury-style house distributed over three levels.
The maintenance and collaboration with Modulor involved different rooms.

First of all, the kitchen, consisting of a wall equipped with full-height doors on the right side of the access and a central island with a design hood. Precisely in this last element, the volumetric composition of the furniture provides a large surface that can be used as a worktop, but it prevents its use of meals.
In fact, by equipping the worktop with doors and lower drawers, it could not be used as a support surface for quick meals, as it did not provide adequate space for the user’s seat.

Finding tailor-made solutions in this example meant creating a lateral niche in the volume of the island. In this way, even with a not very wide depth, it was possible for customers to find the right space to sit comfortably while keeping their legs perpendicular to the structure. A comfortable snack bar for 2/3 people that does not give up on a work surface and support surface.

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An important island kitchen modified with tailor-made solutions: a niche has been created in the lower volume in order to use the worktop also as a support point for the consumption of quick meals

The sleeping area between secret passages and princess bedrooms

Even in the sleeping area, custom-made design has found ease to express its experience and personalization.

The classic-style bedroom is characterized by the presence of an important bed with drapery and padded headboard with a fairytale look. Taking advantage of a lateral architectural niche, a desk with wall unit and shaped shelves was inserted in order to make it an integral part of the spatial configuration.

The custom-made desk top is accompanied by a chest of drawers with bands that also acts as a load-bearing element.
This is accompanied by a wall unit with a molded door and shelves in matt white lacquered MDF that reflect the boiserie.

Even the bedside tables take up the style of the bedroom with handles in customed sheet metal in the shape of butterflies.
The side service bathroom illuminates the room with a glossy white tile wall cladding, crystal shower and pedestal sink with custom wall mirror.

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Every princess’s dream bedroom hosts an important bed with drapery and padded back

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Details of a small bedroom from large-scale distribution: upholstered draperies and backrests perfectly match bedside tables with shaped sheet metal handles

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The desk in the niche takes up the classic style of the boiserie paneling through door moldings

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Shelves and doors in white lacquered MDF in warm tones for this classic style desk

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The made-to-measure mirror accompanies the classic style design pedestal washbasin

Always in the upper floor, takes place the walk-in closet, whose orange tones give a touch of character and freshness to the room while remaining elegant and impressive.

A retractable mechanism is hidden inside the side structure.
What apparently looks like a support bench hides a flap door with a system of internal channels that allow dirty clothes to be brought directly to the laundry area. This internal conduit channel is also intercepted at the level of the living area through the opening of a door on the external front of the kitchen. What apparently seems to be part of the molded boiserie is transformed into a storage point for the tea towels which, using the internal slope, are taken directly to the laundry.

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Composition of a walk-in closet with elements in series: on the sides hangers and shelves covered in orange leather, in the center a chest of drawers in textured bilaminate

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The side wall of the walk-in closet with shelves and hangers.
On the right, the small service bench hides the channel that leads to the laundry

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Left: the folding door mechanism from which the conduit for soiled garments starts. Right: the door incorporated in the boiserie that intercepts the path for the kitchen products.

Designing in details a customed wardrobe

Designing in details a customed wardrobe

From the needs of the customers and the type of clothing used, the project for a customed wardrobe is born, studied in its internal configuration in the smallest details. A careful choice of materials and finishes give importance and elegance to the project.

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Studying the internal configuration of a customed wardrobe

Studying the internal configuration of a wardrobe, it is essential, as a first step, to analyze the type of clothing owned. Tubular hangers and shelves for folded items are balanced to best meet the needs of customers, making the most of the space. In fact, shirts, jackets, trousers and dresses occupy different dimensions depending on how they are folded. For this reason, it would be counterproductive to design a “universal” wardrobe.
The first step in designing a made-to-measure wardrobe is therefore to study the customer: to know their habits, tastes and needs. In the case of this young couple, the six-door wardrobe has been divided equally into two compartments: the women’s section, in which the hanger certainly prevails, but in which there are also small shelves for folded items, and the men’s section balanced between folded and hung.

Each item has its own space

The next step in the design was to study different typological variants of the wardrobe product in order to maintain a uniform line of sight in both sectors, but at the same time find the optimal solution for the internal organization of the space.

The internal layout has been designed in such a way as to respect the two divisions and keep them mirroring each other. The pair of central doors was thus conceived with a symmetrical internal division reserved for folded items.

Modulor internal configuration wardrobe proposal 01

 

In the first solution, extractable glass shelves are designed for folded shirts and t-shirts in order to store them in a more orderly and elegant way. In the women’s department, the hanging division allows the set of long dresses on the left side, and short dresses with folded trousers on the right side. The women’s department is completed by a chest of drawers for bags and accessories and upper shelves. The conformation of the men’s department is instead characterized by fixed tubulars for trousers folded in the lower part, shirts and jackets in the upper part.

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Modulor internal configuration wardrobe proposal 03
Modulor internal configuration wardrobe proposal 04

The second solution proposed sees both components configured in the same way. The only difference is in the women’s part, where a side shelf is eliminated to accommodate long dresses. The third and fourth solutions also see the alternation of shelves and tubulars in order to ensure the double height of the hangers on one side, and a good number of drawers for underwear on the other.

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The definitive conformation.

Among the various solutions proposed, after a comparison and mutual relationship with customers, the project proposal was born and then became reality. A configuration that respects the needs of each part, setting up a women’s department with hangers in the upper part that hosts dresses of different lengths. At the service of this, for greater practicality, a dark-toned side table with painted aluminum tubing that guarantees great resistance and capacity. In the lower part, a fixed tubular for skirts, blouses and shelves for sweaters and bulky items. 

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Modulor internal configuration wardrobe drawers
Modulor internal configuration wardrobe man

The pair of central doors, mirrored on both sides, has a fixed hanger for folded trousers in the upper part and linen drawers in the lower part. The first of these is characterized by the presence of internal dividers and velvet bottom to keep the belts in order. In the masculine part, the upper part with servetto is dedicated to jackets and shirts, while the lower part houses fixed shelves for folded items and a large drawer on the bottom for bulky. To accompany the whole, a chest of drawers with central compartment for accessories and upper service shelf.

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Materials and finishes

Even the choice of materials and finishes reflects a particular attention to detail and a refined taste. The doors in white-stained ash are combined with handles in satin brass sheet with joint and fold system that makes them elegant and refined. The same type of handles, with sheet metal coplanar with the wooden structure, is used in the external chest of drawers, whose development follows a horizontal rather than a vertical trend. The interior of the wardrobe and the structure of the chest of drawers are in smoked oak, whose warm and soft shades perfectly match the existing natural oak parquet. A reference to brass is also present in the internal drawers of the wardrobe, with very simple but elegant folded sheet metal handles that rest on the front of the drawers. Servetti with brown aluminum finish, fixed tubulars and hinges with black color finish complete the overall view with uniformity and elegance.

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Designing a made-to-measure wardrobe means thinking about an internal conformation that best meets the needs and practicality of customers. Like an item of clothing, furniture must also perfectly fit the personality of the user.

A boutique dedicated to children: Tiziana Fausti Kids

A boutique dedicated to children: Tiziana Fausti Kids

The end of summer saw the inauguration of the Kids corner in the historic Tiziana Fausti boutique, reorganizing the spatial layout to host a retail space for children.
From the previous commercial space in Via Monte Sabotino, now reserved for the urban concept of THE F1RST sneakers, the outfitting for the Kids store moves to the historic women’s store, modernizing its image on a project by the Storage Associati architecture studio.

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The exhibition layout

From a project by the Storage Associati studio, the retail space reserved to children takes on a dynamic and fresh configuration on the ground floor of the Tiziana Fausti boutique.
The display elements develop vertically, serving as a pivot in the center of the space.
The flow of customers is thus distributed in a circular way, avoiding spatial gaps.

Along the side windows there are other vertical elements that exploit the double visibility both from outside and from inside for the product distribution. Transparent shelves that allow natural light to spread all over the interior space, struggling between the products on display.

The showcase on the left of the entrance instead takes up the typology used in the women’s department with cylindrical volumes rising to different heights.
Taking advantage of their expressive essentiality, these volumes with a carpeted upper covering are also scattered throughout the retail space, enlivening the outfitting.

A store dedicated to children that is inspired by the world of the little ones, with dynamic and flexible display products configured with the interlocking theme.

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Joint matters

The logic of the joint is certainly the basis of the retail design project. Just like in Lego constructions, even plexiglass and wooden tubular shelves fit together allowing different project configurations, which are in turn inserted into the bottom panel.

This simple and practical display logic focuses on the use of three different elements.

The first, and fundamental, is essential to define the different display heights, being the element that communicates with the back wall. It is in fact a wooden tubular with a shaped end so that it can be embedded in any point of the reticular bottom wall.
Its length was then worked through a specific section to be able to fit the other two display elements: plexiglass shelves and tubular hangers.

The first were obviously made of the same width as the tubular section, thus becoming visible light signs that are interchangeable with each other. On the other hand, the tubulars used for hangers, , take advantage of the negative of the shaping by bringing the interlocking elements along their diameter to ensure stability and visual linearity.

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Give new life to the display elements

The world of retail design is constantly changing. To cope with the incessant succession of trends in the fashion world, even the spaces that host it must adapt by developing new configurations.
Therefore, it is fundamental to avoid waste of any kind to design furnishings that can undergo variations over time and become flexible to new changes.

This is the case of the wall units chosen for the outfitting dedicated to children in the historic Tiziana Fausti boutique. Equipped walls that exploit the voids between the different crossed wooden panels to allow the interlocking of wooden tubes. Recovered from the original layout of the Kids store, the perforated wooden walls have been subjected to careful quality control with a meticulous recovery of the damaged features.

In the same way, some existing furnishings, such as the cash desk display cabinet, have received new grit through a new film, to make them uniform with the general aesthetics.

A new life that characterizes them with a fresh and dynamic soul, which fully reflects the sparkling character of children, reinterpreted in a design key for the historic luxury boutique in the heart of Bergamo.

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A studio house designed with Feng Shui

A studio house designed with Feng Shui

Spaces where we live, as well as representing us, must have a positive influence on the quality of our life and has to be studied and designed in the best possible way. Even more when, as in this case, life and work take place in the same environment. Designing a studio home with Feng Shui means making these two aspects coexisting harmoniously in everyday life and spaces.

 

THE FENH SHUI

We have often heard of Feng Shui, but what is it? It is certainly neither a philosophy, nor a religious or spiritual practice, it is not a style of furniture and not even a form of bio-architecture.

Feng Shui can be defined as the study of how natural and built environments influence our psychophysical conditions.
Practicing this discipline means understanding how the various elements of an environment that affect our physical conditions, our moods and our behaviors, are activated by our primordial instincts. These include: shape, proportions, symmetry, number, color, tactile sensations, sun exposure, artificial light, sound and attention paths.

Feng Shui literally means “wind and water”, in honor of the two elements that shape the earth. In fact, with their flow, they determine the characteristics of a particular place.
It could be said that the profound meaning of this discipline is “Creating the best conditions for the development of life”. Its goal is to make an environment suitable for the people who lives there or for the activities that take place there.

In fact, each of us relates to the room in a non-verbal way: what surrounds us inspires us with emotions or instinctive reactions of which we are almost always unaware and some of these are universal for the human species.

Matter of Feng Shui are these sensations and to work on the human psyche we act on the physical world.

feng shui

A STUDIO HOUSE

The greatest representation of the coexistence of home-work based on Feng Shui is this realization in the Lombard capital. Our client, a holistic operator, needed an ambivalent space in chaotic Milan to be used both as a residence and as a location for her courses.

For this reason, she turned to Marzia and Germana from SpazioUmano to make the apartment as suitable as possible for her needs through Feng Shui. The housing unit on two floors is located in the context of a condominium still under construction, chosen near the city center.

Having always been sensitive to Feng Shui, we have followed the two architects with pleasure. Reading and interpreting their design choices in the best possible way has been a source of inspiration for us and a professional challenge accepted with enthusiasm.

Each building has a recognable front and a back. This polarity determines the orientation of the house in the space that is symbolically guarded by two celestial animals: the black turtle and the red phoenix. The first is associated with protection and health and it is identified with the most intimate areas of the house such as the bedroom and bathroom. The red phoenix is ​​instead an indication of freedom and identified with the entrance and the “active” areas of the house.

The other two animals supporting the main ones are the green dragon, linked to our more rational left hemisphere and therefore synonymous with organization, home management and work, and the white tiger, linked to the more intuitive right hemisphere, therefore associated with emotionality and artistic activities.

THE PROJECT

Being a home-studio, the active areas of living and working had to coexist according to Feng Shui principles, in the part of the red phoenix, but still be separated from each other.

The access to the apartment is therefore characterized by a scenic aerial staircase illuminated on the right side by a large glass wall. This staircase, made with white painted aluminum support and wooden treads, leads to the upper floor used for holistic courses. The instinct is to go up, choosing to be accompanied on this almost emotional path of ascent.

On the opposite side of the large window, the access to the private house is out of sight. A sliding wall decorated with a spiral geometric pattern with opal inserts hides the everyday life’ interior. The light coming from the outside filters through the opal shapes of the sliding wall, creating plays of light inside the apartment.

The living area that opens to the view is an open space with a square plan, whose kitchen is placed on the corner opposite the opening.

Feng Shui entrance
Sliding wall Feng Shui
Wall Feng Shui

A FENG SHUI KITCHEN

The entrance with living area is characterized by the presence of a full-height corner bookcase, where vertical and horizontal shelves gives rhythm. Small objects and books become the real protagonists, standing out among the matt lacquered MDF profiles of the bookcase.

In front of this, the low open cabinet with doors and internal shelves visually closes the room by introducing the kitchen. The latter is arranged at an angle and anticipated by a large table in natural oak and support profiles in black iron. Above this, a witty and youthful light point with suspension elements of different shapes that intertwine on the horizontal support element.

Further element of character are the chairs that surround the table, with bright colors and simple profiles.

The actual block of the kitchen is made up of mutually intersecting volumes, creating a rhythm and visual dynamism also reflected in the material choice of the coverings. On the one hand, the block with service columns which also houses the free-standing refrigerator and built-in oven. Doors in matt lacquered MDF are interspersed with natural and dark-stained oak inserts, creating visual dynamism.

At the front, the basaltine countertop is transformed into a backsplash and back surface in the firing area, giving life to material and luminous contrasts with the uniform riser in white Lacobel.

The overlying wall units best express this play of intersected volumes with open compartments in natural oak that alternate doors in matt white lacquer and inserts in dark stained oak.

Natural materials with a soft touch blend perfectly with darker and rough inserts. Distinctive signs can also be recognized in the lower volumes, such as the drawers with oak fronts that underline the horizontal reading of the kitchen.

Feng Shui lights kitchen
Side kitchen oak doors
bookcase entrance laquered white
Kitchen table oak wood

ADVICE

Designing a multipurpose interior means being able to bring together different aspects of everyday life. Especially when it comes to connecting the working world to the private one, the home environment plays a fundamental role so that nothing can be left to chance. Choosing to design with Feng Shui involved in this example the coexistence of instincts belonging to two aspects of our life, in a single home-work environment.

We are ready to calibrate your daily and working space on the basis of your needs and desires, in order to create interiors in perfect harmony and balance even with your inner “I”.