SHAMPOO MILANO: A REVIVAL SHOP
A hairstylist salon in the heart of Navigli canals where the contemporaneity takes origin from the Fifties style and its retro taste.
Organize rooms with a secret library
Organize the room can be a difficult task, especially if this room is small and not very functional, but often the solution is just around the corner: in this case, around a corner library which hosts a secret door. THE PROBLEM ANALYSIS THE PROJECT PROPOSAL COLOURS, SHAPES AND MATERIALS THE ADVICE
THE PROBLEM ANALYSIS
Living in big cities often means to interacts with the lack of space and environments with small dimensions. In those contexts, the functionality it’s an indispensable design element: It allows us to take the most advantage from each room without sacrificing comfort and aesthetic values, while at the same time it solves important problems. The functionality is not just the added value to our interiors, but first at all a stylistic key. A proof of that is this Milan’s apartment. The entrance overlooks a comfortable and contemporary living room characterized by light colours of walls and furniture which create a contrast with an elegant wooden dark floor with which it harmoniously communicates. The design challenge provide for two mainly solutions: on one hand the lack of a real library, which can easily become a characterized element of the room showing at the same time small design object and souvenir able to describe the personality of its inhabitants. On the other hand, the need of hide the bath entrance which is more intimate and private, whose door faces directly in the living room, in a contact view with the entrance hall.
THE PROJECT PROPOSAL
The design solution manages to solve both problems in a single functional element: a wall unit able to provide display support for books and small objects and, at the same time, combines the real bathroom’s door. A dynamic bookcase that reflects the intentionally asymmetric layout in both corner elements. Taking advantage from the corner position, in fact, the two different components of the bookcase are organized as autonomous elements whose shelves could easily become the stylistic line enable to give rhythm and harmony. This, defines the internal recess of the library which allows the management of exposed elements as a costumed setting, a sort of display windows of the inhabitants’ personalities. The entrance to the bathroom takes place with complete discretion, as a sort of a real “secret passage”, activated by pressing. In particular, the door consists of a fixed narrower shutter, even equipped in the bathroom’s ambient, and a main shutter that in its external side has a considerably bigger thickness than the traditional in order to accommodate books and small objects.
COLOURS, SHAPES AND MATERIALS
The contemporary imprint is visible both in the graphic layout of the library, which combines full and empty space in perfectly harmony as in a typographic composition, but above all for the material and chromatic choice. In particular, a white opaque lacquered MDF was chosen to create the partition wall. This because it allows a better versatility clearly visible for example, in the different thickness with which were made the numerous internal shelves. The 9010 white recalls the dining’s wall and the contemporary furniture, inserting itself without intrusiveness in the room but at the same time managing to define the stylistic print.
THE ADVICE
No problems had to remains unsolved! Sometimes a furniture element becomes the custom-made solution able to solve in the best way different problems, as it can be the lack of space or the need to divide rooms.
The wall units perfectly combine elegancy and functionality and can also contain hidden mechanism to take the most advantage from its practicality. A mechanism that can also be fun! Divide the rooms has never been so easy, a library with a secret door it’s enough.
High altitude renovation of a traditional two-room apartment
KITCHEN AND LIVING AREA
Reduced in size, the kitchen of the two-room apartment in mountains, has an essential but extremely functional setting. Being a residence designed for shorter stays the kitchen occupies a small part of the environment, without giving its contemporaneity and practicality away. There’s no lack of necessary appliances: starting from the small-seized induction hob, passing through the combined oven with microwave and refrigerator with freezer compartment. The extraction fan is instead the kitchen cabinets’ excess, used as a pantry for food and dishes. Concerning the dining table, the wooden chairs with traditional and soft profiles fit well into the room, reason why it’s been preserved. On the other hand, a support surface was combined with folding leg has been supplied in order to provide an additional support space and, at the same time, to become extremely practical for close and move the furniture. Functionality is the main element considered to the living room design, allowing to take the best advantage from the sofa-beds there and to customize and rearrange the space as needed. The original suspension lamps now become protagonists of the dining room by introducing a chromatic contrast with the black outer finish of the cap. The living room furniture with its contemporary style houses the free-standing TV and becomes a containing element both for kitchen, by its proximity, and for other objects of the entire apartment.
BATHROOM
The bathroom intervention has also provided its expansion, thus managing to house all the container elements inside and equip it with a washing machine compartment. It is probably in this room that the contemporary style is most visible, starting from the extremely elegant and clear in the stylistic lines of the glass shower, moving to the semi-recessed sink with an oval shape and rounded profiles and ending with the choice of the covering tiles for the shower interior with its bright and fresh colours, which remain in perfect harmony with the surrounding neutral tones. The cabinet with large storage drawers also includes the possibility of a built-in washing-machine. The plywood top refers itself to those of the kitchen and table, becoming a stylistic element in continuity with all rooms.
THE MATERIAL AND CHROMATIC CHOICE
As already seen, it is certainly the plywood that defines the material mark of the whole two-room apartment. An economic material, also young and dynamic, but at the same time that can be easily fit into traditional interiors. Its main feature is its structure, which is visible in the edge of the tops, becoming the stylistic signature of the project, emphasizing the geometric lines of furniture with a recognizable touch. The balance between the orange tones of cherry wood and the white of plywood creates internal divisions able to give rhythm at the room. The internal subdivisions underlined by the change of flooring, which from the most intimate and comfortable rooms of bedroom and living room are changed into uniform surfaces with gray stoneware for better practicality. Being more wear-resistant and easier to clean, the stoneware has in fact been chosen for the kitchen and bathroom where they elegantly relate to the white of contemporary style. In conclusion, a renovation that takes origin from the traditional setting of the two-room apartment, without turning its featured upside-down but instead adding contemporary elements that give freshness.
Custum furniture for clients of all types, even with four- legged
Our little four-legged friends are not easily satisfied, you know! Sometimes just a few cuddles are enough, other times a crunch is needed, but for the most demanding one a five-star refuge is needed! Quite something else than shoe bokes or old Amazon packages, the most pretentious felines need impeccable solutions in style and comfort. Here, a custum studio apartment also for our Quality Assistant, who lack for nothing in terms of interior design. Characterized by Scandinavia-inspired interiors, it has a double facing, with a back door that allows air’s circulation. The interiors are essential in style, emphasized by the material choice of opaque plywood, whose veins refer to the natural finish of light wood, in contrast with the black interior wallpaper. This is in turn recalled in the chromatic choice by the feet which are also made in black textured curved lacquered wood, a real tidbit. The bottom wall allows both a warm environment during the cold season and cool ventilated room with increasing temperature. What more could you ask for? Of course, this is a solution for high-level target, and it it’s not a coincidence that the quality control is daily provided by an expert in field.
The verticality as a design element of an apartment
Knowing how to relate to room with high ceilings means being able to transform verticality into a design element without renouncing the correct perception of the internal environments.
THE CONTEXT THE CONCEPT MIRROR DIVIDER FULL HEIGHT LIBRARY CLOSING DOORS OF CORRIDORS
THE CONTEXT
America is the continent of endless distance, large dimensions and a taste for excess. The American taste is an eclectic panorama, in which each piece of furniture plays a fundamental role in defining the general character. A peculiar feature between the overseas apartments and some ancient interiors of the old continent is the use of very high ceilings that give a sense of greater openness to the interiors. Sometimes, however, they risk becoming disturbing elements in the perception of the room. The furnishing elements risk being undersized or de-contextualized due to the lack of a correctly perceived upper limit. For this reason, identifying the main characteristics of the apartment to enhance its decisive features is the starting point for good project.
THE CONCEPT
The design line takes origin from the setting of the apartment itself, focused on a contemporary style in which the chromatic contrasts creates elegant visual lines. Verticality is certainly the key-element of the project as it is a critical point for the internal perception of the environments which can however become the characterizing design line if it is interpreted with the right elegance. It is exactly on the design element of verticality that the architectural studio with which we collaborate has set up the three interventions within this apartment in New York which we have handle the production: the divider with mirrored elements, the full-height bookcase and the closing doors of the corridor.
MIRROR DIVIDER
Taking advantage of the play of reflections obtained by the mirrors, the divider has a double function of increasing the perception of space and dematerializing its borders. It is the graphic line that underlines its vertical setting, which is visible both in the black iron edge that defines each modular element, and in the lesser width of the mirrors of which it is composed. This difference in width creates an additional vertical division able to give greater dynamism. The alternation of full and empty, light and dark, lights and shadows, defines a design vision strongly focused on rhythmicity, obtained by the alternation of vertical elements.
FULL HEIGHT LIBRARY
The geometric rigor defined by marked black profiles also returns to the element of the library, with which the mirror divider fits in well. Taking advantage of all the available height, the vertical tie-rods become the most visible graphic lines, which naturally seem to flow into the false ceiling. The horizontal dividing elements are attached to these responding to a rigorous and geometric approach. To visually compensate of the alternation between full and empty spaces of the upper part, there are three container volumes placed in the lower band which act as structural and above all, as a perceptive base for the library. The matt black laminate ensures the game of chromatic contrast with the white back wall that characterizes contemporary interiors.
CLOSING DOORS OF THE CORRIDOR
Verticality interpreted as a design element has also become the solution of the closing doors of the corridor. Going beyond the standard dimensions of the doors represents a considerable technical challenge, the solution of which must necessarily be able to respond to functional rather than aesthetic needs. Having included doors with a total height of 3 meters, we wanted to completely test our technical knowledge, obtaining excellent results. The textured white lacquered doors seem to be a natural component of the back wall, from which they elegantly detach, also thanks to the play of lights and shadows created in the internal slot. The sliding rails are integrated in the profiles of the false ceiling, allowing a detachment from the ground both functional, to avoid the contrast with the carpets present, and aesthetic, to visually unburden the weight of the door. The contrast between black and white colours is elegantly reproduced in the choice of rugs that refers to the setting of the living room and in the presence of an exhibition element with an essential profile in the back wall.
High ceilings and contemporary boiserie in a Ligurian apartment
The interiors of the past were characterized by the presence of high ceilings, which in a contemporary perspective risk making houses disproportionate in the perception of spaces.
A possible solution can be to introduce a counter-wall capable of keeping the original structure intact but revolutionizing the interior spaces by providing them with a new height.
THE CONTEXT
THE INTERVENTION
LIVING ROOM AND KITCHEN
BEDROOM
BATHROOM
COLOURS AND MATERIALS
THE CONTEXT
Liguria is the sea with high, rocky and jagged coasts, but also the region with ancient culinary traditions and small towns close to the hills.
Characterized by small historical cities, it responds to a still traditional setting with houses often placed against each other and narrow passages to take the most advantage from the spaces.
For this reason, most of the interiors are currently dated and difficult to expand.
As in most old houses, the ceilings are very high and can modify the perception of the spaces.
Characteristic spreads throughout Italy, whose solutions can vary considerably depending on the context. Sometimes taking advantage of verticality can be the design choice capable of characterizing the project, as in the case of this New York Apartment
However, in case of small spaces, the already very high ceilings are further accentuated by the planimetric dimensions of the interiors.
THE INTERVENTION
The design project aims to restore the right eight to each room, while giving a fresh and contemporary look. Working on the internal heights was possible through the use of a wall covering, a boiserie whose height of 240cm re-establishes the usual proportion of the rooms, allowing in the same time, to keep the original structure intact.
It is exactly on this fundamental feature that the renovation of apartment is based: building a sort of exoskeleton able to maintain the original ceilings and making it equipped where necessary. At the same time, it creates an internal setting that respond to the customer’s needs.
The intervention involved all the rooms of the apartment, of which however the kitchen and the bathroom were affected in a reduced way because they preserve original in the internal height.
LIVING ROOM AND KITCHEN
Starting from the entrance, the new compact structure of boiserie encloses the false ceiling with zenithal lighting.
The difference between the original and the reconstructed height is still accessible and serves as a storage element. In doing so, it’s takes the most advantage from the existing space, providing greater functionality.
The living room was instead equipped with a niche used as laundry room, flanked by a small glass showcase embedded in the double wall.
Turning instead to the kitchen room, it is the shaped laminated wood with light colours that gives a touch of freshness and modernity, recalling the chromatic shade of wood used for the dining table. Wall and storage unites fill the remaining gaps by taking the most of every corner of the small apartment, without making it oppressive.
BEDROOM
The use of the full-height boiserie allows the bedroom to better hide the service wardrobes.
Organized along two corner walls, they consist of niches with multiple functions capable of containing drawers, hangers and shelves at different height. In the same way, the television is also included in a special custom-made niche.
The extreme functionality of the corner wardrobe becomes an extremely stylistic clean and contemporary element in this design system. Added to this, the backlit false ceiling is able to provide diffused and elegant lighting.
In order to give greater dynamism and personality to the boiserie, horizontal cuts were inserted to create an innovate stylistic linearity. It is also possible to equip these horizontal cuts with possible supports, to make the bedroom even more functional.
BATHROOM
Evoking the use of laminated wood that characterizes the kitchen countertop and the display elements of the living room near the dining table. Even the bathroom is characterized by a contemporary and extremely fresh stylistic element. The storage units host a niche for the washing machine and a chest of drawers with marked edge that perfectly fits with neutral tones of the room.
COLOURS AND MATERIALS
Concerning the chromatic and material choice, we opted for a project in continuity between different rooms. The textured laminated wood was chosen for both the walls and furnishing elements, whose texture recalling that of the fabrics, gives greater domesticity and softness to the interiors. A contemporary aspect that can also be found in the neutral shades adopted: two different shades of gray which create a very elegant internal movement.
Finally, the introduction of laminated wood in the living room and in the bathroom gives a decisive touch able to make the environment younger. It is exactly in these two rooms that the high ceilings have been maintained.
ARTICOLI RECENTI
Versatility in Study and Hospitality17 October 2024
The Art of Smartworking in an Equipped Wall w…31 July 2024
Material Harmony in the Heart of Como with Ce…10 July 2024
Light and Shadow: The Magic of a Multifunctio…21 June 2024
Design Week 202414 May 2024
