A Renovated Apartment in Sweden Boasts Sunny Yellow Storage Walls

Lookofsky Architecture has revived a 1920s apartment with egg yolk-yellow accents and a series of multifunctional, storage walls.

Text by

Michele Koh Morollo

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The owners of this 850-square-foot apartment in Stockholm’s Södermalm neighborhood are a young couple who wanted an efficient home with generous storage spaces. Before the renovation, the original, 1920s apartment had a small, courtyard-facing kitchen and a living room and bedroom that looked out to a green park. The property had not been renovated since the ’70s, so the apartment was restored and reorganized to include three multifunctional, storage walls in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom.

Lookofsky Architecture was unsure if the original wall in what would become the living room could be removed; luckily, it turned out not to be a load-bearing wall.

Much of the apartment floor had been covered with vinyl from the ’70s, and the dropped ceilings in drywall, so Lookofsky removed the ’70s additions, sanded the hardwood floors, and restored some of the damaged stucco on the ceilings.

A VOLA KV series kitchen faucet extends from the wall.

The entrance to the apartment is also painted a cheerful yellow.

Because the couple asked for a relaxed home with a playful personality, architect David Lookofsky suggested a bold yellow color scheme, which the couple happily agreed to.

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The dining area looks out to park views.

The apartment has large, south-facing windows that look out to a green park, so the open-plan living area and kitchen are well-lit and enjoy tranquil views.

A bright, yellow "function wall" saves space and visually expands this compact apartment.

To match the brightness of the southern side of the apartment, Lookofsky created a seven-meter-long, kitchen wall, which he calls the "function wall," with built-in cabinetry and a seating nook.

A stainless-steel countertop and sink from PURUS.

"In smaller apartments, kitchens often become a kind of social hub, both in everyday life or when you have people visiting," says Lookofsky. "You want these spaces to reflect the people who use them and support interactions and everyday life. I think we succeeded in doing this with the function walls."

The functional wall in the kitchen ends in a seating niche.

Another function wall in the bathroom posed a challenge for Lookofsky and his team, as the space was quite narrow, and they had to work around the new and original piping.

The bathroom stucco ceiling has a surface that’s much more pleasing and varied than the standard dropped bathroom ceilings seen in most Stockholm homes.

"We did parts of it in a hard styrofoam board, so that it could withstand moisture," says Lookofsky. "But the builder—Maldini Studios—did a very good job and was open to working with non-standard solutions. We are all very happy with the result."