Bright apartment with natural textures and colors in Moscow

In this project by buro GOLAVSKAYA, a harmonious fusion of colors, textures, and forms creates a captivating composition. “Currently, my client and her family live abroad, but this apartment in Moscow remains her cherished retreat, a space filled with personal belongings,” says interior designer and decorator Yulia Golavskaya. The client was already familiar with the studio’s work and wanted to update her outdated apartment in their signature ‘natural interior’ aesthetic.

The 90-square-meter apartment is located in a unique Constructivist building from 1929, situated at the intersection of two streets, overlooking a canal and a quiet embankment. Because of its corner location, the layout is unconventional, and the hallway, office, kitchen, and bathroom have irregular curved forms. Despite the complex floor plan, intuitive navigation was carefully planned, resulting in a natural flow through the apartment, with striking highlights like curtains, artwork, and decorative pieces. The apartment comprises a spacious living room, office, bedroom, son’s room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, and a small storage room.

The mood of the interior can be described as a “peaceful family life in a beloved home with both old and new pieces.” The three adjectives that best capture the essence of the space are elegance, tranquility, and order. Each room was designed with its own color scheme. The clients wanted to enter a golden-toned space, so ochre was chosen for the hallway, with both walls and ceilings painted in this color to soften the room’s angular layout. Beyond the hall, there is a gray-blue living room, with the son’s room in a similar shade. From the ochre hall, one can see two warm white rooms — the kitchen and the office — from which you can access the sepia-toned bedroom through soft white curtains. In rooms with complex shapes, both the walls and ceilings were painted in a single tone, and tall doors with transoms and glass details lend the space an airy quality.

Each family member has a collection they continually add to. The client collects glass birds, her husband collects models of passenger planes and rhinoceroses, and their son has a collection of stylish sneakers. The home is filled with books, high-quality audio equipment, and a collection of vinyl records. All these cherished items were seamlessly integrated into the updated space. The rugs in the hall, office, and bedroom were kept from the previous interior and now interact beautifully with the new decor elements.

For this project, custom doors, kitchen cabinetry, and closets were crafted according to Yulia’s designs. Some light fixtures are vintage pieces from Europe that fit perfectly into the apartment’s atmosphere. Simple, refined materials were chosen to match the building’s historical style: painted walls, restored original oak parquet in the main rooms and kitchen, light-colored terrazzo for the bathroom floors, and historically accurate gray terrazzo for the windowsills.
“The most important thing was to reflect the family’s story in the interior, creating a kind of spatial portrait unique to them,” says the interior designer. When the apartment’s owners saw the completed renovation, they immediately recognized it as their beloved home, both old and new at once.

Interior designer, decorator Yulia Golavskaya
buro GOLAVSKAYA
golavskaya.com
Instagram @yuliagolavskaya

Project team: architect Anastasia Baranova, interior designer Margo Terentyeva

Photo credit Sergey Ananiev
Instagram @sergeyananiev

Style by Yulia Golavskaya