Architect: Katarzyna Baumiller
Furnishings: custom made to designs by Katarzyna Baumiller; Amura, Usm, Noti, Baxter, Knoll, Milano Bedding
Lighting: Parachilna, Foscarini, Toss B, &Tradition, Ultralight, Tom Dixon, Marset, Hasik Design, Vivid Color Studio, Verner Panton
Mirrors and curtains: Synesthesia, designed by Katarzyna Baumiller
Photos: ©Murak/Alicja T./Photofoyer
After moving from New York to Warsaw, the owners were looking for a house for the whole family and chose this apartment of 200 square metres situated in a building from the early 1900s, previously abandoned and then restored. In the classic enfilade plan layout, the restoration work repaired the rich stucco decorations on the ceilings, the parquet floors, the windows, while the interior design integrated many elements contrasting with tradition.
The owners took on unusual ideas with boldness and even encouraged me to look for new forms”, comments Katarzyna Baumiller. Such as the numerous made-to-measure mirrors that appear in all the rooms, conjuring up antique decorative mirrors but with irregular forms that reflect reality in unexpected ways. Another surprising form is the unusual sculptural piece covered in cobalt blue velvet that occupies a whole wall of the living room, a gym and refuge for the household cats. Then in the kitchen, the three-metre-high storage unit in candy pink, a colour also chosen for the island and for the system of ducts for the air conditioning that becomes a sculpture and hangs over the dining area.
Surfaces for applying colour are everywhere, the full height curtains, with their faded effect achieved using a scenic art technique. “I have deliberately juxtaposed rich plaster mouldings, classical parquet and traditional wooden doors with reflective tiles and coloured lacquered steel and glass in order to complicate the bourgeois character of the building. The interior is enriched by refined materials but I have treated them with detachment and humour”.
