apartment with a total area of ​​89.1 m2 Yanina Balashov

Passing the gallery

A photo: Mikhail Stepanov, Valentin Arkhipov

Text: Alexandra Shapiro

Designer: Yanina Balashova

Magazine: N5 (21) 1998

В какие цвета нужно покрасить стены, полы и потолки в комнатах, чтобы квартира круглый год напоминала о пронзительно-свежем, легком дне начала весны? Американские дизайнеры в области моды Том и Линда Плат посчитали, что понадобится как минимум три краски - розовая, зеленая и оранжевая. При этом, отметили они, "зеленый цвет должен быть ядовитым, розовый - "кричать", а оранжевый просто разрываться от своей интенсивности". Московский дизайнер Yanina Balashova посмотрела на интерьер сквозь призму своих любимых "природных, чистых красок солнца, леса, полевых цветов". Так появились "рыжая" от пола до потолка гостиная, полностью голубая столовая, и коридор, "весь покрытый зеленью, абсолютно весь". Но по порядку, по порядку... Usually customers express wishes for future housing for a long time and in detail. The owner of this apartment, bringing Yanina "to the country", was laconic: "Do something with this." "It" represented 89 square meters of total area, formed after the merger of two neighboring apartments and enclosed in a rigid framework of internal bearing walls. As a result of redevelopment, a new entrance appeared, a couple of “non-hazardous” partitions were demolished (this is visible on the plan), and one bathroom was expanded and the second was destroyed. So, a corridor of 9.5 m long and five isolated rooms appeared - a kitchen and four rooms, two of which clearly could not boast of size. It was here that one had to create something, in the words of Janina, "spacious, spring, elegant in details." Well, (yes, I’ll be allowed to paraphrase the Bulgakov lines), go ahead, readers! I will tell you about what colors are!"GREEN STREET" I want to immediately warn you: going into an apartment, you risk not being used to simply drowning in the reflections of four huge, floor-to-ceiling (2.60 m) mirror doors. For your best orientation, I will tell you that in the "looking-glass" there is a rather spacious wardrobe room, where, besides all sorts of things, communication risers were carefully hidden. But it’s enough to spin in front of the mirror - you have long been offered the “green street” of the corridor. Due to the color, he began to appear wider. Green glossy ceiling, parquet from light oak, combined with a wide curb tile in shades of green. Boldly head along the green walls (along the green ceramic "walkway") to the main apartment area. Step into the arched doorway without a door and ... Oh splendor! Before you stretches a large living room, all orange."RIVER ORANGE" (there is such in South Africa) Modern psychologists believe that this eye color does not tire, but causes a feeling of joyful euphoria. And indeed, the time spent here is like a sip of life-giving orange juice. From the living room begins what will be present in all other rooms and that, in fact, is one of the lines of the designer’s business card. This is the simplicity of the forms combined with the impeccability of the selection of colors and accessories. So color in color picks up an elegant lady's hat, shoes, handbag and gloves. So, combining pastel colors, she puts immaculate makeup. No negligence, no dissonance and stylistic discord - this is the principle of the existence of the interior (and the customer who wants to "organically merge" with him). Furniture, curtains, French curtain ceiling, lacquer, covering parquet ... It is difficult to immediately determine whether the floor is a tone, a quarter to one or another object is darker or lighter than another. An interesting selection of "jewelry" - chandeliers and floor lamps. Two lemon-yellow glass floor lamps, columns of two meters in height, standing on both sides of the sofa, as if flooded with sunlight. Chandelier - green petals with "red" shades - multiplies its reflection in the gloss of the floor and ceiling, in a glass table. Through the transparent tabletop of the latter one can see legs in the shape of petals (the same as on the chandelier). By the way, the effect of reflecting the floor and ceiling used in other rooms. The interior has the opportunity from time to time to combine the warm color of the living room with other colors. You just need to move on the couch, for example, to the right. And then through the arched opening, the luscious green of a long corridor will appear. If you transfer to the left edge, then in front of you - "BLUE GROT" (Italy, the northern coast of the island of Capri). Passing through sea water, daylight colors it in a rich blue color. How not to recall this when in front of you - the exciting, receding view of the blue dining room, connected to the blue kitchen! This combination of colors helped to uncover two small isolated rooms (7.8 m² dining room and kitchen 8.2) "through", "deep". The "Blue Grotto" dining room is "painted" with the help of the same design elements as the living room: a suspended ceiling, varnished hornbeam parquet, the lightest tulle on the window (combined with crumpled blinds), and colored ceiling lamps. Here the blue color to the “cold” scale is completely refuted. Add heat to help electric fireplace, successfully masking a ventilation unit. The marble triangle with which the fireplace is decorated is in harmony with the triangular metal legs of the table and chairs. In the evening, the blue of the "grotto" can be beautifully set off by the "flame" of the fireplace or by lighting in small niches located on either side of it. The contrast of the bright blue plastic of the kitchen unit with white ceiling and white leather chairs standing in the dining room is slightly muffled by the floor-standing pearl-gray tile. And now proceed in reverse order to the "Green Street". It turned out that we were in such a hurry to enjoy the juicy flesh of the living room, that we missed the green island of the bathroom. One wall here is slightly rounded and framed by inserts of glass blocks. (If the lights in the corridor are extinguished, you can get an unexpected effect by turning on the lights in the bathroom). We open the door with a green decorative triangle and find ourselves among the waves ... A twisting line of lamps on the ceiling follows the lines of beige-gray and green stripes on the walls. The nursery is solved in a calm subdued combination of gray-blue, gray and light pink. Oh, readers, our journey has been somewhat delayed: the sun is approaching sunset ... Going beyond the "semicircle" of the green glass block, you find yourself on a round parquet insert in front of the bedroom door. Well, let's open this door with a pink handle ..."PINK SUNSET" And the bedroom greets us with a thrill of pastel-pink and rich lemon flowers. "It seemed to me that this is a very beautiful, spring, truly feminine combination," says Yanina. Therefore, she hung yellow curtains with pink bows on pink tulle, and a sconce over the pink bed. The bed itself was erected on a soft yellow podium. From the podium to the door there is a “serpent's tail” path, “reflected” on the ceiling covered with stars-lamps. This is a very feminine, very elegant bedroom - like a powder of precious pink pearl with the softest powder puff. A full-wall mirror cabinet makes a rectangular room more square. It is located opposite the large panoramic window - a little more, and the sparkling "ladies' bauble" will begin to let the sunbeams. However, carpet with five-centimeter pile and upholstered furniture "dampens" these pranks. When you leave, look just in case again in the mirrored doors of the dressing room: what color are you now?