A 388-square-foot apartment can feel like a shoebox or, in the right hands, it can become a cheerful and comfortable home. Smart design makes all the difference, and the client who lives in this small apartment in Warsaw’s Żoliborz district entrusted it to the interior design firm Mistovia. Oliwia and her 10-year-old daughter, Malina, live in the colorful home that was slowly and deliberately created so that all of its different elements work together perfectly. Oliwia found Mistovia through Instagram, and liking the firm’s engaging style, she reached out.
“I don’t like the layout of my apartment at all. I want a separate bedroom and a living area where I can spend time with my 10-year-old daughter,” Oliwia wrote to Mistovia. Her unit was in a new building that had not yet been completed, and the developers were open to making some adjustments to its layout. Marcin Czopek, an interior designer at Mistovia, agreed to work with Oliwia—and she loved his suggestions. Despite the modest size of the space, he managed to accommodate a big living room with a functional kitchenette, a small bedroom, a bathroom (complete with a bathtub), and large built-in closets in the hallway for extra storage space.
However, all of this was only possible by turning the entire floor plan on its head. While the original layout had a narrow kitchen, separated from the rest of the unit by a wall and a door, Czopek suggested putting a bedroom with rounded walls where the kitchen was going to go. He was inspired by something that Oliwia had written to him: “I like arches and round elements, but unfortunately I don’t know how to incorporate them.” Instead of a door, an arched opening now leads from the living room into the bedroom, and a pink curtain ensures privacy.
The L-shaped kitchen was then moved into the living area, and thanks to the built-in cupboards at one end, which extend up to the ceiling, the area above the worktop remained open, leaving a space where the designers could experiment with tiles. One of the highlights of the apartment is the unusual kitchen backsplash, in a pattern reminiscent of pixel graphics and made of small, square tiles in different colors.
The built-in cupboards in the kitchen and the entry to the apartment are integrated into the walls to make use of every inch of space and provide a discrete storage solution. A wardrobe and a washing machine are also tucked into a wall unit in the entrance area. “We wanted to hide a lot of elements and give the impression that the built-in units are simply extensions of the walls,” Czopek says.
Light-colored walls and epoxy resin floors are key elements of the design and ensure an inviting and airy look. The light tones are complemented by elements in powder pink, light blue, navy blue, and a muted, dark red, enriched with small amounts of black, wood details, and gold touches. Gold is used throughout the apartment as are curved walls, while the dark red border also provides a unifying theme bringing together the different elements of the home.
