Inspired by Landscape
In 2010 my customers, whom I helped to bring color to their minimalistic interior, bought several pieces by artist Nikolai Romanov. Not long after they became owners of a newly built apartment on Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg (Russia). It was a crucial point in their life and they wanted to change everything: place, style and color. They were waiting for the arrival of their second son and wished him to be born into a world of totally different colors. Several times a year they traveled to Greece and Italy. The new interior should be full of Italian sun and Greek colors, and nothing in the apartment had to remind of the wet and gray St. Petersburg.
The pictorial landscapes are the ‘windows’, and the real windows are covered with shutters. The interior supports the motives of pictures. The general decorative idea was to use natural materials, antique (no glaze!) marble, oiled (no varnish!) teak flooring, no wallpaper, only paint in colors backing up Romanov’s landscapes. Since originally the entire apartment had a warm floor there was an opportunity to use as much marble flooring as possible. I suggested light colored furniture and a lot of lighting, which are so much needed in our dark latitude and allowed us using saturated colors.
That is why the design of this apartment was created as a continuation of pictorial landscapes by Nikolai Romanov and Igor Tchukhleb.
The budget was not limited. We had an agreement that in case of lack of funds we would take a break until the financial situation improved before continuing. Therefore, due to the crisis the project lasted about 3 years.
Photo Alexey Pakhomov