Large family get-togethers are enjoyed in the open-concept living spaces at this house in Vancouver, which interior designer Stephanie Brown has overhauled with entertaining in mind.
The home is situated in a quiet, upscale neighborhood in the Canadian city. Built in 1991, it originally featured a postmodern aesthetic, while subsequent renovations favoured the craftsmen style.
The layout of the home was reorganised to create a double-height foyer
Its latest iteration was devised by local studio Stephanie Brown, who was asked to design the interiors by homeowners Joanne and Alan.
The couple has a blended family with six grown-up children, and while only one still lives at home, the others return often for dinners together.
Small rooms were opened up to create larger spaces for entertaining
Alterations to the plan of the house were therefore required to allow it to comfortably accommodate so many people in the evenings, but still feel cosy during the day.
“Prior to the renovation, the layout featured very formal, separated rooms,” said Brown. “We re-worked the layout of the main floor to create a more open-concept space, which would provide better flow for modern family gatherings and fewer formalised spaces.”
Jewel tones and feminine hues add variation to the predominantly white colour scheme
An enlarged family room is now adjacent to the kitchen, which includes a generous island with a teal-coloured base for preparing meals and eating breakfast.
The same teal shade, chosen for Joanne’s “love for moody jewel tones” continues in the pantry, while more feminine pinks and purples are introduced in other spaces through furniture fabrics.
Smaller rooms like this office space feature darker colours
In the dining room, a large black table is positioned beneath a grid of mid-toned oak beams and a Shape-Up chandelier by Ladies and Gentlemen Studio.
Oak is also applied as parquet flooring, adding visual interest and bringing warmth to the predominantly white palette throughout the home.
Darker colours are used in the smaller spaces, including a new mudroom with grey-and-white-patterned cement floor tiles, and a wallpapered powder room.
By also rearranging the first-floor layout, a bright two-storey entrance foyer was created, featuring black and unpolished brass details.
A mud room with patterned ceramic tiles was created during the renovation
Artwork and decorative furniture pieces are dispersed throughout the home, intended to convey a relaxed atmosphere more akin to a city loft.
“We drew inspiration from New York and European apartments, which feature unique collections of art, furnishings and decor set against elegant details,” said Brown.
“We opted for a casual take on those interiors, but one where the play between classic and modern would still feel fresh and unique.”
A powder room is lined with dark wallpaper
Vancouver is regularly ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the world and has a wealth of notable residential architecture and interiors.
Other projects recently completed there include RSAAW’s renovation of a mid-century residence to include a double-height library and a house by D’Arcy Jones Architects designed to mesh with its neighbours.
Interior design practice Object Space Place has revamped the Apricity restaurant interior in London with second-hand furniture and reclaimed materials.
The project has been shortlisted in the sustainable interior category of Dezeen Awards 2022, which will announce its winners next week.
The restaurant is furnished with second-hand tables and chairs
Part of the refurbishment involved removing a timber staircase to maximise usable floor space in the basement.
Object Space Place retained the staircase’s treads to reuse them for a new staircase and repurposed the rest of the usable material into decorative timber block wall cladding.
Material salvaged from a timber staircase was used as statement wall cladding
“We saw the old staircase as a materials bank full of wood that we could reuse, so we worked with the contractor to take the staircase apart carefully, grade the timber that was usable and create a repeating block pattern that could be made from these timber components,” Object Space Place told Dezeen.
“The timber wall finish has also been installed on a split batten system, so even if someone wants to change this in the future it can be done relatively easily.”
Skirting boards and architraves were reused to decorate the front of the bar
Architraves and skirting boards removed from the interior were reused to cover the front of the restaurant bar, creating a vertically grooved surface.
The practice overhauled the space to expose some of the original finishes, including brickwork, timber floorboards and aged walls.
“Customers really love the walls, which is interesting as these are simply what we found when we removed the blank white plasterboard wall linings on the ground floor,” said Object Space Place.
“This really epitomises what we discovered about working with waste and the circular economy – the extra effort you have to put in rewards you with a space rich in stories and these stories help add to a dining experience that exemplifies going the extra mile.”
The interior features pendant lights made from waste coffee grounds
Mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) equipment was retained where possible and reclaimed furniture, sinks and mirrors were sourced to fit out the restaurant, including second-hand dining chairs that were reupholstered to suit the design scheme.
In instances where reclaimed items could not be acquired, new elements with sustainable qualities were used instead, including terrazzo-like surface material by Foresso made from recycled timber and lampshades made from oyster shells or waste coffee grounds.
Foresso timber terrazzo was used on the bar and waiter stations
Object Space Place designed the refurbishment according to its Restorative Design Framework initiative, which is based on circular economy principles.
“We developed a true benchmark in sustainable design and fit-out by applying the principles of a circular economy, particularly designing out waste and pollution and keeping natural resources in use,” the studio explained.
Plasterboards were removed to reveal aged walls
According to Object Space Place, the project achieved a reduced embodied carbon footprint of 45 per cent compared to refurbishments of similar-sized restaurants where new furniture and finishes were applied.
Other restaurants that feature reclaimed materials include an eatery in Madrid with interior features made from upcycled junk and a restaurant in Bangalore decorated with discarded bicycle bells and cassette tape boxes.
Cornstarch-foam shelves meet mycelium display plinths in this London store that Nina + Co has designed for bioplastic eyewear brand MONC.
Nestled among a parade of high-end shops in Marylebone, MONC sells glasses made from bio-acetate – an acetate produced completely without fossil fuels – which are packaged using recycled leather cases and compostable cornstarch foam.
The first MONC eyewear location sits along a row of shops in Marylebone
When local studio Nina + Co was brought in to design MONC’s debut store, the team was keen to incorporate biomaterials throughout the interior, while also taking the brand’s short-term lease of the retail unit into account.
“Circularity was key,” said the studio. “Almost everything we brought into that building was entirely bio-based or recycled.”
“The furniture is expertly built to last but can be disassembled for re-use, recycling or return to the earth as nourishment.”
The store features a ceiling installation made from cornstarch foam
Upon entering the store, visitors find themselves under an undulating ceiling installation crafted from corrugated panels of cornstarch foam.
Thicker blocks of the material were used to create rows of squishy-looking shelves, which can be used for packaging or simply dissolved in water when they eventually start to show signs of wear and tear.
The foam was also used to form small shelves
Display plinths made out of mycelium – the vegetative part of a fungus – were dotted across the store to showcase different eyewear models.
In between the shelves, a couple of long mirrors are balanced on hunks of concrete that were salvaged from roadworks nearby.
A recycled PET island sits at the centre of the store beside mycelium display plinths
The craggy concrete was chosen as a subtle nod to the rugged Dolomite mountains, which can be seen from the Italian town where all MONC eyewear is produced.
Nina + Co worked closely alongside Welsh manufacturers Smile Plastics and London joiner EJ Ryder to design the store’s recycled PET island and bench seat, which are an apricot-orange hue.
As both furniture pieces were joined with mechanical bolts rather than glues, they can easily be taken apart, flat packed and transported to a different MONC store for reuse.
Walls throughout the interior were finished with VOC-free clay paint while the unit’s existing floor was covered with a water-based sealant.
The plastic was also used to form a bench seat
“Previous tenants had ripped up their floor to leave a plywood subfloor, with markings of the adhesive still evident and some paint bucket outlines,” the studio explained.
“After a test patch, we were convinced that a simple water-based sealant would give it a beautiful depth and sheen with the industrial feel of concrete [while being] kinder to the planet and the budget.”
Walls were washed with a calming clay paint
MONC is one of five projects shortlisted in the small retail interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
It’s going head-to-head with the Durat showroom by Linda Bergroth, which is decked out in an unusual mix of colours, and Aesop’s Yorkville store by Odami with its oxblood-red balusters.
Tokyo-based Fourteen Stones Design has designed the Koffee Mameya Kakeru cafe for barista Eiichi Kunitomo in a former water transportation hub in Kiyosumi Shirakawa.
Set in the Kiyosumi Shirakawa area of Tokyo, the coffee shop occupies a warehouse which Fourteen Stones Design renovated and extended “to preserve the appearance of the old warehouse as much as possible”.
Koffee Mameya Kakeru is in an old warehouse
The studio removed the shutters from the front of the warehouse, adding a glass facade. The rest of the building, including the interiors, remains as it was – with minimal repairs made to the walls.
It aimed “to make everyday coffee an extraordinary experience” with a full “course of coffee” served by baristas and the renovation has been designed to facilitate this.
The white oak structure frames the coffee bar
A staggered rectangular frame of white oak at the entrance of the cafe, which echoes the coffee package design, dominates the interior space and provides a central visual motif for the scheme.
This frame divides the entrance space from the main cafe where a U-shaped bar surrounding the barista workstations was placed.
The barista’s workbenches, which were made from black granite, were deliberately placed at the centre of the space to create “a stage set-up, which enables baristas to fully demonstrate their skills”.
Besides the new seating area, restrooms, a kitchen, a laboratory and office space have all been renovated.
Baristas work at black granite counters
The service and bar countertops were made from “Jura Yellow” limestone. Featuring fossils from the Jura period, it was chosen for its texture and also for allusions to the passage of time – not only echoed in the coffee growing, roasting and brewing processes but also the journey of the brand from its inception 10 years ago.
Fourteen Stones Design’s Yosuke Hayashi designed the custom furniture for the cafe in the same white oak as the frame structure. It was manufactured by Japanese company E&Y for the project.
The space aims to create a “gastronomic experience” for coffee drinkers
The cafe’s owner Kunitomo believes baristas “act as a bridge between the customer and the roastery” and should be given “a social status comparable to that of a sommelier”.
Baristas at Koffee Mameya Kakeru will serve single cups of coffee through to full courses of coffee, “elevated by the newly designed space to the realm of gastronomy”, according to the practice.
Fourteen Stones Design has been shortlisted in the restaurant and bar interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. Other projects in the running include a rattan restaurant in Bangkok by Enter Projects Asia Co. and YODEZEEN’s Japanese restaurant in Kyiv’s city centre.
Design studio Hakuten has created a three-dimensional map of Ginza, Tokyo, that presents the ecology that exists in the district.
The Ginza Ecological Map, which was featured in the Japanese makeup brand Shiseido‘s Hakuten’s window, was designed to “carefully express the impression of the location and the history of the city, with a hidden story of Ginza”.
The map showcased the local ecology in the area
It spotlighted the natural elements found throughout the district, including samples of trees, plants, insects and earth, with the intention of enhancing the local community’s knowledge of its district’s ecology. Each item was presented in one of 72 windows – similarly to how scientific specimens are exhibited in museums.
The exhibition ran throughout 2021 and across two themes: Organisms, which presented insects and cuttings from plants, and Earth – showcasing the diversity of soils found throughout the district.
Parts of the glothistle plant were arranged in a clock-like motif to represent the district’s Wako clock tower
“We carefully displayed this ecology in the window as if they were scientific specimens,” said Hakuten.
“The exhibition ran throughout the year across two different ecological themes – Organisms and Earth – and brought to light a new and beautiful Ginza that had not been seen before in the form of the Ginza Ecology Map.”
Ginkgo biloba trees were planted in Ginza in 1906
The materials were collected during a number of fieldwork studies in addition to the knowledge gained from speaking to people local to Ginza. Once collected, the items were exhibited in creative ways with the aim of becoming a tool to communicate the connection between Ginza’s natural world and society.
For example, the plant named glothistle was collected from under the city’s Wako clock tower, and as part of the exhibition was displayed in a clock-like motif to represent it.
In addition, the district’s ginkgo biloba trees were planted in 1906, and according to the designers, they represent a “turning point for modernisation in the city”.
As a nod to the tree’s heritage in the district, images of Ginza’s buildings were printed onto the collected ginkgo tree leaves as part of the exhibition.
The exhibition showcased a number of plants and insects
“Unlike most window displays that show objects and installations that only suit its occasion, not only did Ginza Ecological Map provide a new perspective of Ginza city, but through research from local residents it also expanded into a communication tool between the city and the people,” said Hakuten.
“By looking at the usually unseen ecology that exists in a metropolis, we were able to rethink the relationship between the city, people, and nature in an attempt to approach a more sustainable society.”
Earth was collected as part of the exhibition
As part of the Earth theme, the colour of the soil across the district was documented, including samples collected from sidewalk ditches and from around various plants such as dogwood and camellia.
The exhibition also shed light on creating a number of creative resources from the city’s soil – including pottery and crayons – and clothing dyed using local plant’s pigments.
The map featured in the Japanese brand Shiseido’s window
According to the studio, the pandemic provided the opportunity to reflect on the human-nature relationship as Ginza was “emptied” because of the pandemic.
The project was conceived of this change, and aimed to rethink the district’s approach towards creating a society more mindful of enhancing and protecting its nature.
The exhibition also presented the ways in which local plant pigments can be used as textile dye
“In Covid-19 where we were provided with more opportunities to deeply reflect upon the global environment, this project allowed us to rethink the relationship between the city, people, and nature in an attempt to approach a more sustainable society,” said Hakuten.
Ginza Ecological Map has been shortlisted in the exhibition design category at this year’s Dezeen Awards alongside, Weird Sensation Feels Good – The World of ASMR, Greenwood Rising: Black Wall Street History Center exhibition and Journey of the Pioneers.
Organic shapes and stone-like surfaces characterise the interior of the Haight clothing store in Rio de Janeiro, which was designed by interior and landscaping design practice AIA Estúdio.
A large pillar with a rough, textured surface dominates the 110-square-metre shop interior, expanding as it ascends before merging into the ceiling to create a cave-like space.
A pillar transforms into a cave-like structure
“Its height starts small and in the back part it ends higher in a nonlinear form, just like a cave,” AIA Estúdio founder Alice Tepedino told Dezeen.
“The infinite and diverse processes of erosion that form cliffs, caves, stalactites, sands, stones and the movements of water with its tracks and shapes led to our creative process being part of the concept developed for the store’s spatiality.”
Stone slabs around the pillar are used to display objects
Rather than being a cumbersome obstacle, the pillar helps organise the shop’s circulation and movement of shoppers, according to the studio.
“It is from the occupation around the pillar that the space fluidity is achieved. This disposition is enhanced by curved lines that define the path inside the store,” said Tepedino.
Curved stone plates balance on rocks
Slabs of soapstone and Bahia beige marble encircle the pillar at different heights and are propped up by Bahia beige marble rocks that create a display surface and a place for shoppers to sit.
On the perimeter walls, niches with stainless steel bases display Haight’s clothing on brushed-brass rails.
The metallic surfaces and straight edges of the niches contrast with the organic shapes and materials in the centre of the shop, which is located in the Shopping Leblon retail centre.
Tepedino used indirect lighting in the niches to illuminate the space, mimicking cracks in cave walls where sunlight can seep through.
Clothing is displayed on brushed-brass rails
“The exhibition interspace was thought of as a cut in the walls, an operation emphasised by the transition of materiality,” said Tepedino.
“Inside, there are exhibition racks in brushed brass, which, with their more solar aspect, contribute to subtly warming up the store’s ambience, together with the soapstone and its greyer tone.”
The bottoms of wall niches are lined with steel
Tepedino’s design is the first of Haight‘s stores to be located inside a shopping centre, which prompted the designer to approach the project in a different way.
The entrance to the shop is a large opening that provides open access from the shopping centre to the nature-inspired shop interior.
It is the first Haight store to be located in a mall
“The design adopted a contrasting strategy between the store and mall, which, despite the rigid and controlled environment, offers opportunities such as the possibility of not having a door,” said Tepedino.
“The brand’s conceptual basis is related to natural landscapes but when you are inside the mall, you find a language that is the opposite of Haight’s conceptual basis, with artificial elements and cold materiality.”
Natural materials and surfaces were used throughout the shop interior
“Once you’re inside the store you get disconnected from the artificial atmosphere of the rest of the building,” Tepedino continued.
The project has been shortlisted in the small retail interiors category of Dezeen Awards 2022, alongside a surfaces showroom in Helsinki with colourful terrazzo-like walls and an oxblood red shop interior with walls decorated with Victorian-style balusters.
As the days get darker in the northern hemisphere, our latest lookbook spotlights 10 living rooms rendered in warm yet discrete colour palettes, proving that neutrals don’t have to feel clinical.
Mixing tactile natural materials with toasty shades of chocolate brown, creamy beige and blush pink can help to create a sense of homeliness in a room without being overbearing.
From a São Paulo apartment filled with Brazilian modernist design to a converted biscuit factory in Los Angeles, here are 10 American homes that show how it’s done.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring bathrooms with statement sinks, homes with Eames chairs and contemporary living rooms in Victorian and Georgian houses.
Photo is by Joe Fletcher
Twentieth, USA, by Woods +Dangaran
This Santa Monica home features two separate living areas – a family room (top image) and a formal living room (above) – which flank a central courtyard housing a decades-old olive tree.
Despite being framed by glazing, the rooms maintain a homely atmosphere with the help of an earthy material palette ranging from the travertine fireplace to a rose-gold cashmere rug and club chairs finished in tactile chocolate-brown corduroy.
Find out more about Twentieth ›
Photo is by Sean Davidson
Amity Street Residence, USA, by Selma Akkari and Rawan Muqaddas
Architectural designers Selma Akkari and Rawan Muqaddas used warm oak floors and cream-hued walls, contrasted against dark stone and stained-wood bookshelves, to enliven this “neglected” apartment in a 20th-century building in Brooklyn.
“A dialogue of opposites was the main theme behind the creation; minimal but warm, understated yet rich,” Muqaddas told Dezeen.
Find out more about Amity Street Residence ›
Photo is by Denilson Machado of MCA Estúdio
Hygge Studio, Brazil, by Melina Romano
A black fireplace is suspended from the ceiling in this living room to contrast with the otherwise soft colour scheme of the interior, reflected in everything from the cream sofa and woven rug to the cobogó block screen that acts as a room divider.
Walls and floor throughout the São Paulo apartment are covered in terracotta tiles, chosen by local designer Melina Romano to strike a balance between “modern and bucolic”.
Find out more about Hygge Studio ›
Photo is by Nicole Franzen
East Village Apartment, USA, by GRT Architects
New York-based GRT Architects used warm tones and materials to modernise this renovated East Village apartment – set in a Beaux-Arts building on Second Avenue – while “preserving its turn-of-the-century disposition”.
In the lounge, this was achieved by adding a storage wall backed with sienna-coloured panels and complementing it with a geometric, art deco-style rug rendered in muted shades of sage green and dusty rose.
Find out more about this East Village Apartment ›
Photo is by The Ingalls and Matthieu Salvaing
Santa Monica Proper, USA, by Kelly Wearstler
Although not technically a living room, the lounge of the Santa Monica Proper hotel features all the trappings of a cosy den – timber bookshelves, creamy-white Soriana lounge chairs and a Coulmier limestone coffee table with three orbs for legs.
Interior designer Kelly Wearstler used natural materials and neutral colours throughout the hotel to reference its seaside setting.
“Organic materials, neutral colour stories, everything has a texture,” Wearstler told Dezeen. “There’s a patina, there’s a hand, there’s something that feels very warm.”
Find out more about Santa Monica Proper ›
Photo is by Sean Davidson
West Village apartment, USA, by Olivier Garcé
American interior designer Olivier Garcé found a creative outlet during last year’s coronavirus lockdown by working remotely with friends and colleagues to transform his West Village home into a show space for contemporary art and design.
His lounge now houses a vintage Axel Einar Hjorth rocking chair, paired with a lava-stone coffee table and side chair upholstered in alpaca wool by New York designer Ian Felton, complementing the terracotta-coloured tiling on the building’s original fireplace surround.
Find out more about this West Village apartment ›
Photo is by Brian Ferry
20 Bond apartment, USA, by Home Studios
Curves feature liberally throughout this family apartment in New York’s NoHo neighbourhood, from its copper-edged skirting to the rounded oak-and-brass shelving unit in the living room, which was made bespoke by interior practice Home Studios.
The muted tones of the timber are complemented by a set of antique Danish armchairs with woven leather seats and a blush-coloured version of designer Sabine Marcelis’s Candy Cube side tables.
Find out more about 20 Bond apartment ›
Photo is by Fran Parente
Gale Apartment, Brazil, by Memola Estudio
Furnishings are coloured in grounding, earthy hues inside this lounge flanked by two double-height statement walls – one housing the owners’ art collection and the other clad in a broken-edge stone mosaic.
“Furniture has been reupholstered to match the new colour palette, inspired by the autumn and the sunset colours found in the horizon,” said design practice Memola Estudio, which was responsible for renovating the São Paulo apartment.
Find out more about Gale Apartment ›
Photo is by Justin Chung
Biscuit Loft, USA, by OWIU Studio
Japanese design informed this apartment in a converted 1920s biscuit factory in Downtown Los Angeles, with a guest room modelled on a traditional Ryokan inn that also functions as a space for hosting gatherings and tea ceremonies.
Local practice OWIU Studio added Noguchi pendant lights to bathe the room in a warm glow, while a convertible platform made from pale wood conceals extra storage and functions as a base for a futon when guests are staying over.
Find out more about Biscuit Loft ›
Photo is by Denilson Machado
DN Apartment, Brazil, by BC Arquitetos
Walnut wood panelling and soft furnishings upholstered in caramel-coloured leather help to temper the chunky concrete columns of this apartment, housed in a 1970s building in São Paulo’s traditional Jardins neighbourhood.
Local practice BC Arquitetos describes the home as a “gallery apartment” as it houses an extensive collection of mid-20th century Brazilian art and design, ranging from the net-backed Janguada armchair by Jean Gillon to Jader Almeida’s Verde Corvo sofa, which is finished in a faded olive green.
Find out more about DN Apartment ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring bathrooms with statement sinks, homes with Eames chairs and contemporary living rooms in Victorian and Georgian houses.
This lookbook rounds up 10 bedrooms where architects have designed discreet built-in wardrobes to conceal clothing and clutter, creating the illusion of a seamless wall.
Built-in wardrobe walls are an efficient way to supersize storage and utilise every centimetre of space in a bedroom, unlike freestanding units that often leave dead spaces around their edges.
When finished with a minimalist design, they can also blend into the background, helping to create spacious and serene interiors that are suitable for sleep.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring interiors with arched openings, bathrooms with statement sinks and living rooms in Victorian and Georgian-era homes.
Photo is by Mattias Hamrén with styling by Hanna Tunemar
Function Walls, Sweden, by Lookofsky Architecture
This wall of storage surrounds the doorway of a bedroom in the Function Walls apartment, which was recently renovated by Lookofsky Architecture in Stockholm.
The pale grey units contain a mix of different-sized cupboards without handles, forming a neutral backdrop to bright yellow bedroom furnishings including a 1970s IKEA floor lamp.
Find out more about Function Walls ›
Photo is by Lorenzo Zandri
Wakehurst Road, UK, by Matthew Giles Architects
Matthew Giles Architects designed a series of white-oak storage units for the Wakehurst Road house in London, including this pared-back wardrobe wall in one of the bedrooms.
Its deliberately simple design ties in with a calming colour and material palette of stone, concrete and brick that runs through the updated Victorian residence.
Find out more about Wakehurst Road ›
House at the Pond, Austria, by Hammerschmid Pachl Seebacher Architekten
The compact bedroom in House at the Pond is lined with wooden walls – two of which double as storage.
Disguising the wardrobes helps keeps the interior details to a minimum, which in turn retains focus on the large window and prevents the small space from feeling cramped.
Find out more about House at the Pond ›
Photo is by Ben Blossom
Bavaria Road Studio, UK, by West Architecture
Plywood panels are used as fronts for both the tall wardrobes and the doorway of the bedroom at Bavaria Road Studio, helping them to blend in with the rest of the space, which is lined with the same material.
According to designer West Architecture, the goal was for them to “read as a single wall of flush panelling, effectively disappearing and allowing the room to be read as one seamless, minimalist environment”.
Find out more about Bavaria Road Studio ›
Photo is by Richard Chivers
Maison Pour Dodo, UK, by Studio Merlin
Designed to minimise clutter and visual noise, these understated built-in wardrobes are part of the “spectrum of storage” that Studio Merlin created for this flat in London.
The seven wardrobe doors blend in seamlessly with the grey-hued walls of the main bedroom, while their wooden knobs complement the pale Douglas fir floorboards that run throughout.
Find out more about Maison Pour Dodo ›
Photo is by Yiorgos Kordakis with styling by Anestis Michalis
Xerolithi, Greece, by Sinas Architects
White grooved doors line the built-in wardrobe wall in this bedroom, which Sinas Architects created at the Xerolithi house on the Greek island of Serifos.
Aligned with a door to an ensuite bathroom, the wardrobes create a unpretentious backdrop to the space, drawing the occupant’s attention to the uninterrupted view of the sea outside.
Find out more about Xerolithi ›
Photo is by Mariell Lind Hansen
Narford Road, UK, by Emil Eve Architects
Emil Eve Architects lined the nook of this monochromatic loft extension in London with bespoke wardrobes, which appear to extend up to meet a skylight overhead.
Finished with wooden handles with brass caps, the units are complemented by a matching window seat with two in-built drawers and pale wood floors that help them blend into the background.
Find out more about Narford Road ›
Photo is by Mariko Reed
Mountain View Double Gable Eichler Remodel, USA, by Klopf Architecture
A pair of built-in wardrobes have been incorporated within a walnut wall unit in a bedroom of this 1960s residence in Silicon Valley, recently remodelled by Klopf Architecture.
The same wood has been used for the headboard and plinth for the bed, helping them to read as a single piece. The wardrobes are only distinguishable by two subtle leather handles placed on the front of each one.
Find out more about Mountain View Double Gable Eichler Remodel ›
Photo is by Andy Stagg
Kennington House, UK, by R2 Studio
These bedroom cupboards follow the sloped edge of a giant corner window, introduced to Kennington House in London as part of a renovation and loft extension project.
Designed by R2 Studio as one of many storage facilities for the house, they help residents keep the room clutter free and have white-coloured fronts that are disguised as part of the wall.
Find out more about Kennington House ›
Photo is courtesy of Matt Gibson
Wellington St Mixed Use, Australia, by Matt Gibson
Drawers and full-height wardrobes are incorporated into this floor-to-ceiling storage unit, which runs the length of a bedroom in the Wellington St Mixed Use house in Melbourne.
Its design means it doubles as a tactile wooden wall for the room, which forms a part of a large multi-generational home by architect Matt Gibson. The other bedrooms have similar wardrobe layouts, ensuring plenty of storage for inhabitants.
Find out more about Wellington St Mixed Use ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring interiors with arched openings, bathrooms with statement sinks and living rooms in Victorian and Georgian-era homes.
Ukrainian design studio YOD Group dressed this restaurant interior in Vynnyky with terracotta tiles and slabs of green glass to reflect the earthy landscape outside.
Called Terra, the eatery features a colour and material palette that takes cues from the rolling hills and a lake that border the restaurant. It was completed in February 2022, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
YOD Group designed Terra’s interior to reflect the landscape outside
YOD Group created the interior across a single hall, which features clusters of plush, low-slung armchairs and sofas arranged around both meandering and rectilinear dark wooden tables.
These seating areas are interrupted only by large rounded columns clad in glass bricks, which are illuminated from the inside to create a watery green glow designed to echo the nearby lake.
Waiter stations are clad in terracotta tiles
The largest of these columns houses a curved wine cellar within an internal spiral staircase, while the transparent glass reveals the ghostly silhouettes of stored wine bottles.
Textured terracotta tiles make up rounded waiter stations, which were designed to mirror the earthiness of the restaurant’s exterior setting.
The stations also nod to the Ukrainian tradition of covering furnaces and fireplaces with tiles, according to YOD Group.
A curved wine cellar includes an internal staircase
“We aimed to extract colours, textures and impressions from the landscape to translate them into the interior design language,” explained the studio.
“Like the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, but on a real-life scale, we designed the space to mirror its surroundings.”
Another wall is covered in adjustable copper-hued glass slabs that feature decorative markings made by imprinting local grasses on their surfaces.
The moveable wall is intended as a metaphor to symbolise the way reeds sway in the wind, said YOD Group.
“Guests can not only touch the glass slabs but also interact with them and change the pattern on the wall, becoming co-creators of the design.”
Copper-hued glass slabs can be moved across a large wall
Bouquets of pampas grass are interspersed throughout the interior, in a nod to the restaurant’s lakeside terrace where visitors can dine outside.
Terra is shortlisted in the restaurant and bar interior category of the 2022 Dezeen Awards, which announces its winners later this month.
Pampas grass decorates the restaurant
Last year, the category’s winning eatery was another restaurant in Ukraine – Yakusha Design’sIstetyka in Kyiv, which has an interior characterised by rough concrete, polished stone and smooth steel.
YOD Group also designed a coffee shop in Ukraine’s capital that features pixel-like mosaics in a hole-in-the-wall-style bar.
Promotion: design agency YOD Group has designed the interior for the Grand Emily Hotel Lobby and Terra restaurant near Lviv, opting for Thermory’s rustic wood cladding throughout.
The hotel, which was completed this year despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is located in the Ukrainian town of Vynnyky near Lviv. The hotel and restaurant form a part of the Emily Resort that YOD Group has designed with a natural, tactile aesthetic.
YOD Group used Thermory products at the Emily Resort in Ukraine
Its aesthetic was achieved using a mix of natural and natural-looking materials, including material manufacturer Thermory‘s range of Drift cladding.
This saw YOD Group awarded the best interior project in the Thermory Design Awards Grand Prix competition, which was held by Thermory for its 25th anniversary.
The agency created the interior for the Grand Emily Hotel Lobby
In the Grand Emily Hotel Lobby, the Thermory thermally modified Drift cladding is used across the walls.
It was selected for its worn, rustic appearance, which is intended to evoke reclaimed wood without sacrificing quality or durability.
Thermory’s Drift cladding was used throughout
Selected in shades of Black Pearl and Smoked Brandy, the cladding provides the lobby with “touchable surfaces” that form a natural backdrop to the space.
“We aimed to get the visual lightness and tell the story about the morning breeze that passes on the lake surface and combs the reeds,” said YOD Group designer Volodymyr Nepiyvoda.
The wood gives the interiors a natural aesthetic
“We created this emotion by the structure of the boards that we used for the wall covering of the hall,” added Nepiyvoda.
The cladding also forms a suitable yet contrasting backdrop to a large sycamore tree that is suspended through the Grand Emily Hotel Lobby, forming its centrepiece.
YOD Group’s aim was to give the hotel “touchable surfaces”
“We rejected the idea of a massive chandelier in the atrium in favour of a strongly meaningful installation,” explained Nepiyvoda.
“A tree means connection with roots and family values, growth, and development, strong bar, and flexible branches. It connects the earth and space.”
YOD Group also designed the resort’s Terra restaurant
Over in the Grand Emily Hotel’s Terra restaurant, Thermory Drift Cladding has also been used.
YOD Group used the material to help blur the boundary between the restaurant interior and a terrace outside that is lined with American sweet gum trees.
The Thermory wood is also used in the adjoining terrace
According to Nepiyvoda, it is designed to encapsulate the landscape of western Ukraine.
“We reflect all of that in the interior of Terra restaurant,” they said. “Vast expanses, rich colours, textures and flavours, generous nature, lust for life, and existential joy.”
To find out more about Thermory products and how they are used, visit the brand’s website.
Partnership content
This article was written by Dezeen for Thermory as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.
