Prague studio Plus One Architects has restored the “original splendour” of this 1902 apartment in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, by reinstating some of its original features.
Located in a turn-of-the-century apartment block, the two-bedroom flat was renovated by Plus One Architects, who exposed the original paintwork present on the walls and ceilings.
The Karlovy Vary Apartment features minimal furnishings
The studio also streamlined the circulation inside the apartment by removing doors to open up pathways, as well as undoing dated additions that had been installed over the top of the original walls and floors.
“We think the first renovation was probably done in the late 70s,” architect Kateřina Průchová told Dezeen. “It was full of wooden cladding on the walls, a lot of doors and carpet that covered the original floors.”
Transom windows let light flood through the rooms
The revamped interior has a bright, airy atmosphere, as natural sunlight comes in through the large unobstructed windows and continues deeper into the rooms thanks to the addition of transom windows on some of the interior walls.
Remnants of colourful mottled paintwork appear on the walls and ceilings alongside brown and beige sections of plaster.
Mottled blue and yellow paintwork decorates the primary bedroom
Neutral-coloured paint and plasterwork feature in the kitchen and living room, where Plus One Architects retained the apartment’s original masonry heater clad in glossy brown tiles.
Painted details are also apparent on the ceiling, with concentric bands of red, blue and yellow delineating the perimeter of the room.
Doors were removed to improve the flow between spaces
Pink paint appears in the corridor and smaller bedroom while blue paintwork can be seen in the primary bedroom, complementing the restored wooden floorboards.
In the bathroom, white tiling lines the walls, interspersed with iridescent tiles and sections of exposed paintwork.
The rooms are sparingly furnished, allowing the paintwork to be the interior’s focal point.
Plus One Architects brought in furniture with minimalist forms by Czech design studio Janský & Dunděra alongside decorative pieces from local design brand Todus.
The bathroom is fitted with white flooring, tiling and fixtures
“I hope we managed to return the apartment to the original splendour of the period, in which the house was built,” said Průchová.
“You can feel how the building looks from the outside – it is an old house in the historic part of a spa town.”
The kitchen and dining room overlook neighbouring rooftops
Kateřina Průchová and Petra Ciencialová founded Plus One Architects in 2019. The studio is based in Prague and works on projects across the Czech Republic.
Other apartment interiors that have recently been featured on Dezeen include a home in Milan centred around a monolithic green marble partition wall and a pastel-decorated apartment in Kraków.
This week’s lookbook rounds up eight interiors with furnishings and surfaces finished in burl-wood veneer, allowing its swirly, psychedelic graining to serve a decorative function.
Burl wood is a rare and expensive wood, often only available in thin sheets of veneer. That’s because it is derived from the knobbly outgrowths of tree trunks and branches – also known as burls.
Like the botanical equivalent of a callous, these outgrowths form in response to different stress factors and grow unpredictably, creating complex unexpected grain patterns behind their gnarled bark.
Burl wood has been experiencing a renaissance over the last few years, with interior designers including Kelly Wearstler using it to evoke the bohemian flair of its 1970s heyday.
Mixed and matched with other patterns, the material is now used to communicate a kind of organic understated luxury, much like natural stone.
From a Michelin-starred restaurant to a home that was designed to resemble a boutique hotel, read on for eight examples of how burl wood can provide textural richness to a modern interior.
This is the latest in our lookbook series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring rooms with net floors, interiors with furry walls and homes with mid-century modern furniture.
Photo by Pion Studio
Botaniczna Apartment, Poland, by Agnieszka Owsiany Studio
This tranquil apartment in Poznań was designed by local firm Agnieszka Owsiany Studio to give the owners a reprise from their high-pressure medical jobs.
The interior combines a calming mix of pale marble and various kinds of wood, including oak cabinetry, chevron parquet flooring and a console and vanity, both finished in speckled burl.
“My clients asked for a high quality, almost hotel-like space, as they were in need of everyday comfort,” founder Agnieszka Owsiany told Dezeen.
Find out more about Botaniczna Apartment ›
Photo by Adrian Gaut
Ulla Johnson flagship, USA, by Kelly Wearstler
Burlwood brings “a touch of 1970s California nostalgia” to the Ulla Johnson flagship store in Los Angeles, courtesy of local designer Kelly Wearstler.
The unusual veneer was used liberally to cover walls, ceilings and shelves, as well as forming a statement display cabinet where the material’s natural wavy surface texture provides an added element of tactility (top image).
Find out more about the Ulla Johnson flagship ›
Photo by Prue Ruscoe
Koda hair salon, Australia, by Arent & Pyke
This hair salon in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building was designed by Australian studio Arent & Pyke to be “best appreciated from seated height”.
Drawing attention away from the building’s extra-tall ceilings, freestanding quartzite-rimmed mirrors are placed at angles in front of the styling chairs, framing a vintage hanging cabinet made from pale burl.
Find out more about the Koda hair salon ›
Photo by Pion Studio
Opasly Tom restaurant, Poland, by Buck Studio
Buck Studio employed a limited palette of colours and materials to create visual continuity throughout Warsaw restaurant Opasly Tom, which occupies a split-level building that was broken up into a series of rooms of different sizes.
Coral-orange chair cushions mirror the hardware of the totem-like pendant lights, and several burl-clad cabinets are dotted throughout the eatery. These match the kaleidoscopically patterned panelling in the hallway and the private dining rooms.
“This contemporary, minimalistic design approach produces the impression of coherence while creating a powerful aesthetic impact,” explained the Polish studio, which is headed up by Dominika Buck and Pawel Buck.
Find out more about the Opasly Tom restaurant ›
Photo by Oni Studio
Warsaw apartment, Poland, by Mistovia
Elsewhere in Warsaw, Polish studio Mistovia designed an apartment for an art director and her pet dachshund to resemble an “elaborate puzzle” of contrasting patterns.
Walnut-burl cabinets dominate the kitchen, with their trippy swirling pattern offset against monochrome tiles, brushed-metal drawers and a terrazzo-legged breakfast bar.
Find out more about the Warsaw apartment ›
Photo by Jennifer Chase and Yorgos Efthymiadis
Imperfecto, USA, by OOAK Architects
Upon entering Michelin-starred restaurant Imperfecto in Washington DC, diners are greeted by a custom-made maître-d stand clad in panels of burl-wood veneer, creating a mirrored tortoiseshell pattern across its surface.
The interior, designed by Greek-Swedish studio OOAK Architects, sees neutral tones paired with splashes of blue and white that nod to the restaurant’s Mediterranean menu.
“OOAK Architects has used varied, high-quality finishes and authentic materials including Greek and Italian marbles, as well as brass and wood from different parts of the world, creating contrasting textures across the space,” the team said.
Find out more about Imperfecto ›
Photo by Anson Smart
Black Diamond house, Australia, by YSG
Australian interiors studio YSG introduced a sumptuous mix of materials to this house in Sydney’s Mosman suburb to evoke the feeling of staying in a luxury hotel.
This approach is evidenced by a number of custom furniture pieces dotted throughout the home, including a Tiberio marble vanity in the downstairs powder room and a poplar-burl cabinet with a bronzed mirror that looms over the nearby living room.
Find out more about Black Diamond house ›
Photo by Åsa Liffner
Studio Frantzén, UK, by Joyn Studio
Restaurant Studio Frantzén in London’s Harrods department store serves a fusion of Nordic and Asian food that is also reflected in its Japandi interiors – taking cues from both Scandinavian and Japanese design.
Interiors practice Joyn Studio leaned heavily on both cultures’ penchant for wood, combining seating banquettes made from blocks of end-grain pine wood with gridded timber ceilings and seating booths framed by burl-wood wall panelling.
Find out more about Studio Frantzén ›
This is the latest in our lookbook series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring rooms with net floors, interiors with furry walls and homes with mid-century modern furniture.
Fashion retailer Aro Archive’s pastel-hued east London store was designed by founder Ariana Waiata Sheehan to evoke “a sense of otherworldliness”.
The store, located in Shoreditch, replaces the brand’s previous, more industrial store on nearby Broadway Market and was intended to have a frivolous feel.
The Aro Archive store has pastel-coloured floors in pink and blue
The interior has “a sense of otherworldliness, escapism and fun,” Waiata Sheehan explains, comparing it to “a mixture between a mushroom trip and going to visit someone’s rich aunty who runs a gallery”.
“We’ve always had very neutral industrial spaces,” she told Dezeen. |But you can get an industrial Zara these days, so time to switch it up and go full personality, which has been scary but so worth it.”
It is located inside an old Victorian warehouse
Located inside a five-storey former Victorian warehouse, Aro Archive, which sells pre-owned clothing by avant-garde designers, was organised so that each floor has a different colour.
Monochrome pastel pink, blue and white hues decorate the different levels, which also feature a wide range of reclaimed and recycled materials, furniture and artworks.
Founder Ariana Waiata Sheehan created the interior design
“The pink floor is supposed to feel very warm, womb-like and enclosed,” Waiata Sheehan said. “The blue floor is more light and otherworldly. And the two white floors are very ethereal and calm.”
White duvet covers by fashion house Maison Martin Margiela were used to create curtains for the changing rooms, while interior pillars are made from reclaimed 1990s metal lamp posts that the designer sourced from a scrapyard in Preston.
Duvet covers by Maison Martin Margiela frame the changing rooms
“The building and surrounding area feel very London, so we did want to bring in a sense of that for example with the lamp posts, metal works and details, bright neon lights and so forth,” Waiata Sheehan said.
She sourced a number of unusual furnishings for the Aro Archive store, including an industrial control station from a paper-manufacturing plant that is now used as a till.
“The industrial paper control station I’ve been watching on eBay for nearly 4 years, waiting for a time I had the space to buy it,” Waiata Sheehan explained. “I wanted something different to the normal till, they’re all so boring and square.”
The store also has another large metal till and metal drawers that originally came from a 1980s Mary Quant store and were rescued from a squat in Hackney Wick.
A large metal till was originally from a Mary Quant store
Waiata Sheehan also sourced several smaller pieces for the boutique, where customers can purchase everything down to the artwork, furniture and accessories.
“I do all the buying so everything is here because I love it in some way,” she explained. “But in terms of favourite pieces in store right now?”
“For fashion, it’s the Rick Owens orange shearling gimp mask gilet, for objects the Shirin Guild ceramic incense holders and for furniture the wobbly glass table with magazine racks.”
Waiata Sheehan bought an old industrial control station from eBay
Waiata Sheehan hopes the Aro Archive boutique will feel like a home away from home and help to create a community feel in the area.
“I think Shoreditch is lacking a sense of community and I wanted to work that into the space,” she said. “The feeling of a chaotic family home and a feeling of togetherness.”
Lampposts from a scrapyard form pillars inside the store
Other London stores with notable interior design recently covered on Dezeen include Swedish fashion brand Toteme’s newly-opened Mayfair store and a Coach pop-up store at Selfridges that had fixtures made from recyclable materials.
