Project Description
Project details
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Category: apartment
Surface: 80 sqm
Floor: 2nd
Intervention: interior renovation
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2
Living room
Kitchen
Casa Picoas
A luxury flat in the heart of Lisbon, which combines style, international design and functionality. Through the integration of intelligently designed furniture, the space becomes more liveable and doubles in function and spaciousness.
Project description
This 80 smq/T2 apartment is located in one of the most exclusive and prized Lisbon neighborhoods. The project started way before any architectural concept, with real-estate scouting and prospecting in order to secure to our Italian client the perfect property for his needs. We were quite successful, being able to find an apartment in the heart of Avenidas Novas, with a very interesting asking price and in need of very little renovation. This way we could concentrate our budget on the most important features for the client and also allow him to give in to a bit of luxury and high-quality design elements. By the time the project was completed the value of the property had already risen about 20% from the buying price.
We decided to have a conservative approach and wanted to maintain most of the high-quality materials and finishing of the existing apartment. Anyway, most of the rooms felt heavy, uninteresting and not balanced. For example, the kitchen had beautiful black floor tiling (ardisia) but combined with black&white furniture and steel features, resulting in a very uninviting and anonym space. On top of that, functional furniture elements were placed in front of the door, also occluding the view to the outside. No table or social area could be placed in the room.
In the bathroom there was dark wood furniture, with satin glass elements, that clashed with the beige tiling and made the space feel smaller and unbalanced.
Lighting was an issue in all rooms: too dim, uninteresting and not functional even in situations where it is most required, such as the kitchen and the bathrooms.
Starting from there, we set our goals with the client.
Revive the bathrooms and give them light, harmony and spaciousness.
Add more functionality to the kitchen and allow people to also have meals or simply live in it, outside of just preparing the food.
Since the beautiful living room with its curved window is located quite far from the entrance to the unit, we wanted to create a more appealing pathway and visually expand the corridor with two-colored walls and better lighting.
The second bedroom was to gain more character and be able to be used as a multi-purpose room for receiving guests, working in home-office, increasing the storage space in the house, all without becoming cluttered and oppressive.
We have therefore made a significant upgrade to all the lighting in the house, both in terms of power, quality and design.
We placed a functional peninsula in the center of the kitchen, freeing the view to the outside, increasing preparation space and providing a place to stand, relax and eat. We used warmer colors and materials in harmony with the rest of the house and the existing floor.
With light, tone-on-tone colors, simpler lines and calmer shapes, we have considerably improved the two bathrooms, which now seem larger and have a more elegant deciding tone.
The multifunctional room was built around a large empty space in the center of the bedroom. We have equipped the window wall with storage furniture, also creating a large relaxation area. The bench can also be used as a seat for the swivel table, which also functions as a home-office desk. A double murphy-bed offers the possibility of using the room to have guests, without compromising the functionality and space of the room, when the bed is not needed.
Then we simply had fun playing with the beautiful living room and tried to turn it into a little jewel, a space one would never want to leave. However, the small size and the curved wall that basically ‘steals’ two of the four conventional walls, did not make it easy to find a satisfactory configuration that above all did not detract from the main feature of the space: the large, curved strip-window. All the elements in this room try to amplify the beauty of this element and be playful with its uniqueness: the lights, the carpets, the sofa, etc.
The end result is a fresh, contemporary, relaxing space that is also practical and functional. A kind of treehouse in the center of Lisbon, that also offers so much comfort and joy from living in it.