It’s hard to believe that a few years ago this house was a rather gloomy brick structure. The new life began from the moment when the customers and the architects decided to “modernize” it in the literal and figurative sense of the word. Namely, to change for the better into a comfortable modern-style mansion.
Smooth Curves
Northern Art Nouveau, which arose in architecture at the end of the 19th century, is popular to this day.
The house, which was carefully and lovingly remodeled by siding contractors, looks like a classically elegant example of Northern Art Nouveau. A glazed veranda-lantern was added to the former house – thus, the architecture of the house became more interesting, and the interior space became more comfortable and beautiful.
The facades of the house were covered with light gray plaster. In combination with the dark gray tiled roof, white window frames and columns, as well as the ceramic granite slabs used to finish the plinth, they make up an elegant color scheme. Cold colors are characteristic of northern modernism and are in perfect harmony with both summer greenery and yellow-yellow-hot colors of autumn and winter snow. The windows have different shapes and sizes – this asymmetry gives the house an unusual look, as do the metal structures that decorate the wall fragments, frame the windows and form the balustrades of the balconies and two entrances.
Already in the hallway, the visitor is overcome by a feeling of unusual harmony and peace, a special atmosphere in the house. The noble interior is filled with amazing details. A circular window with stained-glass inserts is cut into the wall separating the hall from the compact hallway. There is a lot of wood and glass in the interior, which is typical for interiors in the Art Nouveau style. From the hall, a wooden staircase leads to the second floor, from here you can get to the living room and the owner’s office. Massive in design, the wide staircase does not seem heavy thanks to the artistic forging that decorates its fence.
Purple Mood
Forging is so subtly woven into the interior that you don’t notice it right away, perceiving only the general stylistic line in the design of the rooms, which is created precisely thanks to metal panels and inserts. They decorate walls, furniture and fences. The characteristic curve of modernism is present here not only in artistic forging. The so-called “whiplash” pattern can be traced in glass and stained-glass door inserts, the shape of furniture, models of lamps and chandeliers. Almost every room is decorated with author’s sculptures and statuettes – lovers’ embraces, selfless dance and other dynamic and bright images fit into the mood of the interior as best as possible.
The color scheme chosen by the architect for interior design is also interesting. Despite the large number of rooms in the house, all the warm and cold colors used in the interior have one common feature – the amazing tenderness of shades. A cream office, a pink-lilac bedroom, a purple-lilac living room, and a beige-pink bathroom – unobtrusive soft shades create a feeling of peace and comfort.
On the veranda there is a winter garden with trees, ferns, vines and a small fountain. The green kingdom of plants, which occupied the entire space of the extension, suggested a possible color for textiles. Sea wave curtains are a beautiful backdrop for the conservatory, and wicker furniture gives the room a slight hint of colonial style. According to the owners and the architect, it is especially cozy here in winter: when a snow field spreads out behind the glass walls of the veranda, you feel like you are in a magical tropical oasis.
Continuation of the interior
The same care is spilled into the landscape surrounding the house. A gazebo, a fountain, a large comfortable swing, a pond, and a separate gazebo for barbecue at the far end of the plot. Decorative details pleasing to the eye are hidden among rhododendrons, hydrangeas and ferns: a sculpture of a large green frog “protects” the flower beds on the main facade of the house, and over the bowl of the fountain gracefully bent a plaster white cat, which at first you take for real. The complex shape of the pond at the foot of the alpine hill also hides something – if you lean closer over the water, you can see that it is lined with stones of different colors: in one part of the pond, octopuses are spread out on the bottom, and the other is decorated with the oriental symbol of harmony “yin and yang”.
