ARV12

Apartment 135 sqm / / Floor 3

Giv'atayim // Tel Aviv 

2023

 

It was shortly after the holidays when a young couple called me. They had just purchased a contractor-built apartment in a tower with a breath-taking view of the Ayalon highways. The apartment was purchased complete, tiled, and with all the necessary infrastructure, according to the contractor's standard. 

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During the initial needs assessment, several unique requirements emerged: 

I realized the need for an independent housing unit, as the wife's parents (who she immigrated to the country alone in her youth) still live abroad and come to visit her frequently. 

The second element consists of a walk-in closet that also functions as a dressing room, or as it's called, their glam room 😊, allowing each of them to get ready during the other's sleep hours without disturbing them. Since they are a young couple without children at the moment, we chose to convert one of the bedrooms adjacent to the master bedroom into such a dressing room. 

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To create the guest suite, we intuitively expanded the guest bathroom into a minimalist bathroom at the expense of the general bathroom. The new bathroom, adjacent to the protected space room, has become an independent suite separated from the rest of the house by a door. The protected space room is equipped with a folding sofa bed and a perimeter closet around the bed that perfectly accommodates the amount of clothes one would bring for a month-long visit to the country. In addition, a work corner has been set up to serve the couple in their routine and also the visitors during their visit. In order to blur the protective accessories of the protected space room, an open carpentry unit was designed that allows for proper ventilation and filtration, while also serving as a library. 

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The en suite bathroom, which serves as a guest toilet on a daily basis, is tiled in dramatic black-backed tiles with cream-colored veins. A blackened veneer joinery unit was designed to the exact right size to provide storage space for toilet paper, hand towels, etc. 

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In the apartment, there is a massive concrete wall that we chose to strip of plaster. Near it, we placed the entrance closet that exists in every project, which of course takes on a different form according to the needs of the residents. Here it was designed in the colour of the wall, combined with a seating bench that stores the couple's everyday shoes and allows for putting on and taking off shoes when entering the house. 

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**The kitchen has a strong presence in the central space. The deep green cabinet fronts are harmonized with the natural granite countertops, which reflect and complement the kitchen's colour with their green undertones. Above the island, an airy bar element has been placed, hinting at the homeowner's previous profession, and also at the place where the couple met 😊 The bar was carefully designed with the blacksmith and engineer to withstand the weight of the bottles, while incorporating lighting and choosing a non-standard colour that warms the kitchen and reappears in the island's structural system. 

 

On a deep walnut-coloured parquet floor, laid in a herringbone pattern, creating a warm and European feel and, of course, providing a prestigious and pleasant backdrop for all the elements in the space. 

Due to the bold choices made in the kitchen, the remaining choices in the central space were designed in a shade that complements the colour of the wall. The carpentry on the living room wall was designed with an asymmetrical appearance to avoid overloading the texture and to provide contrast to the black dining table. 

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The living room table was designed personally with Studio NOOSHKA, and the sizes, heights, and shades were customized to match the overall colour palette of the space. In the dining area, two types of lighting were used: focused lighting above the table and decorative lighting that creates soft light and a composition that replaces the wall picture. In general, the lighting plan is always composed of layers, both of which must exist in parallel, and are not necessarily activated at the same time, as they meet different needs. The first is technical lighting that provides a necessary floodlight, and above it an additional layer of ambient lighting, for times when one wants soft lighting, suitable for a glass of wine at the end of the day. At first glance, 98% of customers will be amazed by the number of lighting fixtures, but after a detailed explanation of each point, they understand that there are no unnecessary points, and all of them enrich the space and how it is used. 

No major plumbing changes were made in the public bathroom, except for reducing the size of the bathtub and replacing all fixtures with matte white fixtures and cladding all the walls of the room with light-coloured tiles with a natural stone look. 

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**The master bedroom is the couple's refuge at the end of their long days, the bed frame is upholstered in a dramatic monochrome fabric, and the wall behind it is painted in a shade of purple that was chosen with the utmost precision. The bathroom is covered in tiles with a wild texture, there is certainly no other like it on all 40 floors 😊 

A beautiful and modern stainless steel sink sits atop a black veneer cabinet. Two Linestra fixtures flank the mirror, providing excellent frontal lighting for makeup, etc. 

 

From the bedroom we enter the couple's dressing room, which has two closets and a very chic makeup table that extends to a dressing bench and body mirrors. The colour of the carpentry in this room was chosen from one of the hand-fan colours that the client brought with her to the meeting. True story, we opened the hand-fan and chose a colour by her delicate hand. 

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To the "Before" pictures.