An Unsightly Apartment Gets a New Look With Stained Glass Doors and Colorful Wallpaper

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Almaty, Kazakhstan

Designer: Sdelaemremont.kz / @sdelaemremont.kz

Footprint: 925 square feet 

Styling: Elina Mussakulova

Photographer: Sergey Krasyuk / @skrasyuk

From the Designer: "This long-extended apartment in an old building in the city center was uninteresting and even ugly to us. At first, it seemed impossible to make a good hallway, and generally, the apartment was some kind of trailer. The previous owners made some mistakes while remodeling: the sewerage in the bathroom was done incorrectly, which led to an unpleasant smell in the apartment, and we had to redo everything.

"We didn't like the vast load-bearing transoms coming down from the ceiling in the living room and the bedroom (they happened to be in the middle of the rooms). We didn't understand what to do with them or how to play with them so they could blend nicely into the interior. Another headache was an incredibly long doorway. Eventually, instead of trying to hide these construction elements, we decorated them! Now, the transoms attract your attention with plaster corbels and the long seismic corridor looks like a nicely-framed passageway.

"It started with the wallpaper by ZAK+FOX . I wanted to use this particular wallpaper with monkeys as they remind us of our client, Raushan, an active young woman with curly red hair. I was honest with her and said I saw the parallel between her and these monkeys while presenting this wallpaper. She laughed and said that she could see the resemblance, too. The purple fruits on the wallpaper gave us the color of the kitchen cabinets, too.

"The stained glass was ready-made. We blew up the whole city trying to find the specialist who could make them. The colors of the glass we found were quite limited, but we like how we combined the chosen ones into one complete picture. Our client only cooks a little, and she wanted the kitchen to be more of a relaxed area for meeting with friends. This brief made it easy to go for a tiled countertop."