Decorate your place with the help of design studios and furniture salons.
So you just bought a house or a flat – good for you! However, that leads us to the next, often vexing question – how are you going to decorate it? It’s normal to worry about how to furnish a new place so that it looks stylish, feels comfortable and displays your unique taste. You have three options when it comes to interior decorating: have the interior designers do everything for you, do everything yourself – from planning the design scheme to picking out furniture, or combine the two. After all, whether you just bought a new house, or simply what to redecorate your old flat, it might be a good idea to consult a professional design studio for some advice.
A beautiful home
According to the director and leading designer of Zlatograf Interyer studio, Yuriy Maksimenko, there are three stages of apartment maintenance – architectural planning, interior design and decor. If you want to start from the very beginning, you will need half a year and a pretty large sum of money. But in the end it may be worth it –you will create a unique environment for your living space. If you think the flat looks too small and narrow, you can achieve the impression of depth and spaciousness by simply redesigning it. Hired constructors can change the basic design of the whole space, from flooring to ceiling. You can choose to put in a fireplace, sauna, or air conditioning as well, and get a general idea of the interior you’d like to have.
Next comes the second stage – interior design. The style of the whole place will greatly depend on the decisions you make at this stage of planning. But if you decide to hire interior designers, the decision making will be a lot less stressful.
Speaking about interior fashion and styles, Maksimenko says the most popular tendency now is a “many-sided person in a many-sided interior” or, in other words – eclecticism. The point is to create harmony from a combination of different styles. “Figuratively speaking, it’s a combination of rags with a dirty cylinder. Yet eclecticism shouldn’t be mixed with kitsch, since they are divided by a very thin line. The essence of kitsch is the conscious, unharmonious mixture of incongruous elements, in other words – a combination of rags and a new shiny cylinder with a shirt sleeve sewn onto it,” says Maksimenko. Eclecticism started at the fashion runways and gradually spread – to landscape, cars, and finally interior. It is highly popular in Ukraine, whereas kitsch is now gaining popularity in Great Britain and is sure to spread eastwards in a couple of years.
Interior designer Yuriy Maksimenko and his colleagues at Zlatograf Interier studio will help create a unique atmosphere in your home and make your aparment stylish and
comfortable. (Konstantin Klimenko)
“Coming up to the third and the last stage of creating and organizing your living space – decor, I’ll say that it can be completed individually and depend on your personal taste,” Maksimenko remarked. “Decor is a last stroke in the complete painting, it finishes the whole atmosphere of the apartment and highlights the key points in the interior,” he added. It includes various accessories, plants, aquariums and so on. Decor may seem like it isn’t such an important part of the decorating process, but it plays a crucial role, and can easily bring discord into yours and the designer’s whole work.
Design from the studio
At Zlatograf Interyer studio, the work is done in several stages and each stage has its own price. Architects and designers will work together to create the basic idea for the interior design and its style. Two or three design variants will be sketched, which will cost you $7 to $10 per square meter. The working project includes planning the flooring, furniture, partitions, walls, ceilings, lighting conditions, doors and maintenance materials. The plans are visualized in 3D and cost from $8 to $20 per square meter. The additional costs will depend on the needed materials and interior elements, costing from 1 to 2 percent of the cost of the design project per day. Payment procedure varies and is discussed individually.
Interior Design provides services including architectural projecting, interior design, 3D visualization and decor. The price for services depends on the amount of work and the amount of time designers will need to do the project. The basic price for the whole work will be approximately $25 for one square meter. Just getting tips on designing and decor will cost you around $8 to $10 per square meter. The designers work with Italian, German, Spanish, and Ukrainian manufacturers. If you want to furnish your apartment with unique design elements made by individual order, the cost will grow by 20 to 25 percent.
IP Company Architecture and Technology designers work exclusively on maintenance and replanning projects. The prices are determined on an individual basis. The starting price will be approximately $30 per square meter.
Zlatograf Interyer (592-5608, [email protected])
Interior Design (237-6823, 578-1643, [email protected])
IP Company Architecture and Technology (206-8345, [email protected], www.a-t.com.ua)
Quest for furniture
Shopping for furniture is often more difficult and tiring than it is exciting. Either you know exactly what you’re looking for and can’t find it anywhere, or, on the contrary, end up waiting for something to catch your eye having to visit a dozen stores all over town before you find something you like. Furniture will have to stay with you for a long time, so you should choose carefully to ensure you will not grow tired of your new bright red couch or futuristic chair in a couple of weeks. To save you time and trouble, we’ve selected a number of stores offering quality furniture in various styles, which will surely be of use to you on your furniture quest.
The big two-story building of Budynok Mebliv (House of Furniture) is known as the furniture store with the biggest selection in Kyiv. You can find furniture that can suite any taste. The first floor of the “house” is occupied by Inta company. Inta offers furniture in three styles: “high-tech,” “modern” and “castle colonial.” To the left of the main entrance, you’ll find the “high-tech” furniture. Everyone who keeps up to date with the latest fashions will want to check out the ultra modern furniture. To the right of the entrance, furniture made in “castle colonial” style is displayed. Things like dining tables with seats for ten (Hr 129,219), made of dark wood and decorated in medieval style, may make your apartment look like a castle. The “modern” furniture section is next to the “castle colonial” furniture display. All the furniture is produced in Great Britain, Italy and Spain. The second floor hosts a vast assortment of sofas, beds and kitchen sets from local and foreign producers.
The Valerio Salotti brand furniture store has three showrooms. Upon entering the store, you will find yourself in a room where the store’s high tech furniture is kept. On the left, you’ll find bedroom furniture. This room features beds made in different styles, which cost from Hr 6,000 to Hr 25,000. To the right of the high tech furniture room there is a hall of English classical furniture. Gorgeous and luxurious furniture exposed in this part of the store is designed in a strictly classical style. All the furniture is made to order by the Valerio Salotti factory in Ukraine. With help of computer modeling, the store’s designers can help you draw up your own furniture designs, which will then be made at the factory. By using computer graphics, Valerio Salotti’s designers can even show you whether this furniture will suit your apartment or not. This service will cost from Hr 4,000 to Hr 40,000. You can also choose furniture from the store’s catalogue. The shop also sells a large variety of upholstery fabrics in many different patterns and styles (about 20,000), produced in Italy.
Prestige store features classic furniture styles. All the furniture is made of natural wood, mostly of walnut. In Prestige store you can find sets of furniture for living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and workrooms from Italy, Russia and China. There are also bronze decorations from Spain. Some of the furniture items shown in Prestige shop are unique and exclusive. For example, luxurious beds from the “Gucci collection” can only be found there. Customers can choose the size or color of any piece of furniture themselves. The store also has a large assortment of upholstery fabrics for chairs, armchairs and sofas.
Domus salon works with Italian manufacturers and offers a large variety of furniture models – Baroque, Art-Deco, and High-Tech. the salon also offers lighting devices and accessories in addition to the furniture collections. There are design elements for living rooms and bedrooms, as well as kitchens (VIP and economy-type models) and bathrooms. Professional architects also work in the studio and offer professional advice.
Carrera salon shows furniture in classical and modern styles, made by leading Spanish furniture producers, such as Gamamobel, Frajumar and Ivanca. There is a wide variety of sofas in different styles, patterns and colors. There is also a big assortment of furniture sets for living rooms, workrooms, and dining rooms, made by Ibax Decor, Creationes Royal and Canella. It is possible to make furniture to order here.
Budynok Mebliv (23 Druzhby Narodiv Bulvar, 200-0030)
Valerio Salotti (6 Heroyiv Stalingradu Prospect, 581-3703)
Prestige (19 Obolonska Naberezhna, 581-2067)
Domus (22 Verhniy Val, 200-0345)
Carrera (19/18 Myru Prospect, 558-5336)
