Before and After: Inspiring Redesign of a 50 sqm Two-Room Apartment in a Brezhnev-Era Building

Irina Borodina and Ekaterina Mala completely updated the outdated interior, turning a typical two-room apartment in a Brezhnev-era building into a cozy European flat. The result is a comfortable living space that is modern yet with hints of classicism, bright and light, filled with art and vintage elements.

Kitchen Before Renovation

The kitchen had a 'traditional' wooden cabinet. The goal was to make it more modern and bright.

Kitchen After Renovation

The kitchen is L-shaped, one side features tall cabinets reaching the ceiling, forming a wall and creating a portal into the corridor, while the other side consists only of lower modules, without upper cabinets. Instead, open shelves were added, giving the small kitchen a light and airy feel with wide possibilities for decoration.

Bedroom Before Renovation

The bedroom was completely plain and unremarkable. The room had access to a balcony covered with boarding, which darkened the space and looked outdated.

Bedroom After Renovation

The bed was placed parallel to the balcony, making the layout more convenient. The balcony was painted white and turned into a relaxation area with storage.

Textiles and patterns play an important role in the interior. In the bedroom, a vibrant textile composition in soft blue, yellow, and green tones was placed on a neutral background, creating contrast between warm and cool colors, combining plant and ethnic motifs.

Hall Before Renovation

Before the reconfiguration, the apartment had a narrow dark entrance hall resembling a corridor, and an even narrower corridor with a low-hanging ceiling and load-bearing beam.

Hall After Renovation

Designers joined the entrance hall to the living room, separating them with a P-shaped storage system including a wardrobe and bookcase, with the upper section hiding an air conditioning unit. This created natural lighting in the entrance hall and visually expanded the living room.

Bathroom Before Renovation

The bathroom is combined, and there was a problem placing the washing machine. The finish needed to be more stylish.

Bathroom After Renovation

The bathroom design took the longest to finalize – the client wanted this space to look as little like a bathroom as possible and more like a cozy, stylish room. Additionally, we were constrained by very limited space. In the end, we replaced the bathtub with a shower and glass partition, combined tiles with paint on the walls, moved all utility items outside the room, leaving only the washing machine. A large mirror was mounted on the wall to double the space and decorated with a pendant light with ribbed shades matching the tile graphics,” designers said.

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