Before and After: Cool Redesign of a 88 m² Apartment in Old Foundation

This three-room apartment is located in a building from 1969. Home stager Alexandra Pisarevich created a cozy space in retro style. The main task was to update the interior, preserving elements of Soviet times and complementing the design with new 'artifacts'.

Location: Moscow
Area: 88 m²
Rooms: 3
Ceiling Height: 3 m
Bathrooms: 2
Design: Alexandra Pisarevich
Budget: 900 thousand rubles

Room tour of this apartment (24 minutes)

The layout of the apartment is non-standard, as it was built according to an individual project. There are two bedrooms, a hallway, a living room, an isolated kitchen, two bathrooms, and a foyer.

Apartment before renovation

The owner bought this apartment in the 90s and made a small reconstruction, preserving as much as possible the finishes and structural elements of the Soviet era: mezzanines, doors, part of the furniture.

Apartment after renovation

In all rooms, the paint on the walls was updated, using a unified light color. The laminate floor in the kitchen remained from the previous renovation. A new cabinet was installed, similar to the style of the Soviet era. The facade colors were chosen as close as possible to the wall tone. The worktop and splashback are made of MDF. The cost of the kitchen cabinet with built-in cooktop and dishwasher is about 180 thousand rubles. A large oval table was supplemented with chairs in anti-vandal light upholstery.

The inter-room doors and mezzanine facades were restored by the apartment owner, so they were not changed — they highlighted the chosen style. The design was completed with original posters that remind of items relevant in the USSR.

Living room doors are Soviet-style sliding doors with ribbed glass. The floor is parquet in classic 'pine tree' pattern. The accent in the living room is a blue velvet sofa bought on Avito. Next to it is a restored Soviet armchair. Above it, there is a poster-cover enclosed in a frame. This is a tribute to Soviet carpets that decorated every apartment's walls.

Along one wall, a storage system was placed — a modern interpretation of the Soviet shelf. These shelves are arranged with items and accessories from the past century.

A small room next to the living room is called a chess zone. Built-in wardrobes were also preserved here. The feature of the room is a music corner with a vinyl player. A stylish cabinet was placed for storing records and board games.

In one of the bedrooms, you can see a vibrant representative of Soviet interior — a built-in cabinet with facades made of laminated oak. The cabinet is very deep, and it can accommodate a lot of storage space. The bedroom was complemented with a bed in bright upholstery and furniture on legs — it visually resembles the furniture chosen for interiors in the USSR.

The work desk in the second bedroom resembles a well-known secretary. A wardrobe with mirror was left from the previous interior. In terms of volume and content, it can fully replace a proper wardrobe.

In the hallway, a floor-to-ceiling cabinet with white facades was made. By the entrance, there is a large and spacious pouf, on which it is comfortable to sit. Its upholstery repeats the pattern of armchairs in the chess zone. The walls of the corridor were decorated with pages of Soviet newspapers in graphic frames.

In the bathroom, the renovation was already done by the apartment owner. A feature of the room is a narrow window and a niche with a mirror and shelf that allows placing personal hygiene products without hanging cabinets. In the second bathroom, tiles and plumbing were updated.