In design, there is no single right answer and there are many approaches, styles, and ways to reach the goal. In terms of design concept, there are apartments and houses where each room stands on its own.

For each space, the appropriate materials, finishes, and details are selected, and each room tells a slightly different story. At the other end of the spectrum are houses and apartments where the spaces seem to flow into each other and the design language maintains a single identity in every corner.

Between these two extremes, one can find a wide variety of approaches regarding the design language of the home and how uniform or different it should be when transitioning between rooms.

In this apartment in the old north of Tel Aviv, architect Florence Mitseli created a concise and clear design language, which is expressed throughout its 145 square meters.

Ofri Paz | Stanley Home

Every angle you choose to look at it will tell the same story and speak the same atmosphere. The feeling is that all the spaces continue each other in terms of appearance, style and color, and the result is a harmonious and complete space that inspires calm and tranquility. If you connect with the style and want to create a uniform design concept for your entire home, follow the following principles that we learned from Florence

Space perception

“The clients’ vision was an apartment that felt like a hotel suite, with large, wide spaces and minimal separation,” explains the architect. From there, she set out to redesign the entire interior of the apartment to suit the couple, whose children had grown up and left home. Their needs had changed; they no longer needed many separate rooms and were looking to expand and open up the space. She implemented this request throughout the apartment by dividing it into two main areas – a public space and a private double unit. In both areas, she used partially open partitions to create a visual division of the space without blocking it with walls. In the public space, you can see the partition between the kitchen and the living area, which has a dining area, a bar, and two living rooms, one for entertaining and one for watching TV. In the double suite, the partition separates the bedroom area from the bathroom, thus partially revealing it.

Materials

A consistent and coherent material palette is expressed throughout the apartment. It includes natural materials in soft colors, centered on bleached wood. Florence combined bleached oak veneer with oak stained in an off-white shade, preserving the natural texture of the wood.

In addition, she chose parquet flooring consisting of a composition of rectangles of different sizes to create an interesting but calm background for the entire apartment. Furniture, textiles, lighting fixtures and finishes in white, gold and light earth tones complete the look. In the two bathrooms, she combined pink terrazzo tiles and pink sanitary ware that provide a romantic and delicate wink. Thus, even when the rooms are separated from each other, the style and atmosphere of the house are maintained and the residents receive a continuous and pleasant experience.

Design details

Refined design motifs are repeated in different variations throughout the apartment. The repetition creates visual tranquility without compromising interest, quality, and appeal.

Note, for example, Florence’s use of wood and glass frames. In fact, you won’t find any standard doors here except for the front door.

She used the same motif of white wood frame and glass in all the partitions and doors to create the necessary separation between the spaces. Another motif we particularly liked was the softened corners, arches and circles that are expressed in various places, such as in the lighting fixtures, furniture, mirrors, sinks and corners of the carpentry units.

carpentry

If we have already mentioned the carpentry, then it is an opportunity for complete control over all design details, from the height of the element through the finishing of the facades to the smallest details such as handles, frames, connections, etc. With the help of customized carpentry design, similar elements and motifs can be used and combined in different ways throughout the house. For example, look at the handles that decorate the wardrobe and also recur in the bathroom cabinets and bedside units. The rounded corners that we mentioned are also reflected in almost all the carpentry details in the apartment and create a common language between separate elements.

Flexibility and adaptability

Along with uniformity, it is important to consider each item, piece of furniture or element on its own. Different areas of the house have different needs and constraints, and a detail that fits in one room may not necessarily fit in another. Florence actually created a language that allowed her to maintain a homogeneous and continuous appearance without compromising functionality and small surprises. Remember the partitions we talked about? So in each partition, the transparency of the glass was adjusted to the desired level of privacy. And did you notice how she combined surprising materials in the carpentry? In the closet in the bedroom, she combined textile fronts to create a soft look, while in the bar in the living room, natural stone with a texture reminiscent of geological layers was incorporated.

Planning and design: Florencia Mitseli

Photo: Itay Banit