Project

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SHOKO HOME

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Style: New York Brownhouse
Photos: Marcin Grabowiecki

When designing my own house, I had the opportunity to execute all the ideas that were either too brave or they feared too much to choose an unusual solution. In my new built house, I have created a New York tenement house climate. They constitute a perfect source of endless inspirations for the interiors I design. Having in mind all the elements I want to place in the project, I designed the solid of the building and its whole functional layout. I have always loved high windows top to floor with black frames and mullions. When entering the house, we are passing the corridor with a beautiful stone mosaic and wardrobes with moldings - it is a preview of an elegant and buduare style, that fills out the rest of the interior. High ceilings, moldings, window frames, brass, unique lamps, and an uneven white brick from the outside. Such elements have stolen my heart in the United States, where I live for half a year each year. The idea for the ladder shaped floor comes from New York - I remember seeing a similar shape on the floor in the interior of one of my clients, who has huts bough an apartment in soho, where you can find the most beautiful New York brownstone buildings. My dream about a ladder shaped floor in the color of an raw oak was fulfilled by Agnieszka Fiałkowicz and her husband Piotr and the producer of floor - mad company. 

INFO:
Sq. Ft.: 1500
Number of floors: 2

released: May 2021

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In order to achieve a full matte finish, we needed seven layers of color and oil-wax layers and to see the shape of each plank, their edges were manually painted in black. We have worked several months on it and the producer has added it to its offer as "the shoko plank". One of the first highlights were the mosaics, as that is the element that I associate with New York mostly. You can see it everywhere there in bathrooms, antechambers, staircases. Pleats especially the Vienna ones is also one of my favorite elements of the interiors - I tried to "smuggle" this in each of the spaces - on seats, backrests, fronts of shelves. Despite the symmetric arrangement there is a strict division for the functional layout in the kitchen - the right side (with the heating place, fridge and sink) is the working area, the left side is a rather coffee-breakfast spot. Behind the pleat front there is an additional countertop, toaster and a coffee machine. From the beginning i knew that the lamp over the kitchen island will constitute the dominant element and i have spent a lot of time looking for "the one" until I found in a French magazine "the screen" lamp with a Vienna pleat - as if it was made for my house. :) at the end of the corridor, I have hung my favorite poster with Woody Allen - as who can catch the New York essence better than Woody Allen. On the on the right side there is the entrance to the toilet, on the left side to the "mud room". We have a washing machine, a dryer, a sink and a storage for various house tools. The ground floor bathroom is designed as an American powder room - there is no shower here, you will find white marble on the wall and beautiful shutters in the window that filter the light and keep privacy. The console under the sink was custom-made - naturally with plead in the front.

Designing my own house I have learnt a lot! In the past aesthetics were key for me sometimes even at the cost of functionality. Now i think that aesthetics is as important as the functional layout. Now in the stage of first house blueprints i try to plan the smallest details - before the construction works started, i knew exactly, where I will keep my sawing equipment and where our daughter will keep her shoes. There is no room for coincidence!

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S H O K O . D E S I G N
www.shokodesign.com