With a floor as beautiful as the chevron-patterned dark hardwood one in this recently renovated classic apartment, the re-imagining designers’ main job is to try to not ruin it or its harmonizing and stylish effect.
In the case of the Strasbourg, France-based private apartment in question, the other defining features are the gorgeous fourth-floor corner location with the large windows, and the elegant cast-iron railings.
Luckily, design team Tomas Umbrasas, Aidas Barzda, Tautvydas Vileikis, Rokas Kontvainis of YCL Studio knew how to leave these elements alone. Not only did they preserve them, they also emphasized them.
The gorgeous ceiling moldings, classic crystal chandeliers, the smart placing of a few ornate wall sconces, and the overall white and cool grey colouring draw attention to and highlight these time-tested features.
The five-room apartment is 114 square meters (1,227 sq.ft.) in size but it looks significantly larger because there are no tight nooks or dark corners, no hidden areas and no unnecessary doors.
The design team made one substantial – and extremely appealing – change in the original room division by creating a massive, white bath room/spa with its own windows, seating area and seemingly endless space. This alone upgrades the apartment to a totally new level.
Located in the Alsace region of North-eastern France, Strasbourg is the home of the European Parliament with more than its share of gorgeous apartments and residences.
Combining traditional and new as smartly as the YCL team has done is a perfect fit for the cool set of the town.
Based in the capital Lithuania, Vilnius, with its neoclassical and Gothic architectural highlights, the YCL team brought to the project not just a fine sense of new and modern, balance and scale, but, more important, a confident sensibility toward what must stay and what must go. – Tuija Seipell.
