The harmony of the exterior and interior of this house was born as a result of a long and difficult process. The main thing, of course, is the result, but the story of its achievement is very interesting.
It all started with the fact that the couple decided to buy a real dacha, from their childhood, an old cozy house with a large plot, overgrown with lilacs and emerald grass. However, returning to the past rarely lives up to expectations, and instead of nostalgic delight, new homeowners felt discomfort and the need to furnish their homes in their way. The house remained someone else’s: the layout is inconvenient, and the ceilings are oppressive. The issue could not be resolved using reconstruction, so they began to build a new house on the old foundation.
They did not want to resort to the help of a designer, although their previous experience of working with an interior designer of a city apartment was successful. But this time they decided to do it on their own: a team of builders was ready to start work, the owner of the future building is a competent engineer, and also has a computer program for architectural design.
He designed a house with spacious rooms, high ceilings, and an attic floor on the existing foundation with an area of about 400 m2. However, when the house was built, doubts arose: it seems that everything is as it should be, but it does not look like it. It was impossible to figure out what exactly was wrong without professional help.
For rescue, they turned to Victoria Shapkin, with whom they did the interior of the apartment, and who now, after working on a country house, has become a “family designer.”
The light is not bright
Needless to say, the house looked too bulky: large, rectangular in plan, with simple outlines, with a standard gable roof. It was necessary to give it more harmonious proportions. Victoria proposed to outline the facade with contrasting lines: a light brown strip runs down the middle of the facade, a dark finish made of dark larch along the perimeter below and along the gable, emphasizing the roof line.
Larch became the conceptual material for this house. In the interior, it is used for different surfaces, different functions, in numerous color solutions.
Although the outside of the house no longer resembles the old country house, the original idea has not disappeared, it has only changed by the crystallized ideas about comfort. In a new, spacious cottage with high ceilings, I wanted the same thing – country comfort, soft and light colors, simple things and natural materials. All this was already implemented by professional design recommendations.
The principle of dividing the wall had to be applied in the interior to visually reduce the height of the rooms. But this forced event turned out to be very appropriate and as a style decision. The division of the wall into a frieze, the main background with wallpaper and a wooden plinth are the classics of English coziness. This division, according to the wishes of the customers, is not very contrasting, although the designer would prefer to make the ceiling and frieze dark. In the house, the preference was left for light colors, and only in the decor of the bath, the customers risked an experiment, giving the go-ahead to a dark ceiling.
The main interior material is larch. Euro-tile from is used for the walls and ceiling, board – for the floor. The uniqueness lies in the fact that the palette is created based on a single species of wood (except the oak ladder), and the variety was achieved thanks to different tints. Among the methods of wood processing proposed by the designer is a sequential coating, in two layers, with light and dark varnishes. Thanks to this technology, a depth of color appeared that could not be achieved simply by mixing these two varnishes.
The designer admits that internally she could not agree with the ban on the use of bright colors, which was established by the customers. But the result of working with tones and semitones was all the more interesting. The interior “sounds” like a calm melody, louder in some rooms, quieter in others. The contrasts are softer in the bedrooms, more expressive in the living room. The brightest room is the kitchen, where a red stove appears against the background of a gray-blue fragment laid out with bricks. So important is kitchen remodeling in sacramento.
The choice of furniture and accessories was guided by the same principle of economy. Everything is inexpensive, but natural, within the country’s style. Cozy sofas, wrought iron tables and lamps, checkered blankets and posters were bought in construction and furniture supermarkets. In addition to the fact that such a way is gentle on the family budget in the period after the completion of construction, it also allows you to avoid banality. Indeed, in a sea of clutter, it is now more likely to find a thing that does not bother you than in a gallery of fashionable designer furniture.
Immediately after the house, they began to build a bathhouse. It has the same simple shape as the house, decorated with natural wood tinted in chocolate color, like the plinth and gable of the house. Therefore, it can be said that the architectural ensemble on the country site has been completed. The interiors of both houses are also related to each other. The same partition of the wall, only in the bath they gave up wallpaper, and the frieze and ceiling are tinted in a dark color.
The furniture for the bath – brutal benches and a table – is made to order from solid oak, just like the stairs in the house. Outside and inside, the bath resembles a chalet. The environment relaxes, promotes quality rest, gives a charge of health and good mood. This is exactly what its owners wanted to get from their country residence, although the path to simplicity turned out to be quite difficult.
A miracle tree
Larch is in fashion today. Smooth and dense wood has more than a dozen natural shades and lends itself well to tinting.
Due to the special composition of the resin, larch becomes stronger over time and is not prone to decay (a classic example is the larch piles on which Venice stands).
It is believed that larch releases antioxidants into the atmosphere, and of course, like all conifers, phytoncides.
