45 square meter Ukraine apartment fuses vintage and contemporary look

One of my home-related dreams is to have a space that is completely designed and customized according to my aesthetic of the moment (which of course, changes every few years or so). And of course, I will probably have just a small space because of budget considerations and also I prefer to have something smaller so it will be easier to clean. For now, I will have to live vicariously through all these spaces I’m writing about and this one is a pretty good dream to have.

Designer: Between the Walls

Between the Walls is a modern design interior studio and one of their newest projects is for their co-founder Victoria Karieva. They designed a vintage but contemporary space for her 45 square meter apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine, incorporating her love for cats and contemporary art as well as several heirloom pieces from her family. The centerpiece of the place is the kitchen combined with the guest room which has a 150-year-old restored cabinet and a 200-year-old icon from her husband’s family.

Since the theme is vintage mixed with contemporary, you also see a mixture of flea market and modern pieces. There are 70s vintage leather chairs and flea market chairs next to a marble round table. There are other smaller touches which play into her love for art, like a handmade wool lamp by a local artist named Nicholas Moon and two paintings by Anton Sayenko. There’s also a “secret” in this space: a sauna that is hidden in a closet. The rest of the apartment uses natural materials like stone, tiles, plywood, with the bathroom using Italian Vague titles. There’s also a lot of storage space even if it’s a small area.

The way the apartment is decorated shows that even if it’s a small area, you can still have a lot of space incorporated with the various small vintage and contemporary furniture. It seems like a perfect space for a couple, with a couple of cats thrown in. As a single woman without a cat, this is something to aspire for, at least in my dreams.