On the finish of 2022, Kassym Baimukhametov was dwelling in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis, when he encountered an issue skilled by many: The hire was too rattling excessive.
“I made a decision to purchase my very own place as a result of costs for hire went up,” stated Mr. Baimukhametov, 38, who works as a mission supervisor in enterprise and expertise. “The universe was giving me indicators.”
Reasonably than paying hire, he determined he’d be higher off investing in actual property. Not needing a lot area, he started looking for studio residences and located a 388-square-foot, new-construction unit for 31.5 million Kazakhstani tenge ($60,000). He closed in February 2023.
“It felt small,” he admitted. “However it was a great worth, in a great location within the heart of town.”
The field of an area had a low ceiling, small home windows and was basically featureless, however that didn’t hassle Mr. Baimukhametov. “It was utterly empty, which made it good for me,” he stated. “I wished to have a design based on my needs, and this fashion, we wouldn’t must do any demolition work.”
For assist turning it into a personalised house, he tapped Fariz Mamedov, 27, the founding father of FM Interiors and an acquaintance he had adopted on Instagram. Mr. Baimukhametov had seen the younger designer enthusiastically renovate his personal house, and he wished to work with somebody who would deliver the same vitality to his house.
After visiting the empty house, Mr. Mamedov returned with drawings for no fewer than six distinct choices for arranging the area. “I selected the very first one,” Mr. Baimukhametov stated. “We had been in sync. I wanted 4 areas — for a kitchen, a front room, a toilet and a few sleeping area — and that was within the very first drawing.”
After all, it wasn’t merely a matter of carving up the area into separate capabilities. Each Mr. Baimukhametov and Mr. Mamedov wished to present the house some severe model.
“My coronary heart gravitates to Scandinavian design,” Mr. Mamedov stated in Russian, with Mr. Baimukhametov translating on his behalf.
Mr. Baimukhametov is a fan of Japanese design, which has many parallels with Scandinavian design, together with a concentrate on clean-lined sculptural types. “That’s the place we matched,” he stated.
The place they differed, Mr. Mamedov stated, was of their ideas on coloration. Particularly, Mr. Baimukhametov started the design course of with a relaxed coloration palette of subdued neutrals in thoughts, whereas Mr. Mamedov wished to blast the house with eye-catching hues.
In the long run, Mr. Mamedov gained out. Because the mission progressed, “principally each thought he proposed, I authorised,” Mr. Baimukhametov stated.
To create separate zones, Mr. Mamedov erected partitions round a nook sleeping area that’s entered by means of an arched doorway from the lounge, which could be lined by curtains for privateness. One of many partitions is thick sufficient to carry a closet within the sleeping area and a coat closet by the entrance door on the other aspect.
Within the toilet, Mr. Mamedov added one other arched opening between the vainness and the bath. In each the doorway corridor and kitchen, he put in mirrored doorways to assist mirror daylight and provides the areas extra visible depth.
However it was the usage of coloration that turned Mr. Mamedov’s strongest visible trick. By selecting sculptural furnishings in daring hues, he aimed to create an surroundings the place Mr. Baimukhametov’s visitors can be so taken with the objects that they’d nearly neglect concerning the area’s Lilliputian measurements.
“I used iconic furnishings from Scandinavia to attract consideration to these items,” Mr. Mamedov stated. “So visitors is not going to be specializing in the scale of the house itself, however on particular person objects.”
These items embody a brilliant yellow Ekstrem lounge chair in the lounge by the Norwegian designer Terje Ekstrøm, which seems to be prefer it’s fashioned from material tubes.
In between the kitchen and front room, a compact round eating desk with a high produced from recycled plastic bottle caps is illuminated by a Hive pendant lamp by Verner Panton and geared up with mismatched chairs from Fritz Hansen and Hay in yellow, purple and pale blue. There may be additionally a Troupe rug by Jaime Hayon for Nanimarquina, which depicts otherworldly characters in a riot of coloration.
After beginning development in Might 2023, the messy work was completed that September, and furnishings continued to trickle in by means of January 2024. The whole value, together with the furnishings, was about 27 million Kazakhstani tenge ($51,500).
In comparison with his outdated rental, Mr. Baimukhametov’s compact new house is a serious way of life improve. “I adore it,” he stated. “Typically I’m simply standing there and I’m like ‘Is that this my house?’ I can’t consider it, as a result of it’s all the pieces I wished.”
