photos: tom menz
modern doesn’t always mean purist – and even a newly built apartment doesn’t have to look like something out of a realtor’s catalog. “vintage does the trick” – because original midcentury classics help to soften the impersonal coldness of a freshly constructed new building. antiques often feel “too far away” historically and may look like foreign objects, the “cuteness” of the country house style is more suited to old buildings and a complete set of decorations out of the furniture store quickly creates the “show apartment effect” (and who deciedes to go for the same boring beige tiles in nearly every new-build bathroom?). antibeige can help with such design issues – not only with sourcing furniture and objects, but also with holistic advice.
this apartment in a new building in hamburg was purchased as a “refined shell”, i.e. without the finishing touches, which the owners were then able to determine themselves. they followed our suggestion and dispensed with all partitions, instead creating two bedrooms by inserting cupboard walls that could be used from both sides. all the cupboards were clad with american walnut veneer, sourced from a single tree, so that the grain is continuous. the unclad concrete ceiling with visible ventilation pipes was left, supplemented by a concrete screed with underfloor heating. the warm grey surfaces above and below are contrasted by strongly colored wall surfaces – particularly intense with natural pigments from le corbusier’s color palette.
when it came to the interior design, we mixed and matched: in the living area, the two sofas are just as new as the wall-width shelving unit – which, however, was developed by dieter rams back in 1960. it is complemented by a matching eames coffee table, a drawing board from the architect’s office and a set of three nesting tables. in addition, there are three original italian lamps from the sixties and a slightly brutalist wenge sideboard by an italian manufacturer. in the wide central corridor between the bedrooms, a 70s eames bench with two seat shells and two tabletops awaits handbags, keys and sunglasses. and in the combined kitchen and dining area, a huge desk by florence knoll used as a dinner table stands out against the op-art tile pattern. surrounding it there are eames chairs again, here the “two piece plastic chairs” in a rare color edition. lighting comes from the famous ‘ph artichoke’, designed by poul henningsen in 1958 for louis poulsen – in a rusty patina because it hung over a swimming pool in the south of france for many years.
in the bathroom, we arranged the tiles graphically on the washbasin side and laid them in a herringbone pattern on the opposite side of the shower. the blue-colored concrete washbasin was made to measure and forms a perfect combination with arne jacobsen’s taps in patinated brass.
and that’s what defines the antibeige style: objects with history and modern icons, functional design and surprising combinations – and a good pinch of fun.
