Harmonious eclecticism | Reklektik Studio

The young couple was ready for a real home in Budapest. They were living in Switzerland and travelling a lot, but they spent a lot of time in the Hungarian capital. After the life in hotels became too boring, they wanted a flat in Budapest that was unique, homely and reflected their personality. Once they managed to purchase a wonderful, small apartment in the elegant Lipótváros district, they entrusted us with creating the home of their dreams.

Classical and contemporary

The elegance of the area was apparent in the renovated flat, but the owners wanted to achieve more than simple nostalgia. Beside the beautiful vintage mirrors, chandeliers and furniture, we added modern elements and solutions that might be surprising at first glance. However, these unusual pairings look natural in this flat, as if these items have always belonged together, despite being created a hundred years apart.

It was our intention to renovate the beautiful, original floor, we didn’t want to replace it. In addition to the above-mentioned elements, the height of the rooms, the huge windows, the newly installed ornate stucco work, the panel dividers on the walls, and the white doors all give the feeling of a classic, bourgeois idyll, and evoke an atmosphere that was once present in this flat one hundred years ago.

The furniture was chosen to fit this upper middle class feeling and to mix and give the feeling of eclecticism, so we could make the inner spaces traditionally elegant, contemporary and youthful at the same time. 
You just need to take a look at the living room to feel this. This room’s main decoration is the gold framed, antique mirror, which matches the simple modern furniture in its own way. The unique bookshelf stands as a counterpoint to the mirror: the metal gold framed structure, besides being a great addition to decoration, gives the stability to the bookshelf by being fixed to the floor and the ceiling. Due to its simplicity it matches the environment perfectly.

Modern and antique

We created several special areas in the living room: a working corner, a room for daily activities and a dining room found their places here. The comfortable couch and armchairs in the living area are rather modern, as well as the chairs in the dining room, but the table is a real antique piece, a family heirloom. If you look up to the ceiling, you can see the perfect contrary to this: the lamp over the antique table is rather modern, and we placed a traditional chandelier over the living room.

We didn’t touch the room arrangements in the flat, besides one small exception: we separated a small space from the bedroom to use it as wardrobe, as the apartment didn’t have much storage space. The previous electrical network has been entirely renewed to match the new interiors. One of the few colored walls can also be found in the bedroom, and this room is lit by another chandelier. Besides these details, we aimed for simplicity here.

The mysterious blue column

We didn’t add any extensions to the small kitchen, but we transformed it to be as practical as possible. Several storage units and shelves were built into the wall. We added a small table here with two chairs to make it into a breakfast area - above this table you can also find a smaller chandelier.
We hid the fridge with an interesting solution: the appliance (along with a cabinet) was put into the bright blue column that is part of the kitchen, but it rules the hall because of its position. The blue column is basically a tower that serves both hall and kitchen functionalities. The dominant blue color comes back in the kitchen and other places as well, refreshing the apartment dominated by white walls.

We put a grey, dense patterned wallpaper onto the hall walls, and it really attracts the attention. Our intention with this solution was to impress people the moment they enter the flat. As they walk around the rooms, several of these impressive elements come back to keep the entire space cohesive.