Terracotta tile burns brightly across the modestly proportioned living room of our first small apartment tour. The narrow lounge is located in a 32 square metre apartment, in Kaliningrad, Russian Federation. An ultra low backed modern sofa helps to visually widen the narrow room, allowing the eye to continue all the way to the white wall behind it. At first glance this may not seem the most practical of furniture choices, but for anyone who just loves stretching out along the couch in the evenings then this bed style sofa will suit just fine.

A long modern coffee table provides plenty of space for reading material and snacks by the sofa.

An ottoman section is adjoined to the front of the modular sofa to make a chaise lounge. Behind the chaise, an Ikea PS 2017 lamp beautifully uplights the leaves of indoor plants on a small side table.

The flooring in the living room is part wood laminate, part black carpet, each providing a durable walkway.

Relite windows cross the top of the partition wall to let borrowed light into the bedroom behind. A black portiere draws closed across the doorway. A precast concrete block is substituted for a regular media cabinet, giving the room edgy industrial flavour.

bring life to the solid concrete media shelf.

The inspirational works of Tadao Ando by Masao Furuyama awaits an admirer or a student.

On the opposite side to the bedroom doorway, there is a closet space that is also caped by a black curtain. The closet stands by the home entryway so that it can store outdoor garments in the most convenient location.

However, this is the one and only wardrobe in the apartment, so an entire collection of clothing resides here on an adjustable closet system.

A small black side table dutifully awaits the drop of keys and phones by a blue front door.

The cornflower blue hue of the door contrasts cooly against the heat of the terracotta feature wall.

Two dining chairs are pushed up to the shelf of a serving hatch between the lounge and the kitchen.

The glass doors of the serving hatch push back in a bifold action to reveal a four place dining set. Beside the minimalist dining room, a timber kitchen door slides aside on runners so as not to encroach on living room floor space.

One of the modern dining chairs has been selected in a contrasting colour to the other three to create interest.

The secondary chair colour also ties in with the gentle tone of the bare wood door.

Modern cups bring more colour to the table, echoing the black and red terracotta decor palette.

Inside the small kitchen, open wall shelves are placed above a red kitchen backsplash. The base run of the one wall kitchen features a core of raw wood cabinets, flanked by a balance of black end units.

A black kitchen sink and faucet stand out against the white worktop.

Softly lit terracotta tile creates a cozy bedroom scheme.

Black tiles back the shower room.

The floor plan illustrates great use of just a few partition walls.

Modern art puts personality into a minimalist lounge set up here in our second home tour. A round coffee table draws from the subject of one abstract canvas art print.

The decorative vase on the table is sympathetic to the natural tone of the area rug below.

An utterly absorbing home workspace is situated at the end of the living room, manifested as a deep black cube.

A white desk cuts through the pitch black backdrop.

The legs of a white desk chair has exposed wooden bases to interact with other raw wooden elements of the home office.

A wirework frame spans the workspace, which is utilised as a memo board.

The rungs of the frame provide places to clip documents, and to hang plants.

The black cushion of a wooden entryway bench is completely camouflaged against solid black painted walls. Wooden panels build a bridge of light relief.

An understated wooden shelf underlines the wall mounted TV in lieu of a media cabinet or fireplace mantel. It’s not a lot, but the simple piece gives the floating TV a proper home.

Moving through into the minimalist white dining room, we find a black and wood dining set beneath a utilitarian pendant light.

Plants make the pared back space appear more homey and inviting.

The round dining table fits comfortably into a bay window situation, making the most of all available floor space.

An L-shaped kitchen clutches to the remainder of the kitchen space.

cabinets make a clean compilation. White cabinets keep the upper part of the room looking open and light despite their extended height, whilst the heavy black finish weighs down the base units.

A midnight black bathroom ceiling sends the rafters disappearing into outer space.

A wood bathroom vanity warms the temperature of a black and white dominated scheme.

Floor plan.