Industrial interiors are known for concrete floors and wooden walls. What happens if you invert the structure, and throw a few specific Pantones in? This Penza, Russia interior, designed and visualised by Andrey Barinov, throws all your design preconceptions on their head. Using concrete ceilings and wooden floors, this almost 52sqm apartment makes a feature of external wiring and colourful borders. As pendant lighting dangles messily from its factory ceilings, large slabs of roughshod wood form tables met by white wire chairs. Open its closets with red dot handles; see rooms clad in fire truck red and teal green; bathe amidst baby blue and electric yellow bathroom tiles. See its surprising features and colours for yourself.
Opening onto an open, muted-colour space, the view from the lounge is broken by two colour ways: a striking teal wall complemented by red and black coloured wiring. An unusual feature guiding visitors, coloured wire forms snake through rooms and across ceilings, creating an easy-to-follow sequence of space. As light wooden walls match a simple TV cabinet, creativity shows itself in the little details – a diamond-legged plant stand, ceramic coral flower beside the TV, white dining pendant lights and a soft pair of abstract paintings. As cupboards and water heaters pale into the walls, red and black wire lines keep us moving – and guessing – into adjacent rooms.
Looking down from the ceiling, an array of messy pendants hang loose, creating a relaxed and casual vibe throughout the home. Against the backdrop of pale wooden flooring and white brick kitchen walls, the pendants provide a simple backdrop for a rough-shod wooden table and modern dining chairs in stencilled, white metal frames.
Complemented by a trio of oddly-sized marble planters, the dining room’s pendant cords thread into black and red wires, creating a web. Reflected in stencil-like dining chairs, a teal green door frame and fire engine outlines of cubby holes, the wiring provides design cues throughout the home. The wires work their way down the corridor, into the kitchen and through the wooden grooves of the floor, allowing a feeling of calm by lying flat on the ceiling.
As red and black wires thread through the interior, we meet a minimalist example for modern white kitchens. Headlined by a chrome extractor fan leading to an oven, stove and sink, the relatively-tight space creates room for thought in white. A row of tiled inlets mirrors the wall opposite, an industrial choice in white-painted exposed brick. Topped by six Japanese windows, the adjoining wall integrates the wires above and the grey-and-white patterned lino.
A peek through the kitchen’s Japanese windows offers a haven drenched in green. Using its space wisely, the bed expands over the floor with a grey woollen rug and matching cotton headboard. A row of camera lights make the space glow by night; two open balcony windows sunlit by day. Not to be lost from the grid of red and black, white pendants hang from red wiring to a table of similarly-coloured legs. A power socket pokes out in white, adding the final touch to a room decidedly tuned to an industrial style.
A tribute to the bedroom’s feature wall, the entrance corridor makes a statement of its own with a wall of green. Using the bedroom’s sliding doors with red dot handles, the space connects the linoleum of the kitchen with the grey of the lounge in a quilted seat. Two ceramic jars in the interior’s red have the final say in this storage-friendly corridor.
Unexpected bursts of colour announce themselves in the apartment’s two bathrooms. The smaller bathroom of the two stripes four tiles in sunshine yellow, marking the path to the main amenity. White tiles from the kitchen provide contrast with black tiles on the floor, an eye-catching detail in a mostly-white room. Laden with coral sculptures from the lounge, light wood forms a bench holding a sink and shelving. A space-saving cabinet in the same hue provides room above the porcelain.
Looking down into the master bathroom, its smaller cousin’s black and white tiles and light wood survive. Striking notes with baby blue and a burst of sunshine yellow, a sink space for two is divided by way of colour. Illuminating the space, LED mirror lights provide an unobtrusive design feature, while coral ornaments from the lounge offer another segue. Fitted with a stunning granite benchtop, marble soap dispenser, slatted shower mat and mint-painted towel rail, the space surprises again with a baby blue tiled wall housing an inbuilt bathtub.
Back in the corridor, the palette turns light again. Hiding the washing machine, iron and a plethora of towels, the cabinet's light-wooden panels hide away the everyday. As grey and white tiles greet the kitchen, a row of simple ceiling lights illuminate their patterns and red dot handles on the doors. A white door and walls to the left provide room for contemplation.
Take a look at the full floor plan for a bird's eye view of this apartment’s flow.