This 463-Square-Foot Milan Apartment Is Full of Covert Storage Space
As architects and designers Anna Foresio and Pietro Carlino of Fo.Ca Studio approached the recent renovation of a 463-square-foot Milan apartment, they asked themselves how exactly to make use of every square inch. Their final design is a small home in which there is room for every essential thanks to its abundance of covert storage space, reflecting the focus on functionality that was central to the studio’s vision for this project.
“The client’s idea,” they explain, “was to maintain the apartment’s existing layout, while finding ways to allow more natural light in and give new life to the different rooms through a combination of design and color strategies.” With a focus on their client’s needs, the designers created an open and colorful environment with two entrances to the kitchen (one from the hallway side and the other from the entry). Here, “the whole kitchen was custom designed,” including the gray microcement floor and yellow countertops. Combined with the midnight blue elements, these colors give an elegance to the entire apartment.
Located on the second floor of the building, the apartment’s original entryway was dark. Fo.Ca Studio chose to maintain some portions of the existing wall between the kitchen and the entrance while removing one that sat between the living room and the kitchen in order to create a single open living area with two windows, thus brightening up the entryway.
The gray floor in the kitchen creates a contrast with the wood floors in the rest of the house: “an oak that we sanded and brought back to life.” Blue—one of the principal colors of the Milanese project—makes appearances in many parts of the house including the bathroom cabinet and the bedroom ceiling, where it appears like a kind of “dark, nocturnal sky engulfing the decorative elements and stucco details.” For the bathroom, on the other hand, the designers “took up the idea of a vintage look, using a stoneware with a dense but not too dark grain, which we combined with a salmon-colored stone tiles for the shower area. This created a splash of color at the end of the bathroom, breaking it into different areas as otherwise it would have been too narrow and long.” New materials with a vaguely retro flavor are also used for the cabinet, another design by the studio, with its brass feet and handles. Finally, topping it all off is a large brick-colored closet at the entrance. This custom-designed element was made to fit within an existing space but cut at a 45-degree angle to open up more of the view of the living space and allow light to penetrate to the darkest areas of the house.
This Milan apartment was first published by AD Italy.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio1/8After understanding their client’s needs, the designers created an open and colorful environment with two different entrances to the kitchen (one from the entry and another from a hallway).
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio2/8The architects’ goal was to maintain the current layout of the rooms while finding ways to introduce more natural light and breathe new life into the rooms with some design changes and a dramatic use of color.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio3/8Rounding out the living area is a large brick-colored storage room. The custom-designed element was made to fit into a pre-existing space but cut at an angle of 45 degrees to open up more of the view of the living area and allow light to penetrate to the darkest areas of the house.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio4/8The sections of the floor done in a gray microcement contrast with the wooden areas in the rest of the house, which the designers sanded to bring “back to life.” Blue—one of the dominant colors of the project—makes appearances in many rooms.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio5/8Anna and Pietro—the architects behind the renovation project—worked with the homeowner to create a small Milan apartment that is functional, colorful, and spacious feeling.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio6/8The ubiquitous shades of blue found in the apartment extend to the bedroom ceiling, where it creates the illusion of a night sky while incorporating decorative details and stucco moldings.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio7/8New materials with a vaguely retro feel are seen in installations like the sink cabinet, also designed by the studio, with its brass feet and fixtures.
Photo: Simone Furioso; Courtesy of Fo.Ca Studio.8/8The designers used salmon-colored tiles for the shower to separate the space.
