On the finish of 2022, Kassym Baimukhametov was residing in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis, when he encountered an issue skilled by many: The lease was too rattling excessive.
“I made a decision to purchase my very own place as a result of costs for lease went up,” mentioned Mr. Baimukhametov, 38, who works as a challenge supervisor in enterprise and expertise. “The universe was giving me indicators.”
Relatively than paying lease, he determined he’d be higher off investing in actual property. Not needing a lot area, he started trying to find studio residences and located a 388-square-foot, new-construction unit for 31.5 million Kazakhstani tenge ($60,000). He closed in February 2023.
“If felt small,” he admitted. “But it surely was a very good value, in a very good location within the heart of the town.”
The field of an area had a low ceiling, small home windows and was basically featureless, however that didn’t hassle Mr. Baimukhametov. “It was fully empty, which made it good for me,” he mentioned. “I wished to have a design in accordance with my needs, and this fashion, we wouldn’t should do any demolition work.”
For assist turning it into a personalised house, he tapped Fariz Mamedov, 27, the founding father of FM Interiors and an acquaintance he had adopted on Instagram. Mr. Baimukhametov had seen the younger designer enthusiastically renovate his personal condo, and he wished to work with somebody who would carry an analogous vitality to his house.
After visiting the empty condo, Mr. Mamedov returned with drawings for no fewer than six distinct choices for arranging the area. “I selected the very first one,” Mr. Baimukhametov mentioned. “We had been in sync. I wanted 4 areas — for a kitchen, a lounge, a toilet and a few sleeping area — and that was within the very first drawing.”
In fact, it wasn’t merely a matter of carving up the area into separate features. Each Mr. Baimukhametov and Mr. Mamedov wished to offer the condo some critical model.
“My coronary heart gravitates to Scandinavian design,” Mr. Mamedov mentioned in Russian, with Mr. Baimukhametov translating on his behalf.
Mr. Baimukhametov is a fan of Japanese design, which has many parallels with Scandinavian design, together with a deal with clean-lined sculptural varieties. “That’s the place we matched,” he mentioned.
The place they differed, Mr. Mamedov mentioned, was of their ideas on coloration. Particularly, Mr. Baimukhametov started the design course of with a relaxed coloration palette of subdued neutrals in thoughts, whereas Mr. Mamedov wished to blast the house with eye-catching hues.
Ultimately, Mr. Mamedov gained out. Because the challenge progressed, “mainly each thought he proposed, I authorized,” Mr. Baimukhametov mentioned.
To create separate zones, Mr. Mamedov erected partitions round a nook sleeping area that’s entered by means of an arched doorway from the lounge, which could be coated by curtains for privateness. One of many partitions is thick sufficient to carry a closet within the sleeping area and a coat closet by the entrance door on the alternative facet.
Within the toilet, Mr. Mamedov added one other arched opening between the vainness and the bath. In each the doorway corridor and kitchen, he put in mirrored doorways to assist mirror daylight and provides the areas extra visible depth.
But it surely was the usage of coloration that grew to become Mr. Mamedov’s strongest visible trick. By selecting sculptural furnishings in daring hues, he aimed to create an setting the place Mr. Baimukhametov’s friends can be so taken with the objects that they’d virtually neglect in regards to the area’s Lilliputian measurements.
“I used iconic furnishings from Scandinavia to attract consideration to these items,” Mr. Mamedov mentioned. “So friends won’t be specializing in the dimensions of the condo itself, however on particular person gadgets.”
These items embrace a vibrant yellow Ekstrem lounge chair in the lounge by the Norwegian designer Terje Ekstrøm, which seems to be prefer it’s shaped from cloth tubes.
In between the kitchen and lounge, a compact round eating desk with a prime created from recycled plastic bottle caps is illuminated by a Hive pendant lamp by Verner Panton and outfitted with mismatched chairs from Fritz Hansen and Hay in yellow, purple and pale blue. There may be additionally a Troupe rug by Jaime Hayon for Nanimarquina, which depicts otherworldly characters in a riot of coloration.
After beginning building in Could 2023, the messy work was completed that September, and furnishings continued to trickle in by means of January 2024. The overall price, together with the furnishings, was about 27 million Kazakhstani tenge ($51,500).
In comparison with his previous rental, Mr. Baimukhametov’s compact new house is a significant way of life improve. “I adore it,” he mentioned. “Generally I’m simply standing there and I’m like ‘Is that this my condo?’ I can’t imagine it, as a result of it’s all the things I wished.”
