Transforming an apartment into a real home

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Designing an apartment that meets the taste and wishes of its owner amid space limitations is a challenge. It's especially true in making the most of an apartment, where there is the liability of rooms appearing disordered as though they run together as one.

Interior designer Iwan Sastrawiguna was up to the task for an 84-square-meter apartment in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, carefully selecting furniture and accessories for the interior to meet the owner's desire for a semi-classic style.

"She is in the furniture business so we chose the furniture available at her showroom," Iwan said of the owner, who lives in the apartment with her adult daughter.

The designer made few structural changes to the apartment, apart from erecting a wall near the front door to separate the foyer from what is now the kitchen area. Now, the apartment has three bedrooms -- including a master bedroom -- a family room, a foyer, a dining room, a kitchen, a service area as well as two bathrooms, including a master bathroom.

Instead of creating tall room dividers, Iwan designed low cabinets that serve as dividers as well as storage areas, particularly important in optimizing the space.

"You will not find any divider, stretching from the floor up to the ceiling," Iwan said.

Separated from the dining room with another cabinet, the small foyer is equipped with a telephone and seating area, where the occupants can comfortably receive phone calls as well as putting on or taking off their shoes. The cabinet here is used to store shoes and clean socks.

Adjacent to it is the dining room that is designed with a stone table, a comfortable two-seat sofa next to the wall and two chairs on the other side of the table. All tableware is kept in the cabinet and a hanging wall lamp illuminates the area. Behind the couch, a collection of small framed pictures decorates the wall.

"I specially chose small pictures because they can nicely decorate the wall of such a small room," Iwan explained.

The young designer also added a classic style mirror next to the dining room and the foyer to give a "spacious" look to the small rooms.

For the family room, a two-seat sofa, armchair and an ottoman are arranged around an oval-shaped glass table. A potted plant sits near the window, giving a natural touch to the interior.

Iwan selected soft-colored furniture and fabrics for the drapes, tablecloths, cushions and carpets to avoid a "heavy" impression.

Some walls and ceilings were given interesting finishing effects, like cracking or a texturized look.

"Apart from using special painting techniques, I also used a sponge and sapu lidi (a traditional broom from thatch) to create some of the desired finishes. After applying different color of paints and coats, I lightly dabbed the wall using a sponge or randomly pricked the ceiling with the broom while the paint was still wet, and the result was not bad," Iwan said.

For the lighting, Iwan installed indirect lighting and up lighting to create the desired ambience, while hanging lamps are only placed in the dining and family rooms to avoid clutter.

Although the apartment as well as the interior has strong classical nuances, each of the occupants' respective styles is expressed in their bedrooms.

Soft pink hues dominate the master bedroom while for the bed Iwan designed an avant garde-shaped headboard as an accent. The room also comes with a bedside table, a cabinet stretching along one side of the wall, a wardrobe and a dressing table.

And unlike the functional guest bedroom, the daughter's youthful, "pop" style room is cluttered with her personal belongings, arranged on the bedside cabinet. The room is spacious enough even to accommodate a visiting friend who wishes to spend the night with her.

For the kitchen, a narrow cabinet and a shelf along the wall were designed to store all the kitchen utensils as well as to ensure the small area remains organized.

"And since the kitchen is only separated from the dining room and the family room by a glass door, the servant can have easy access from the small kitchen to the dining room," Iwan said.