19th December 2018 | IN COLOUR | BY SBID ShareTweetPinterestLinkedInThis week’s instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a 90 square metre apartment, set on the Mediterranean Sea, not far from Alicante. This quirky holiday home is located in an apartment block surrounded by lush greenery; the formidable foliage appropriately inspired the distinctive tropical-style interior design scheme used throughout the property. During the early design stages, the client was open to all creative and out-of-the-box ideas which lead them to using a bold and striking green as the apartment’s signature colour theme. The palette evolved to include a sunrise shade of pink, together with luxurious brass elements and earthy wood tones. This apartment truly comes to life with an eccentric blend of palm prints, tropical leaves and exotic birds on the wallpaper! Company: INTRO by Chak Project: Power of the Colour Project Location: Altea, Spain What was the client’s brief? The apartment block is surrounded by lush greenery; prompting the designer to propose a daring tropical-style solution for the interior design. In the process of design planning, the client was open to all ideas and absolutely loved the suggestion of using green as the main feature colour. Initially the client wanted to refresh the walls and renovate the kitchen; in the end the project turned into a significant reconstruction. What inspired the design of the project? The client did not want to change the doors. This set the start of the project. If we are not going to change them, let’s have them painted. A bright shade of green was suggested. It fascinated and inspired the client. From then on the project could not be limited to simple repainting of the walls. The green doors called out for more. And so a sunrise shade of pink appeared, together with the luxurious brass, tropical leaves and birds on the wallpaper. What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project? It was our first project in Spain. Being a Russian design studio, it was difficult initially to start and build communication with the suppliers and local workers. We are familiar with working using mostly English and Russian languages, so to work in the Spanish language was a big challenge for us! That’s why at the beginning of the constitution, it was difficult to avoid misunderstanding so naturally, some errors arose because of it. Finally, we got through these communication issues and we couldn’t be happier with the result – and now we are fluent in all specific construction, architecture and design lexis in Spanish! We did run into some technical / construction difficulty during the build; fixing the 6-sided tiles in the bathroom called for very careful work. Also, the owner of the flat only wanted to renovate the apartment, so in some instances we couldn’t touch or structurally change some aspects of the property (e.g heating in the floor and air-conditioning) which we could probably have moved to develop the design further. Working on this project gave us a lot of pleasure and overall we didn’t meet too many difficulties. The owner of the apartment was participating with enthusiasm at every stage of the working process! What was your team’s highlight of the project? Our idea was to use the mirrors to create the feeling of more space. We can see the best example of this in one of the bedrooms, where the entire wall behind the bed is made of mirror. We were happy with the visual impact of this, and how effectively it seemed to generate the illusion of space. There is a portal in the living room which is also made of mirrors which is used to separate the living room area from the dinning room area. In the middle of this portal there is a painted green column; visually, this gives the impression that it levitates above the table! Additionally, this portal offers the opportunity to create geometrical proportions of the space in which is very pleasant and comfortable to spend time in. Why did you enter the SBID International Design Awards? It was an honour for us to take the chance and participate in the SBID Awards 2018. We are very happy to have been listed as a Finalist in these Awards! Questions answered by Nadya Chak, the Founder and designer of the design studio, INTRO by Chak If you missed last week’s Project of the Week featuring a fabulous family apartment merging luxury design with elegant simplicity by the River Nile, click here to see more. We hope you feel inspired! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire INTRO by Chak | SBID International Design Awards 2018