Old Stockholm Office Transformed Into a Home by Note Design Studio.

An apartment without a bathroom, kitchen or storage – the former head office for a fashion brand in the centre of Stockholm and a client who hoped to transform it into a home were the starting points for this amazing space recently transformed by the clever cookies of Note Design Studio. Traces of the old 19th century splendour could still be seen throughout the space – worn timber floors and ornaments in the form of stucco and carpentry, as well as three majestic tiled ovens. But all the beautiful, old elements were painted in thick layers of paint, white washed by modern spotlights in the ceilings, reinforcing the feeling of an impersonal office and an interior without a soul.

“We noted the colours of the three tiled ovens – green, pink and a yellowish-white,” explain Note Design Studio. “Behind a wall that was torn down to access old piping, we found original 19th century paint on a door frame, suddenly illuminating the entire white space with a powerful mustard yellow tint.” The designers added additional tones to the original colour scale, acting as a bridge between the powerful original hues. They ended up with an 8-tone colour palette that originated from the hidden traces of the old apartment.

The overall objective was the preservation and minimal intervention with the original features of the apartment, so all the new built elements were placed in the gaps between the old ornaments. All the new joinery either hovers off the walls between base boards and stucco, or is otherwise free-standing. Two new walls were added, designed to appear the same as the joinery – a veneered surface with diagonal lines, inspired by the most beautiful pattern in the apartment; an original parquet in one of the corner rooms.

A colour palette based on the original found shades, three expressive tiled ovens, decorations in the ceilings and carpentry, and the original parquet flooring pattern – these old traits and quirks were the clues Note Design Studio needed to take a drab old office space into a contemporary direction. The result is a harmonious but rich colour experience – inspired by the original splendour – and a new home for a happy client and his children.