Feeling like bold decor choices for your apartment might just give it the edge it's currently lacking?
When looking for apartment decor ideas, we often tend towards the muted, the safe, the space-enhancing. But let us reframe your small space decorating preconceptions for a moment, with the help of interior designer Nicolò Castellini Baldissera (opens in new tab) and fashion and interiors photographer Guido Taroni (opens in new tab).
The pair teamed up to create Inside Milan (opens in new tab), an extraordinary book that goes behind the closed doors of Milan’s foremost creative residents, including Veronica and Jacopo Etro, Martina Mondadori, JJ Martin, and Barnaba Fornasetti.
The rooms they showcase demonstrate just how art, pattern and color, can suit small spaces, and tiny homes. These are our top eight, with commentary from Nicolò.
1. Color drench from floor to ceiling
This color-drenched space by interior designer Nicolò Castellini Baldissera has a stunning ceiling, floor and sofa – the patterns and details are pulled together by the soft colors.
‘One of the benefits of living in Milan is the number of industrious people who can help you realize just about anything,' he says.
'On Via della Moscova, I found an antiques shop with a set of silverware, an electrician to rewire my lamps and a fabric shop where I unearthed some silk stripes and blue velvet.’
2. Small space? Use high-impact surfaces
This sweet space by architect Hannes Peer (opens in new tab) and Philippe Rinaudo is bursting with small-space ideas, including reflective surfaces, textured wallcoverings and decorative ceilings.
The stained-glass sliding doors between the kitchen and dining room were created to imitate a garage door typical in Milanese entryways.
3. Don't shy away from bold color clashes
Fashion designer J.J. Martin (opens in new tab) lives here. ‘I began peeking in the doorways of buildings and interviewing doormen; eventually one of them gave me a tip about this place,’ she explained.
It was kismet. Entering the 1910 building, there is a palpable sense of grandeur, thanks to its generous proportions and mosaic details.
4. Over-accessorize in social spaces
Veronica Etro needed something to suit her effervescent personality:
‘My father always told me I could never make up my mind,’ Veronica revealed, when she began work on the dining room, ‘and so I loved not having to make my mind up with the chairs and the chandeliers! That room is my favorite – like Alice in Wonderland.’
5. Use bold geometrics to exaggerate space
Lapo Elkann immediately recognised the potential this space had to offer. It has the quality of a sailboat: long and narrow, with a terrace that wraps around its entire length. The apartment reflects his unique collecting style, eclectically mixing art, design and a love of objects: ‘I love to find things that are not new.’
6. Enhance small spaces with characterful layering
Osanna Visconti (opens in new tab) has embraced the decorative history of the building. Grand rooms with frescoed ceilings boast walls with layers of plaster and accumulated patina.
There is a mix of objects, from contemporary paintings to collections of antique blue ceramic plates and warm 19th-century armchairs covered in rich velvet fabric.
7. Switch paint colors to the unexpected
‘I have fallen in love with the unusual orange used in this space,’ says Emiliano Salci, co-founder of Dimorestudio (opens in new tab). He has decorated his home with some of his most favorite pieces: a pair of white closets by Alvar Aalto; shelves by Jean Prouvé; a painting by Enrico Castellani and armchairs by Piero Portaluppi.
8. Use paint tricks to create depth of detail
It is one thing to be born into good taste, as Martina Mondadori (opens in new tab) and Ashley Hicks (opens in new tab) certainly were, but their relentless efforts have cemented them as foremost authorities of what it means to be tasteful.
This apartment is a testament to their undaunted creative energy. Ashley set to work on trompe l’oeil marble and stonework on various columns and doors and paisley stencils for walls in other rooms.
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