A Dream come true

Photography by Fran Parente

Leandro Garcia designed the interiors of his 108 m² apartment together with his architect wife in Curitiba, Brazil.

The apartment originally belonged to the parents of Leandro's wife where they lived for about 10 years and then kept it rented for another 30 years. The younger daughter always asked her parents no to sell the apartment, because she wanted to move there one day, a wish recently fulfilled when she, an architect and designer, decided to remodel the apartment with her partner Leandro (also architect and designer). The couple was won by the surroundings, which encourage stimulating walks through the central part of the city that lives in constant change. Walking a few blocks, they arrive at their favorite cafes and restaurants and in their studio, where they work together. From the apartment the view is expansive, a rare characteristic in the city’s centers, and they were both captivated by the natural light, the sun and wind streaming in through the windows.

The place required the replacement of all the electrical and plumbing installation, besides a radical change in the plan. Three bedrooms became two, the utility area was reduced, and the service bedroom was eliminated, all this so the living and dining room could become larger, brighter and integrated to the kitchen. The pre-existing window frames and the original Imbuia parquet floor were kept, which was revived after its restoration.
In the living room, the furniture - not only the armchairs, but also the carpets, had to be soft to sit on the ground - was chosen, thrifted and positioned for conversations and readings. Over the neutral parquet base and the white walls and doors, points of color were applied to the most important furniture pieces, such as the light blue sofa and the caramel armchair and ottoman by Percival Lafer, Flavio de Carvalho's brown armchair and the green chair by Geraldo de Barros. Among several other important pieced are the jacaranda wood rack by Celina Zilberberg, the Spindel vase by Willy Guhl, the auditorium jacaranda wood sitting designed by Sergio Rodrigues for the SESC SP, the Girafa stool by Lina Bo Bardi, Marcelo Suzuki and Marcelo Ferraz, the Mocho stool by Sergio Rodrigues, the Luminator floor lamp by Pietro Chiesa for FontanaArte and the Varetas coat stand and the Folhas buffet table by Leandro Garcia.

This apartment was, during the 1980s, the scenario for great memories for a newly married couple. 30 years later, their daughter, who is also an architect and designer and became my wife, decided with me to remodel the original 1970s apartment, a beginning of another history, full of modern and contemporary design.

The residents and authors of the project wanted the result to be different what they had done before for studio clients, with the intention to create in their home a place to pause and retreat. For this reason, they experimented with materials they had never used before, such as terrazzo and hydraulic tile, and the cabinetry was restricted to the closets and kitchen and bathroom cabinets. It is around the large 4,5 m long solid wood table designed by the architects and custom-made that everything happens: the couple's daily conviviality, who, also in the company of friends and family, eat their meals, cook, write, draw, and paint. The dinner table and the kitchen countertop are united in a single element and are subtly distinguished by the industrial vintage lamps rhythm and by the white object collection (Nicole Toldi, Heloísa Galvão among other vases) that interrupts the surface length.

The master bedroom has a simple yet elegant style: a semi-transparent white curtain has been placed along the entire window wall, thus enlarging the space and making it very bright. As in the rest of the house, the walls are white, and the geometric pattern of the parquet stands out.

In the guest bathroom, a wall was removed to make room for a spacious shower; it is completely white - from the small square white tiles to the furniture and bathroom fixtures. The only highlights are like the wooden frame of the mirror and the rattan accessories.

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