Meet the apartment of architects Carol Freitas and Fabio Bouillet

The couple of architects Carol Freitas and Fabio Bouillet, from the office BF + Architects and part of the CASACOR Rio de Janeiro, bought this old apartment of 124 m² in Leblon (RJ) with the intention of doing a complete renovation before moving in with their 2-year-old son, Pedro. [ "We have very similar tastes. Before we started looking for the ideal apartment, we made a list of everything that bothered us and what we wanted to adjust in our new home. We agreed, for example, that the apartment needed to be practical for everyday life. Additionally, it was essential to have automated lighting in the living room and in our bedroom, to have two showers in our bathroom, to eliminate the third bedroom for the sake of a larger living room, and to install air conditioning in the kitchen, since it becomes an extension of the living room on busy days,” enumerates Carol. [ Originally, the apartment had three bedrooms and one bathroom. With the renovation, one of the bedrooms was eliminated to expand the social area, the couple's bedroom was transformed into a suite, and the social bathroom was kept. [ Although the kitchen layout was considerably altered, the architects chose not to integrate it with the living room, since they have a small child and a high demand for staff that make the projects quite used. "In our case, opening the kitchen would disrupt the dynamics of the house in terms of noise and odor," justifies Fabio. [ The concept of the project aimed to create a practical and minimalist home for the daily life of a family, but without compromising the feeling of comfort and coziness, reinforced through natural materials with varied textures, such as leather, wood, linen, and cotton. The color palette has a neutral base in darker tones, with colors appearing occasionally, especially in the artworks. [

In the social area, the cabinetry received a dark wood finish to make the spaces more sophisticated. Meanwhile, in the intimate area, a lighter wood finish, in an oak pattern, predominates to bring warmth. [ In the decoration, since the residents are architects and collectors of contemporary art, they brought from the previous apartment a considerable collection of artworks (highlighting artists Ascânio MMM, Marcelo Solá, Picasso, Gonçalo Ivo, Ricardo Homem, Mai-Britt Wolthers, and Tom Guarienti), as well as some signed Brazilian designer furniture, such as the Mole armchair and the pair of Lia armchairs by Sergio Rodrigues, and the Paulistano armchair by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. [ The coffee table Pétala, by Jorge Zalszupin, was bought especially for the new apartment and has become the cherry on top of the living room, next to the curved sofa. “The living area also has large guillotine windows that frame the green of the treetops, as if it were a living painting,” reveals Carol. [ "The three main highlights of this project are undoubtedly the brightness of the apartment and the spaciousness of the projects after the renovation; the simple yet timeless design that permeates all spaces; the combination of functionality and comfort with elegance," concludes architect Fabio Bouillet.