Wood, signed furniture, and works of art set the tone in this 170 m² apartment

A single doctor without children, a wine enthusiast and a marathon runner worldwide, already lived in this apartment of 170 m² in Jardim Oceânico (RJ), but felt the need to give it a complete makeover to adapt it to his current taste and lifestyle. For this mission, he hired architect Cristina Bezamat from the CASACOR Rio de Janeiro lineup. "The client requested a special project to house a wine cellar and expand his suite," she says. With the renovation, Cristina took advantage of a setback in the dining area to create the wine cellar space and combined two bedrooms to enlarge the resident's bedroom and create a closet. Additionally, she transformed the social bathroom into a Canadian-style bathroom to serve the guest room and the new closet. "This way, the suite can have two bathrooms when used by a couple," she explains. Originally, the apartment was dark and poorly divided. To increase the sense of spaciousness and enhance the presence of natural light in the spaces, the architect adopted a neutral color palette, composed of light tones, across all environments. In the social area, she broke this neutrality by adding colors in the rug, artworks, and cushions. In the bedrooms, colors appear in the bedding. In the kitchen, the retro-style cabinets received a blue finish, bringing even more personality to the space. In the social area, including the balcony, priority was given to Brazilian signed design furniture, lighting, and accessories, such as the Alice chaises (by Aristeu Pires), Renata armchairs (by Sergio Rodrigues), GB dining chairs (by Geraldo de Barros), the Pensil stool (by Etel Carmona), Chuva wall mirror (by Leo Romano), L-shaped Misti sofa (by Larissa Diegoli), Deck sofa (by Bernardo Figueiredo), LBB01 pendant lamp (by Lina Bo Bardi), Form side table (by Marcelo Ligieri), Obá side table, and Sofia armchair (by Maria Cândida Machado), handcrafted ceramic lamp (by Elisabeth Fonseca and Gilberto Paim), and Buni wooden lamp (by Jader Almeida).

National design is also present in the kitchen (with Giulia stools, by Aristeu Pires), in the Canadian bathroom (with the Jabuticaba sconce, by Ana Neute) and in the master suite bathroom (with Corda pendant lights, by Guilherme Wentz). Among the artworks, the architect highlights the colorful canvas by John Nicholson (in the living room), the black and white print by Andrea Brown (in the dining area), a print by Waltércio Caldas, and two prints by Renata Rios (next to the TV) and a print by Marcus André (in the access to the bedrooms). Regarding materials and finishes, in the social area and balcony, all cabinetry designed by the architect (such as the TV rack and dining buffet) was made of natural freijó wood and the floor was covered with porcelain tile in the Travertino Navona Bianco pattern. In the kitchen, the countertops are made of white quartz, the cabinets received special blue paint, and the walls were covered with retro white ceramic tiles. In the resident's bedroom, the wooden plank flooring already existed and was restored in the demolished areas for the expansion of the room. The panel behind the bed is made of MDF with a white laminate finish, while the other walls received neutral wallpaper, and the curtains are made of white linen gauze. All the 'exposed' walls of the apartment were painted with regular white paint.