Integration and exposed beams mark this apartment with sea views

The goal of this family with three teenage children was to live in a home with a beautiful view, plenty of space and a bedroom for each person. The answer came in the form of a 200 m² property in São Conrado (in the southern part of Rio de Janeiro), an apartment from which they can admire the greenery of Rio and the sea. Before moving to the new address, they decided to commission architect Ketlein Amorim to completely renovate the property, with completely new decor in all the rooms. “The clients asked us to modernize the apartment , making it practical and easy to maintain , and adapt it to the needs of a family of five. They also asked us to increase the existing ceiling height , which was very low,” says Ketlein. “The structure of this apartment was very robust, with huge pillars in the middle and very low beams. To increase the ceiling height, we decided to use the beams , taking advantage of the high and low areas after removing the ceiling to divide the spaces into sectors,” he adds. During the renovation, the apartment was torn down, with practically all the walls being demolished, to make way for a completely new layout , making the most of the sea view , including in the kitchen, which gained an opening in the wall with glass enclosure, facing the entrance hall of the living room, delimited by a wall built with cobogós . The architect also installed a bathroom in her daughter’s bedroom and incorporated one of the two maid’s bedrooms into the master suite to create a walk-in closet that was missing, as well as external cabinets. “The positioning of the new walls took into account the existing frames that surround the entire property, with no masonry between them, to better integrate the interior spaces with the exterior ,” explains the architect. Considering the practicality of cleaning and maintenance, Ketlein used large porcelain tiles in a light gray tone throughout the flooring of the social area and PVC planks in a wood pattern in the bedrooms. “The large porcelain tiles made the living room seem larger, while the wood-like PVC made the bedrooms more cozy,” he explains.

As each child had a different profile – the youngest boy and girl were more into sports and guitar, while the oldest was into video games – the architect suggested decorative items according to their personality , from wallpaper to ornaments. The furniture is basically the same in all rooms: closets, a study bench and a tatami-style bed with a niche underneath to accommodate an extra mattress. In the kitchen , the coverings were chosen by the client, who has gastronomy as a hobby . The balcony, which had already been integrated into the living room, has new frames, now with panels that can be completely retracted on the side, leaving only the railing, also made of transparent glass, visible. To reinforce the winter garden atmosphere in the space, the architect opted for a more rustic floor, in the same tone as the porcelain tiles in the living room, covered a side wall with a vertical garden of permanent plants and installed a gourmet counter that functions as a bar on the opposite wall.