On the finish of 2022, Kassym Baimukhametov was dwelling in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest metropolis, when he encountered an issue skilled by many: The lease was too rattling excessive.
“I made a decision to purchase my very own place as a result of costs for lease went up,” mentioned Mr. Baimukhametov, 38, who works as a challenge supervisor in enterprise and expertise. “The universe was giving me indicators.”
Relatively than paying lease, he determined he’d be higher off investing in actual property. Not needing a lot area, he started looking for studio flats and located a 388-square-foot, new-construction unit for 31.5 million Kazakhstani tenge ($60,000). He closed in February 2023.
“It felt small,” he admitted. “But it surely was a great value, in a great location within the middle of the town.”
The field of an area had a low ceiling, small home windows and was primarily featureless, however that didn’t trouble Mr. Baimukhametov. “It was utterly empty, which made it good for me,” he mentioned. “I needed to have a design in accordance with my needs, and this fashion, we wouldn’t need to do any demolition work.”
For assist turning it into a customized dwelling, he tapped Fariz Mamedov, 27, the founding father of FM Interiors and an acquaintance he had adopted on Instagram. Mr. Baimukhametov had seen the younger designer enthusiastically renovate his personal condominium, and he needed to work with somebody who would carry an analogous vitality to his dwelling.
After visiting the empty condominium, Mr. Mamedov returned with drawings for no fewer than six distinct choices for arranging the area. “I selected the very first one,” Mr. Baimukhametov mentioned. “We have been in sync. I wanted 4 areas — for a kitchen, a front room, a toilet and a few sleeping area — and that was within the very first drawing.”
After all, it wasn’t merely a matter of carving up the area into separate capabilities. Each Mr. Baimukhametov and Mr. Mamedov needed to offer the condominium some critical model.
“My coronary heart gravitates to Scandinavian design,” Mr. Mamedov mentioned in Russian, with Mr. Baimukhametov translating on his behalf.
Mr. Baimukhametov is a fan of Japanese design, which has many parallels with Scandinavian design, together with a give attention to clean-lined sculptural varieties. “That’s the place we matched,” he mentioned.
The place they differed, Mr. Mamedov mentioned, was of their ideas on coloration. Particularly, Mr. Baimukhametov started the design course of with a relaxed coloration palette of subdued neutrals in thoughts, whereas Mr. Mamedov needed to blast the house with eye-catching hues.
In the long run, Mr. Mamedov received out. Because the challenge progressed, “mainly each thought he proposed, I accredited,” Mr. Baimukhametov mentioned.
To create separate zones, Mr. Mamedov erected partitions round a nook sleeping area that’s entered by way of an arched doorway from the lounge, which may be coated by curtains for privateness. One of many partitions is thick sufficient to carry a closet within the sleeping area and a coat closet by the entrance door on the other aspect.
Within the lavatory, Mr. Mamedov added one other arched opening between the self-importance and the tub. In each the doorway corridor and kitchen, he put in mirrored doorways to assist replicate daylight and provides the areas extra visible depth.
But it surely was the usage of coloration that turned Mr. Mamedov’s strongest visible trick. By selecting sculptural furnishings in daring hues, he aimed to create an atmosphere the place Mr. Baimukhametov’s company could be so taken with the objects that they’d nearly neglect concerning the area’s Lilliputian measurements.
“I used iconic furnishings from Scandinavia to attract consideration to these items,” Mr. Mamedov mentioned. “So company is not going to be specializing in the dimensions of the condominium itself, however on particular person gadgets.”
These items embody a vibrant yellow Ekstrem lounge chair in the lounge by the Norwegian designer Terje Ekstrøm, which appears prefer it’s shaped from cloth tubes.
In between the kitchen and front room, a compact round eating desk with a prime produced from recycled plastic bottle caps is illuminated by a Hive pendant lamp by Verner Panton and geared up with mismatched chairs from Fritz Hansen and Hay in yellow, pink and pale blue. There’s additionally a Troupe rug by Jaime Hayon for Nanimarquina, which depicts otherworldly characters in a riot of coloration.
After beginning building in Could 2023, the messy work was completed that September, and furnishings continued to trickle in by way of January 2024. The overall price, together with the furnishings, was about 27 million Kazakhstani tenge ($51,500).
In comparison with his previous rental, Mr. Baimukhametov’s compact new house is a serious life-style improve. “I find it irresistible,” he mentioned. “Typically I’m simply standing there and I’m like ‘Is that this my condominium?’ I can’t imagine it, as a result of it’s every thing I needed.”
