Houzz Tours
Russian Houzz Tour: Contemporary Art Meets Ornate Orthodox
Ombré walls, family antiques, edgy works by young artists and ties to a Romanov duchess, this Moscow flat has it all
The flat is in a building built by architect D.M. Chelishchev. At the time it was an investment property belonging to the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, commissioned by the convent’s patron, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna Romanova.
Between 1914–1918 the building housed nuns and children evacuated from battles in Grodno (in present-day Belarus). In the Soviet era it served as a dorm for students from a geological institute, then the flats were given to the institute’s professors. The history of Nechaeva’s husband’s family is entwined with one of these professors, L. V. Gladilin, which is how they came to inherit this apartment.
Furnished with antiques and containing vintage suitcases storing archival materials about the home’s inhabitants since its construction, the apartment was like a wardrobe to Narnia. It took Nechaeva six months to sort through the property and decide which pieces were fated to stay.
Between 1914–1918 the building housed nuns and children evacuated from battles in Grodno (in present-day Belarus). In the Soviet era it served as a dorm for students from a geological institute, then the flats were given to the institute’s professors. The history of Nechaeva’s husband’s family is entwined with one of these professors, L. V. Gladilin, which is how they came to inherit this apartment.
Furnished with antiques and containing vintage suitcases storing archival materials about the home’s inhabitants since its construction, the apartment was like a wardrobe to Narnia. It took Nechaeva six months to sort through the property and decide which pieces were fated to stay.
Designer Ekaterina Nechaeva’s flat comes with unique views and a long history deeply intertwined with the the story of modern Russia itself.
Originally from Yekaterinburg, Nechaeva founded BHD-Studio (initially under the name Bon Home Design) and the Art Brut Moscow gallery of contemporary art along with one of her course mates, Irina Markman.
Nechaeva leveraged the flat’s historical atmosphere and her skill in art and design to create something that straddles past and future. She drew on the architecture of the 17th-century Russian Orthodox church outside the windows for inspiration, and combined the antique furniture her family inherited, along with the flat with her own artwork and pieces from up-and-coming artists. The result is a unique space with a flair for the dramatic and a reverence for history and art.
Originally from Yekaterinburg, Nechaeva founded BHD-Studio (initially under the name Bon Home Design) and the Art Brut Moscow gallery of contemporary art along with one of her course mates, Irina Markman.
Nechaeva leveraged the flat’s historical atmosphere and her skill in art and design to create something that straddles past and future. She drew on the architecture of the 17th-century Russian Orthodox church outside the windows for inspiration, and combined the antique furniture her family inherited, along with the flat with her own artwork and pieces from up-and-coming artists. The result is a unique space with a flair for the dramatic and a reverence for history and art.
Pictured: part of the living room, with the entrance to the office reflected in the mirror. The French buhl style cabinet with a marble countertop, bronze overlays and brass detailing – which imitates tortoise shell – dates from the 19th century. A two-year-long restoration was necessary before the cabinet could take pride of place in the apartment.
“Very educated people lived here – the Gladilin family,” says Nechaeva. “Lev Veniaminovich Gladilin was a professor in the geological institute. His wife Vera Constantinovna, a countess by blood, spoke several languages and played the piano. She did beadwork, and at some point she gave all of her works to the Polish Museum of Applied Decorative Arts (she had Polish roots). She was the one who selected the antique furniture that remains in the house.”
“Very educated people lived here – the Gladilin family,” says Nechaeva. “Lev Veniaminovich Gladilin was a professor in the geological institute. His wife Vera Constantinovna, a countess by blood, spoke several languages and played the piano. She did beadwork, and at some point she gave all of her works to the Polish Museum of Applied Decorative Arts (she had Polish roots). She was the one who selected the antique furniture that remains in the house.”
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The windows in the living room, office and bedroom look out onto an architectural monument from the second half of the 17th century: the Temple of Gregory of Neocaesarea with its decorative arches (known as kokoshniki, after the traditional Russian headdress), and its tidy domes on high ornamented drums.
Nechaeva decided to decorate the flat to match the view from the window, working off of the temple’s colour scheme of deep red and turquoise.
Nechaeva decided to decorate the flat to match the view from the window, working off of the temple’s colour scheme of deep red and turquoise.
The floor plan
The apartment was completely renovated in Soviet times, but the original furring remained under the floor, the old wooden framework was still there behind the plaster on the walls, and load-bearing features still had their pre-revolutionary cast iron supports.
The new owners did not make major changes to the layout. Nechaeva only removed the doorway between the office and the kitchen, which had turned it into a connecting room. She widened the remaining main doorway and put in a set of French doors. She also raised all of the doorways in the flat by 30 centimetres – from 2.10 metres to 2.4 metres. In the bedroom, she made space for a walk-in wardrobe.
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The apartment was completely renovated in Soviet times, but the original furring remained under the floor, the old wooden framework was still there behind the plaster on the walls, and load-bearing features still had their pre-revolutionary cast iron supports.
The new owners did not make major changes to the layout. Nechaeva only removed the doorway between the office and the kitchen, which had turned it into a connecting room. She widened the remaining main doorway and put in a set of French doors. She also raised all of the doorways in the flat by 30 centimetres – from 2.10 metres to 2.4 metres. In the bedroom, she made space for a walk-in wardrobe.
Find local interior designers on Houzz and read reviews from previous clients.
Nechaeva decorated the entrance with an antique painting the family inherited along with the flat. It’s a copy of an early spring landscape from the Russian Museum. Opposite is a diptych by young painter Kirill Basalaev. Both works are connected by a mural painted by Nechaeva herself and modelled on antique landscapes with contours that echo themes from the modern diptych. “I divided the landscape into colours and shapes, the way decorators do, and made my own stylisation.,” says Nechaeva. “I left one wall white, as a background for Kirill’s painting, which is made in his signature mixed-media technique out of plaster and enamel.”
The result was a dialogue between two different eras. The ceiling is the finishing touch in this artistic entryway. Here Nechaeva used an unusual rust-effect wallpaper.
She kept the timber flooring in the entrance as is, but restored the vintage flooring in the rest of the rooms.
The result was a dialogue between two different eras. The ceiling is the finishing touch in this artistic entryway. Here Nechaeva used an unusual rust-effect wallpaper.
She kept the timber flooring in the entrance as is, but restored the vintage flooring in the rest of the rooms.
The 3D pattern on the kitchen floor is made up of multicoloured marble. “I was inspired by the 3D-effect of marble floors in Venice, and decided to use their motifs to create my own pattern. To save budget, the tiler and I selected the offcuts of marble slabs and tiles, which we cut to size,” says Nechaeva.
The door to the kitchen differs from the rest of the doors in the flat: to make the hallway brighter, Nechaeva put in glass doors with classic bevelling. There is an oval window in the dark-grey, semi-circular transom, painted the same colour as the baseboards and doorjambs. Carpenter Dmitry Kalinin created all of the doors in the apartment based on Nechaeva’s sketches.
The door to the kitchen differs from the rest of the doors in the flat: to make the hallway brighter, Nechaeva put in glass doors with classic bevelling. There is an oval window in the dark-grey, semi-circular transom, painted the same colour as the baseboards and doorjambs. Carpenter Dmitry Kalinin created all of the doors in the apartment based on Nechaeva’s sketches.
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The grey-blue kitchen cabinets and round breakfast table were made to order. The kitchen cabinetry was painted the same colour as the walls, so it would not draw attention away from the antique hutch.
“We think that it has stood here since the flat was built. There’s no maker’s mark on the hutch, but it was most likely made in Germany,” says Nechaeva. “It carries so much symbolism. There is a giraffe’s head at the top, in the cartouche. Lower down there are dachshunds, and griffons on the cornices. The locks on the doors don’t work any longer. We could have sent it off for a long restoration, but we decided it would be better for it to stay here as an old gentleman, rather than look brand new after restoration. The craftsman only oiled it.”
“We think that it has stood here since the flat was built. There’s no maker’s mark on the hutch, but it was most likely made in Germany,” says Nechaeva. “It carries so much symbolism. There is a giraffe’s head at the top, in the cartouche. Lower down there are dachshunds, and griffons on the cornices. The locks on the doors don’t work any longer. We could have sent it off for a long restoration, but we decided it would be better for it to stay here as an old gentleman, rather than look brand new after restoration. The craftsman only oiled it.”
Painted plates by sculptor, ceramicist and graphic artist Natalia Vilvovskaya decorate the wall next to the hutch. Nechaeva placed a sculpture by the same artist in a corner of the living room.
Sliding doors lead from the living room to the hallway. They save space and imitate the panelling in the french doors between the living room and the office. The shape of the cornices over the door echoes the designs on the church facade, with its decorative kokoshniki. The ombré paint effect in the living room and office are the work of artist Andrey Berger from the FGA Street Art Platform.
The living room, with its sofa and inky-purple armchair is decorated with an abstract painting from Hungarian artist Zsófi Barabás from her ‘Moments of Being’ exhibition.
Over the dinner table hangs a work by painter Marina Kastalskaya illustrating the feast of the Last Supper. The work is made out of paper pulp on the back of a door, while the bread by the cup of wine is real.
In the office – to the left of the living room – the plaster border on the ceiling was partially preserved from Soviet times. They restored it and added curves, another reference to the church’s kokoshniki. Nechaeva made a classical plaster ceiling rose for the light fixutre.
Above the antique piano, which is deocrated with Kasli cast-iron figurines, hangs another work by Kirill Basalaev.
Above the antique piano, which is deocrated with Kasli cast-iron figurines, hangs another work by Kirill Basalaev.
Through the doors you can see the retro sofa with the classic bolster armrests. It was upholstered in pink velvet to match the colour of the walls. The historical antecedent of the sofa, a Russian model from the 19th-20th centuries with a tall, ornamented back, a shelf and a pediment, is in the office. The dark-green velvet of the antique couch’s new upholstery beautifully contrasts the saturated yellow of the walls.
The niches with the shelves were a byproduct of the kitchen renovation: the protruding part of the wall houses the fridge, oven and coffee machine on the other side. There is a cast-iron load-bearing column next to one of the niches.
Nechaeva got the handles for all of the internal doors at an antiques market in the centre of Amsterdam. “In Paris at the Maison & Objet fair, I saw a stand with antique handles and was fired up by the idea of finding fitting ones for my own flat,” she says. “I travelled to Amsterdam for this, and found a spot at the Antiekcentrum market where they’re sold in pairs. I bought a variety. Now there is one pair on one side of the doors, another on the other – they differ slightly in details.”
In the bedroom, Nechaeva set aside a separate space for a walk-in wardrobe. The furniture and light fixture here are also antiques, while the vases and carpets are vintage, from the Soviet era.
The unusual material of the curtains with the woven gradient travelled back from the UK on a passenger flight. “A year and a half before renovating the flat, I saw these fabrics with the gradient at Maison & Objet and thought of them during the renovation. However, it turned out that the small UK company that makes the fabric doesn’t ship to Russia.” Nechaeva enlisted the help of some friends, who brought an entire bolt of the fabric back from a trip to England as carry on luggage.
The unusual material of the curtains with the woven gradient travelled back from the UK on a passenger flight. “A year and a half before renovating the flat, I saw these fabrics with the gradient at Maison & Objet and thought of them during the renovation. However, it turned out that the small UK company that makes the fabric doesn’t ship to Russia.” Nechaeva enlisted the help of some friends, who brought an entire bolt of the fabric back from a trip to England as carry on luggage.
Nechaeva stores her shoes in a wardrobe in the walk-in closet, which is also an antique. Like most of the storage units in the flat, it once housed books. “In the whole apartment there were four wardrobes for clothing, the rest were filled only with books.”
To the left of the headboard are two paintings from the Art Brut Moscow gallery. The top one is a work from the ‘Underground’ series by Maria Kostareva. The bottom artwork is a winter landscape from Svetlana Shebarshina.
Another of her works, a nude in light blue tones, hangs to the right of the headboard. On the table is a small painting by Tatiana Nega. Nechaeva brought the bedspread back from Bali.
The bathroom and toilet have 3D marble tile that continues the motif of the Venetian marble floors. The ceiling in the toilet room is darker than the walls. “This is so that an overly high ceiling doesn’t transform the space into a well. The dark colour visually lowers it,” says Nechaeva.
A little wrought-iron shelf, which Nechaeva found along with two jewellery boxes in a wardrobe, has found its place on the wall of the toilet room. Nechaeva bought the wall decor in Palm Springs when she was travelling in the US. Every bakelite cup has a prong that makes it possible to screw it into the wall.
A little wrought-iron shelf, which Nechaeva found along with two jewellery boxes in a wardrobe, has found its place on the wall of the toilet room. Nechaeva bought the wall decor in Palm Springs when she was travelling in the US. Every bakelite cup has a prong that makes it possible to screw it into the wall.
Instead of a standard vanity, Nechaeva used a card table made out of a nut wood. Its original top was lost, so it was an easy transformation. The mirror with the antique frame is surrounded by vintage sconces that had previously hung in the hallway.
In the bathroom the ceiling is the same colour as the walls. In the niche by the mirror are art objects by artist Maria Agureeva, who is currently based in the US.
Your turn
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And if you enjoyed this story, like it, save the images and join the conversation.
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Your turn
What do you love about this home? Tell us in the Comments below. And if you enjoyed this story, like it, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Not quite had your fill of great global design? Check out this UK Houzz Tour: An Interior Designer’s Elegantly Updated Home
Houzz At A Glance
Who lives here: Designer Ekaterina Nechaeva and her husband
Location: Moscow, Russia
How long they’ve lived here: Four years
Designer: The owner
Size: 100 square metres