Apartment design

Last year my Australian aunt decided to invest in Latvia and purchased an apartment in Riga Old town. Apartment was meant to be rented out for long term tenants.

After trying to work with local designer, recommended by property agent, which turned out to be a disastrous experience for all involved, my aunt asked me to design this apartment with few things in mind – to keep the apartment sleek, functional and low maintenance … with IKEA furniture as it is known (even in Australia) for it’s good design features.

Challenge accepted!

Main ideas for kitchen was to have large, easy to clean cupboards, ergonomic location for stove, fridge and sink and as large, clean surfaces as much as possible.

For making things happen for kitchen I collaborated with Ripo International company.

Plus my own findings in IKEA.

Dzīvoklis Vecrīgā – Elīnas Bušmanes interjers.

Dzīvoklis Vecrīgā – Elīnas Bušmanes interjers.

Dzīvoklis Vecrīgā – Elīnas Bušmanes interjers.

Dzīvoklis Vecrīgā – Elīnas Bušmanes interjers.

The best part – long time tenants were found in a week!

Latvian bed

My love towards faceted items finally could find a purpose. And also Latvian attachment to the oak. For me furniture of this wood has always seemed very heavy and thorough, however exactly oak is material Latvians love to choose for their homes. Probably it comes from the past when families were gathering around same oak table for generations. And using same oak beds for generations. Also on the Latvian money we had an oak tree. Now Latvian money is gone, but oak is still in our hearts.

Heavens technologists firstly weren’t happy seeing small faceted corners in my plasticine model of the corner.  I did not keep even picture of it. Plasticine models always look so ugly because of the stickiness of the material. But the main thing that it does it’s job.

But at the end it turned out to be possible. To tell the truth, working with the wild oak is quite tricky – even if grooves are covered with special putty – you never know what will it’s movements.

It is still a wild oak.

We had different versions for the night tables, but turned out that a very compact solution goes the best with the bed design.

The solid wood appears nicely on faceted corners. Even if, traditionally the end wood should not be visible in finished furniture, nowadays it has become a prove of solid wood furniture.

 

 

 

Foldable headboards bed

It feels a bit strange to write about product that is on a market more than two years, but still. Maybe the story behind it can inspire someone. In summer of 2012 in the Heavens upholstery factory we started to working on a foldable headboards bed.

From the very beginning I had the idea in my mind that there is a need to use stretch fabric for this design to support the folding and to make upholstery fabric’s patterns .

And for the first mock-ups we already used stretch fabrics.

To find the most appropriate one, I visited Innofa factory (now Innofa upholstery fabrics are produced under the new new brand name – Febric) in the Netherlands and chose collection Knit fabric for the front part of the headboard and  collection Twill for the back. Actually, at first I wanted to emphasise more the back, but my boyfriend at that time, Charles Bourrier, suggested to do an opposite. After a small argument, I agreed.

The first idea was to make  two independent headboards with a slight angle at sides, but, when making the first mock-up in 1:1 scale, I realized headboards should be angled towards each other.

Working on different stages of this bed I sometimes felt that it will end up nowhere – reality looked so different from sketches and drawings. Even the stretch fabric was not working as I was expecting. And for moving details it was not enough just to stretch it around them. Here appeared a need for small folds.

But I also understood that sometimes the magic happens with small adjustments and kind of “meditation” around the unfinished piece. Yes, it is needed to take your time & work on details.

I am very thankful for Heavens technicians and masters for patience and capability to look for solutions and never give up.