Interior designer Aleksi Hautamäki renovated a studio apartment that is over a century old into a three-roomed home for a family of three, with high ceilings and a cozy living room. The inventive fixed furniture is self-made.
Residents:
Aleksi Hautamäki, Spatial Designer and founder of Bond Agency, Milla Selkimäki, Head of Design at the creative agency 358, and their son Hugo, five years old. The home is located in an apartment building that was completed in 1908 in the Ullanlinna district of Helsinki. The floorspace of the apartment is 51 m².
WHEN SPATIAL DESIGNER Aleksi Hautamäki saw the apartment, consisting of one room and a kitchen, he began to piece it together into different functions. The living room had to accommodate a bedroom for the child and one for the parents. The deal was sealed on the apartment only after Aleksi had drawn up precise computer drawings of a layout that would suit the needs of the family of three. As a designer of restaurants, shops and public spaces, Aleksi thought about interior design solutions for the family’s own home as he does at work: how would the user experience it?
“The experience would be reflected in the uniform materials, structures and optimization of space in the home,” he says.
Aleksi thinks there is too much focus on floorspace in the housing market. The number of cubic meters is equally important, he says. “High rooms are airy, and with integrated fixed furniture they can maximize storage space.”
Aleksi obtained permission from the housing association to use the apartment as a workshop for building furniture while the plumbing was being renovated. “I got knotty oak veneer from a Finnish company located in Hollola, and built the furniture in the living room.”
One room becomes three
Aleksi imaginatively divided the living room into three sections. On one side of the living room, behind glass doors and a paneled wall, is a bedroom for Hugo and one for his parents. A simple workspace is situated in front of the window.
In front of the classic tile stove in the corner of the room, Aleksi and Milla relax in an ergonomic armchair and enjoy the crackling fire. In the center of the space is a modern FontanaArte glass table and a low sofa that’s perfect for Hugo to bounce on. But is a glass table really a child-safe option?
“The table is made from tempered glass, making it highly resistant to Hugo’s games,” Aleksi says.
The spatial division continues in the hallway. The hallway floor is separated from the black boarded floor of the living room by a gray textile carpet and a black dirt trapper. The high cabinets, of which there are more than enough for the whole family’s clothing storage needs, consist of alternating open and closed cabinets.
“The open coat rack makes life easier, since you can see at a glance what’s there. And of course, it saves you from having to open and close doors all the time.”
A recessed breakfast area
The compact kitchen can easily accommodate a dining table for the small family. In the kitchen, Aleksi made use of a recess that had once served as a cold store by installing oak shelves. He built a breakfast cabinet in the former servants’ entrance, with a coffee machine conveniently placed beside the dining table.
“Life’s easier when the kitchen functions are well thought out and everything has its own place.”
In the hallway he was able to make use of the frames of the old cabinets, but the lime-green cabinets in the kitchen, which was last renovated in the 1980s, had reached the end of their lifespan. “They looked pretty bad, and the layout of the cabinets was not ideal either.”
The new kitchen has high cabinets and lower cabinets in oak veneer. For the doors, Aleksi ordered materials with wood grain patterns in the veneer that would continue naturally from one door to the next. The kitchen is finished with quartz countertops and black, retro-style electrical sockets, a faucet and fixed soap dispensers.
“Detergent bottles and hand soap bottles that never stay in place are annoying – it’s handier not to have to think about them.”
A hotel-style integrated TV
The living room, divided into three parts by an attractive wall panel and glass doors, has a classic hotel feel. The black flooring and metal frames of the glass doors add a graceful touch to the warm-toned interior. The width of the wall panel was determined by the 55-inch television, which got the best seat in the house.
“A television table would block the access route. In a small space, it makes sense to integrate the furniture.”
Aleksi has also given consideration to the period in which the building was constructed. The apartment is over a hundred years old, with warm wood materials and classic, simple furnishings.
“We wanted to give it a dignified feel with a modern twist, for instance by using oak for large surfaces and a frame theme for the oak walls and steel doors.”
Room enough for a good night’s sleep
There is no wasted space in the bedrooms. Thanks to a large window and a glass door, the parents’ bedroom feels more spacious than its seven square meters would suggest. The child’s room is four square meters in area, and the light enters through a ventilation window opposite the doorway and through an interior window near the ceiling.
Aleksi made Hugo’s bed out of drawer units and attached an oak laminate panel and a handrail to the back of the bed to prevent falls. “The small space is enough for Hugo to sleep in. He almost always plays in the living room.”
Both bedrooms have carpeted floors. Aleksi cut out the pieces from a roll of carpet to fit.
“The acoustic properties of the carpet muffle noise, and it’s very pleasant to step out of bed in the morning onto a soft surface.” The black frame of the double bed is self-made, as Aleksi was unable to find any simple enough bed to buy.
The walls of the bedrooms and living room are painted in warm gray. Aleksi mixed the paint himself to give a slightly rough surface. “I mixed 30 percent plaster and 70 percent wall paint to create a completely non-reflective paint surface.”
A mirror or a window? It’s both
Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, you would never guess that behind it is a sauna. The division between the two is based on an ingenious idea: it’s a mirror on one side and a window on the other. You can see through it from the sauna into the bathroom, but on the other side it’s a mirror only—bathroom users can’t see into the sauna.
The compact sauna was built into the apartment during the previous renovation, and has now been renovated down to every last aspen board. The walls of the bathroom were lined with border tiles, and there was a separate shower cubicle in the corner. Now, after Aleksi’s renovation, the beautiful wooden surfaces are contrasted by black surfaces and details.
Aleksi built the bathroom furnishings from the same oak veneer as the rest of the fixed furniture in the home, and oiled it several times to make it moisture resistant. Adding further coats of oil wax as necessary is a straightforward matter: unlike varnish, oil wax can be applied directly to the surface after a light sanding.
Shop the style
Ball Clock
Step ladders
Radiohus pendant
Lamino easy chair
Fontana coffee table
Domus chair
Buono kettle
Aalto vase
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Text: Anna Aromaa Images: Jaanis Kerkis
Featured products may not be available worldwide. The story was previously published in Avotakka magazine 6/2024.