Living for a while · 6 min

Thirty square metres that are enough for two

Some rooms grow larger the darker you paint them. That sounds contradictory, and yet it is true here. Room for Two measures only thirty square metres, but the anthracite walls draw the borders into the uncertain, and above them a wallpaper of Monstera leaves runs riot, as if the flat stood in a quiet, green clearing. Two people find here all they need and nothing that disturbs them.

A dark that embraces

We kept the lower half of the walls in a deep anthracite, above it the green of the great leaves. Dark colour does not make a small room narrower, it takes away its edges. The corners disappear, the eye rests, and what remains is closeness. An apartment for two may be like this, a little cave-like, a little mysterious, a place where you gladly stay together.

Art Deco, chosen by hand

In the corner stands a vitrine of burl walnut, rounded forms, gleaming veneer, a true piece of Art Deco as Vienna loved it in the twenties. Beside it old double doors with frosted glass that lead into the small, green-tiled kitchen. None of it is stage set. Each piece was found, rescued, set in its place. So a small apartment gains the depth that new furniture never has, the depth of time.

Green as a houseplant for the wall

The Monstera is the houseplant of the century, and here it is the whole wall at once. Its leaves, sometimes whole, sometimes split, give the room something alive, even when winter stands outside. With it lightly translucent curtains that sieve the light, sage green cushions, a green glass lamp. Everything plays within one family of tones, and that is exactly what turns the tightness into shelter. Two on thirty square metres, and it never feels too small.