Giving new life to furniture: adapting them after a move

Giving new life to furniture: adapting them after a move

Facing a move means turning your life around, renovating your home and introducing new furnishing accessories.
Beginning to pack, you make a natural selection of the objects to take with you, recognizing for each their own emotional value.
Many times, this process also involves the world of furnishings, which accompany the owners in this moment of transition.
Giving new life to furniture also means renewing the context in which they are inserted, managing to adapt them in terms of aesthetics and functionality to the new environments.

Adapting furnishing to a new context

When the furnishings are custom designed, their conformation responds to the needs of the customers, perfectly matching with the architectural context in which they are inserted. In doing this, a strong link is born between the rooms in which they are inserted and the shapes, proportions and mechanisms of use of the furnishings.
This would suggest an indissoluble bond between the two components, which would break when the furniture undergoes a relocation.
It is absolutely not said!

In fact, among the potential of custom-made furniture there is a flexibility factor that allows us to give new life to furniture by making few changes.
These make it possible to transform the general imprint of the furniture in order to adapt it to the new context both in terms of aesthetics and functionality.

A perfect example are the adaptations made to these furnishing extrapolated from an apartment between classic and contemporary. Let’s discovery this apartment among transformed furniture and new additions.

The kitchen: increases the work space and storage volumes

The kitchen certainly represents the beating heart of a home.
In the case of this apartment between modern and contemporary, its conformation was born from a natural reading of the architectural context in which it was inserted.

The corner development made it possible to exploit the side part with service columns with anthracite gray lacquered MDF doors.
These are equipped with column ovens on the right, pantry with removable trays and a central compartment for the free-standing refrigerator. The front is made up of lower volumes with large drawers and service doors and upper wall units in a brilliant white Lacobel.

The new arrangement has provided additional useful space for the overall dimensions. Being able to use additional space on both sides, the most natural solution was to exploit the remaining gaps with additional volumes.
On the right, we provide a service column which houses a modern wine cellar accompanied by a door with height-adjustable internal shelves.

On the opposite end, the main problem arises when the worktop is made of natural stone, which has undergone a chromatic change over the years.
To avoid incurring a visible difference between the added part and the existing one, a wooden top was thus created. It also acts as a cutting board for preparing meals. An element that not only solves an aesthetically weak point, but also provides a functional solution.

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The living area: a new contemporary aesthetic

To equip the living area, we recovered the furniture made in 2006.
The choice of colors was already avant-garde at the time. Even in a contemporary reworking they can adapt perfectly, resulting elegant and current. The TV cabinet in glossy anthracite gray lacquered MDF alternates flap doors with service drawers, whose recessed handles give visual lightness.

In this case, giving new life to furniture means adapting them to the new context in which they are inserted, managing to exploit the flexibility of the same.
Small changes have been made, mostly considered maintenance. Re-lacquering where necessary or remaking of structural parts.

The same approach was then applied to the service hanging columns, which are made up of doors in the upper part and small drawers in the lower part. Their new position side by side allows them to welcome guests introducing them to the living area and, at the same time, create a visual divider from the more intimate dining room.

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Children’s bedrooms: new tailor-made solutions to exploit architectural voids

The sleeping area houses the two small bedrooms whose conformation alternates architectural voids with important structural elements.
A tailor-made solution was therefore designed in both rooms in order to include all the necessary furnishings without sacrificing practicality and visual freedom.

For the first bedroom it was therefore decided to take advantage of the basement that leads to the mezzanine area to equip it with a shaped wardrobe.
Since the room is intended for a child, the dimensions and heights necessary for the clothes have certainly facilitated the design. Despite having little space available, taking advantage of the inclined height of the basement, it was still possible to create a double-height wardrobe with alternating shelves with fixed hangers.
The wardrobe is accompanied by a standing alone chest of drawers which is also used as a support surface.
The large one and a half bed is inserted in a niche. The latter used in the depth to fix shelves with hidden lighting.

In the second small room, the depth of the niche is useful for a certainly wider wardrobe. Full-height doors with push opening accommodate fixed tubulars, drawers for linen and shelves for folded items to satisfy the needs of a young girl.

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The master bedroom: a wardrobe like new

The master bedroom is best equipped with a large wardrobe with sliding doors placed parallel to the bed.
Its linear aesthetic combined with spot ceiling lighting allows at the same time to hide its grandeur.
The result is a capacious and functional volume which, in the aesthetic impact of the room, tends to disappear while giving character and elegance.
Relocated from the old house, the different internal height has led to a reduction in height which has thus made it possible to better adapt to new environments.

The composition of the wardrobe comes from a natural division into three departments, corresponding to the division of the sliding doors.
On the outside, the double-height hanger houses removable glass shelves in the center. These are particularly suitable for storing folded shirts using the external sliding mechanism to reduce the internal height between the trays.
In the central compartment, the large linen drawers are accompanied by a pair of shelves for folded items and hangers in the upper part.
The left compartment instead houses a double hanger to accommodate long dresses and coats whose greater height compensates for the reduced space reserved for folded trousers and skirts.

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Giving new life to furniture does not only mean rejuvenating it and making changes to its aesthetics. The bespoke design allows you to create furnishings that are versatile and able to adapt to new environments. Restoring a balance between aesthetic conformation in relation to the room and functional needs becomes the main goal.

If you want to deepen the theme of furniture flexibility, we suggest you this article in which series furniture and tailor-made solutions help each other!

Adapting standar furniture with tailor-made solutions

Adapting standar furniture with tailor-made solutions

Custom-made furniture and stardar products belong to two different worlds, bringing with them a large repertoire of solutions and projects. Each has great strengths and opportunities, but both also know their weaknesses. Sometimes it happens that these two worlds come into contact, helping and supporting each other. After all, it is well known: unity is strength!

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A master bathroom with elegant series furniture.
On the side, made-to-measure valances hide the support rails of the curtains

Standard and customed furniture: eternal rivals? Not at all!

It is common belief that standard furniture and custom-made solutions are ruthless competitors. Nothing true!

In fact, these are different realities that provide valid project proposals to customers, offering them a market capable of satisfying every request. Tastes, needs and desires of customers often interface with intrinsic constraints.
These include: budget limits, production restrictions, delivery times, availability and variety of alternatives.
Within the world of furniture design and production there are in fact an infinite number of secondary aspects that define the strengths, but also the limits of each company.

We can imagine the world of furniture as a range of parameters, at the extremes of which lie the cardinal principles of the two worlds.
On the one hand, standard furniture at super cheap prices capable of destroying any competitive market.
Its philosophy is certainly linked to a democratization of design that exploits large industrial production to contain prices and make its products accessible to all.

At the opposite end, a niche market, linked to the concept of “exclusivity”, chosen for its impossibility of identical reproduction and the opportunity for customization.
The choice of this type of furniture is linked to a feeling of privilege in its availability.

Between these two opposites there are the infinite number of companies that experience design on a daily basis.
Embracing the entire range of the market in this sector would be impossible and counterproductive, leading to poor results both for the manufacturer and for the customer himself.

It necessarily follows a specialization in the type of products and an identification of the reference target.
Precisely for this reason, standard furniture and tailor-made solutions cannot be considered competitors because they embrace different philosophies, targets and production systems. Their relationship is instead collaborative and mutually supportive, making the most of the potential of each party.

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Potential and constraints of standard products

One of the main advantages of series furniture is the vastness of the market to which they belong.
This makes it possible to satisfy the tastes of each customer, providing a wide choice of solutions and variants. To this is added an economic advantage deriving from the optimization of production.In fact, by exploiting the industrial production and the repetition of the pieces, it is possible to optimize the production phase in the best possible way, managing to contain costs. This also implies an ever more careful precision and improvement of the single elements.

On the other hand, this specific reproducibility limits the scope for intervention and customization. The world of mass-produced furniture works in reproducible and combinable “modules”.
Customization consists in knowing how to combine the individual elements and organize them in a different way, but it certainly does not allow for specific product customization as in custom-made furniture.

So here are island, peninsula or monobloc kitchens that take on different shapes depending on the environment in which they are inserted.
However, these find their first obstacles when there are architectural constraints or special requests from customers.
Customization does not cover all levels of furniture reading.

This is where bespoke design comes in, offering its attention to detail and custom design.

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When standard and customed furniture meet each other: a full-height shaped mirror fits into a SPA context with scenographic furnishings from important manufacturers

Works of tailor-made workmanship: a contemporary style kitchen

Where the supply of standard furniture reaches its limit of customization, the flexibility and spirit of adaptation of bespoke furniture comes into play.

An excellent example of this, is this luxury-style house distributed over three levels.
The maintenance and collaboration with Modulor involved different rooms.

First of all, the kitchen, consisting of a wall equipped with full-height doors on the right side of the access and a central island with a design hood. Precisely in this last element, the volumetric composition of the furniture provides a large surface that can be used as a worktop, but it prevents its use of meals.
In fact, by equipping the worktop with doors and lower drawers, it could not be used as a support surface for quick meals, as it did not provide adequate space for the user’s seat.

Finding tailor-made solutions in this example meant creating a lateral niche in the volume of the island. In this way, even with a not very wide depth, it was possible for customers to find the right space to sit comfortably while keeping their legs perpendicular to the structure. A comfortable snack bar for 2/3 people that does not give up on a work surface and support surface.

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An important island kitchen modified with tailor-made solutions: a niche has been created in the lower volume in order to use the worktop also as a support point for the consumption of quick meals

The sleeping area between secret passages and princess bedrooms

Even in the sleeping area, custom-made design has found ease to express its experience and personalization.

The classic-style bedroom is characterized by the presence of an important bed with drapery and padded headboard with a fairytale look. Taking advantage of a lateral architectural niche, a desk with wall unit and shaped shelves was inserted in order to make it an integral part of the spatial configuration.

The custom-made desk top is accompanied by a chest of drawers with bands that also acts as a load-bearing element.
This is accompanied by a wall unit with a molded door and shelves in matt white lacquered MDF that reflect the boiserie.

Even the bedside tables take up the style of the bedroom with handles in customed sheet metal in the shape of butterflies.
The side service bathroom illuminates the room with a glossy white tile wall cladding, crystal shower and pedestal sink with custom wall mirror.

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Every princess’s dream bedroom hosts an important bed with drapery and padded back

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Details of a small bedroom from large-scale distribution: upholstered draperies and backrests perfectly match bedside tables with shaped sheet metal handles

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The desk in the niche takes up the classic style of the boiserie paneling through door moldings

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Shelves and doors in white lacquered MDF in warm tones for this classic style desk

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The made-to-measure mirror accompanies the classic style design pedestal washbasin

Always in the upper floor, takes place the walk-in closet, whose orange tones give a touch of character and freshness to the room while remaining elegant and impressive.

A retractable mechanism is hidden inside the side structure.
What apparently looks like a support bench hides a flap door with a system of internal channels that allow dirty clothes to be brought directly to the laundry area. This internal conduit channel is also intercepted at the level of the living area through the opening of a door on the external front of the kitchen. What apparently seems to be part of the molded boiserie is transformed into a storage point for the tea towels which, using the internal slope, are taken directly to the laundry.

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Composition of a walk-in closet with elements in series: on the sides hangers and shelves covered in orange leather, in the center a chest of drawers in textured bilaminate

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The side wall of the walk-in closet with shelves and hangers.
On the right, the small service bench hides the channel that leads to the laundry

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Left: the folding door mechanism from which the conduit for soiled garments starts. Right: the door incorporated in the boiserie that intercepts the path for the kitchen products.

Children in safety

Children in safety

Not all environments may be suitable for the safety of children. Designers are used to designing solutions tailor-made for customers’s needs. However, these can change over the years. In this case, a beautiful aerial staircase in a stately home can become an element of danger with the arrival of the progeny. Here the project of the whole apartment.

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the staircase before the intervention

THE CHILDREN

The small creatures under the meter who are experimenting with the use of their body in fact do not yet have the sense of danger. All the elements and objects of the house must be reconceived with their eyes. What can be attractive but fragile and in their reach must be moved, dangerous edges and corners must be covered and empty spaces, in which one can slip and fall, closed or buffered. Every element such as stairs, furniture and hallways of the house must be secured. In this case the danger of the staircase was given by the open part under the middle stainless steel bands of the central barrier, which wind along the entire slope and on the gallery.

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the aerial ladder after

SECURITY

PLEXIGLASS

We have found an effective, very elegant, minimally invasive and inexpensive solution to solve this problem. To secure the ladder we have used 3 mm polycarbonate, sized, cutted and fixed to the inside of the barrier, leaving the handrail and the first band at child height free for the grip. Square elements in Plexiglas were then fixed with stainless steel design studs from the outside of the staircase, leaving the handrail and its central bands untouched and using them as a sandwich thickness. In this way, all the plastic part are fixed and safe. For the balcony we have used 1cm hardened Plexiglas that is more resistant in the case of heavy impacts with objects thrown without reason by our little users. As a fastening system the same as the ladder. Seeing the before and after photos you will notice that these plastic elements seem to disappear within the general view of the house. Only by looking carefully can you see the reflections of the Plexiglas and polycarbonate and the studded squares.

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children's gate details
plexiglass details

SHAPED CHILDREN’S GATE

For access to the stairs custom-made gates have been designed: one for the lower access and a second for the upper part of the gallery. The gates were made of MDF, shaped and engraved with a numerical control machine and then lacquered with matte orange paint. In the same color tone the other points of orange present in the living area.

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The shape of the gates are that of an autumn leaf, its symmetrical veins remain in the center of the design while three holes, always recalling a leaf, are found in the upper part to lighten the element. There are no holes in the lower part to avoid climbing daredevil little climbers. Both gates were fixed to the staircase thanks to wooden blocks fixed together on the upright of the staircase and then painted in the same dark anthracite. At the back of the gates, in a strategic position not reachable by children, there is a sliding bolt for close and open them.

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children's gate

TEMPORARY

This intervention has absolutely not touched the existing staircase and when it will be disassembled everything will back as before. It is a temporary solution but satisfies the eye to the point that it could remain mounted more than necessary. For the moment, the important thing is that the children are safe, free to walk up and down the ladder independently and stay and play in the attic part of the house.

closing balcony and child safety gates