Our New Berlin Apartment - Inspiration

images via NORM Architects

Hello everyone! Over the weekend, we signed the lease for our new apartment in Berlin! Very exciting stuff. Naturally, I am beginning to gather inspiration for the interior scheme of this place. I will be sharing my inspiration boards and processes over the next few months here. So if you like, you can follow along. 

How about a little info on the apartment? It is located in a neighbourhood called Prenzlauer Berg, which is quite central and well connected to the rest of the city, especially to the city centre, where I will be working. The area has a really nice neighbourhood feel. There are lots of little shops and cafes lining the cobblestone streets,  with plenty of trees and parks and greenery around. The apartment building is pretty brand new and sandwiched between two older buildings, and I really like the contrast. The apartment itself can be accessed via a nice, private courtyard and is located on the ground floor. I like that and dislike it at the same time. I don't like it because we get less natural light there than if we were a few floors up. However, the upside is that instead of a balcony, we have a nice terrace with a planting area. I've already decided I want to plant some tomatoes there. Another fun thing about it is that we can walk right into our apartment from the courtyard. It's a change from what I'm used to - walking into my building and then up to my own place. 

So what does the inside look like? Well, as you come in, you are greeted by a small entry way and then you walk into the main room. The kitchen is directly across at the end and open to the main room. On the left is the door to the bedroom and behind the bedroom is the bathroom. And that's it, simple and sweet. Well, here is the floor plan for a better visualisation:

Never mind the little squares and rectangles all over the place ... I'm just playing around with layout ;)

Every thing is white, except the floors are a light wood and the kitchen counter is a dark grey. Perfect for me because as the inspiration board above suggests, I would like to use white, black, grey and brown for my basic colour palette. I imagine some red accents in the kitchen and some plants here and there to bring in some lively green. By the way, all the inspiration images above are from NORM Architects. When I was looking for something to represent the mood, I knew right away that that's where I needed to look because I love their work. The images I chose are purely for mood and colour inspiration. I'm going for that clean, simple look while using textures and shapes to bring interest to the space. Maybe a few quirkier, "Holly" items in the future, provided I find the right ones. What does my husband say of all this? Well, I'm lucky that we share very similar tastes so we always agree easily...but maybe those future "Holly" items will need some convincing ;)

We will have to think of some solutions for enhancing natural light in the space. As you can see the only windows are at the front of the apartment. But they are all ceiling to floor and facing south so that's good. Since this is a rental, we can not make any structural changes, so we'll have to get a bit creative there. Probably some strategically placed mirrors to reflect the light that comes from those windows... 

More to come about our new apartment in the coming weeks.

How have you been doing?

Until next time!

Xx. Holly.