"I want this apartment to still have its soul after the renovation." "It matters to me that this interior keeps its character." I hear sentences like these from clients more often than questions about budget. They buy a flat in a pre-war townhouse or an old house because they fell for the high ceilings, the old doors and the light in the windows. Then comes the fear that the builders, the new services and the smooth walls will take away exactly what they loved about the place.
I understand that fear because I have lived through it myself. Kamienica 1934 in Warsaw's Stare Włochy is my home. I first walked in when it was all rubble and bare brick - and its interiors went on to appear in the May issue of Elle Decoration Polska. Through more than a year of renovation I tested every decision with one question: does this serve the place, or harm it?
The good news is that a renovation does not have to kill the character. Done well, it can bring it out. Below I share the principles I follow on every project, and show what they looked like in practice.
6 principles that let an old apartment keep its soul
1. Listen first, design second
I begin every project by recording what is already there. The proportions of the rooms, the ceiling heights, the layout of the doors, the windows, the old floors, stoves, handles, window sills. Before I draw anything, I want to know what the interior itself is saying. The most valuable things are often hidden beneath layers of later alterations.
2. Save what can be saved
Old doors, ironmongery, parquet and plasterwork can usually be restored. Restoration can cost more and take longer than buying something new. But that patina and that craftsmanship are not for sale in any shop. In Kamienica 1934 the old front doors stayed. Today they are burgundy, with a brass handle. The old laundry door stayed too, along with the original window sills in the bedroom and the children's room.
3. Be honest about what cannot be saved
Not everything can be rescued, and that is fine too. I very much wanted to keep the original parquet. But it was damaged too deeply to restore. Rather than pretend, we laid a new oak herringbone - a pattern that sits naturally in a townhouse of that era. When something has to be replaced, choose solutions that could always have been there.
4. Add with respect for the period
Character is not only something to protect. You can also extend it. My apartment had no plaster mouldings, but the proportions of the ceilings were practically asking for them. I designed both the mouldings and the ceiling rose in the bedroom, and in the kitchen an arched niche inspired by kitchens of the 1930s. None of these elements is original, yet they look as if they had always been there.
5. New services: comfort fit for our times
The soul of an old apartment does not rule out comfort. Electrics, plumbing, heating, ventilation - usually everything has to be replaced, and that is the best moment to plan comfort for years to come: good lighting, warmth in every room, sockets where you actually need them. And, increasingly, air conditioning.
In a townhouse it is worth planning it from the start: an outdoor unit on the façade may need the residents' association's consent, and sometimes the heritage conservator's, while the indoor unit has to be placed so it does not compete with the plasterwork. Technology should work without drawing the eye. I plan it so that it does not cut through mouldings, does not steal ceiling height and does not force the ceilings to be lowered.
6. Furnish with pieces that have a history
Even the best-restored interior will lose its soul if you fill it with furniture from a single catalogue. That is why I mix designer pieces with finds from flea markets. Kamienica 1934 has a round table from the 1950s, Chierowski chairs, a restored chest of drawers with a geometric pattern and a marble-topped cabinet from a flea market. Each of these pieces has its own history, and together they tell the story of this home.
Kamienica 1934: from bare brick to Elle Decoration
The first time I walked into this apartment I saw bare brick, a broken floor and the traces of decades of alterations. Over the years the building had been divided up and patched. Yet beneath those layers there were still good proportions, tall windows and a layout someone had thought through almost a hundred years ago.
The renovation was thorough. Demolition, a new steel beam in the structure, every service from scratch, new plaster. There was a moment when the apartment looked like a building site with no soul at all. That is exactly when it is easiest to panic. And exactly when it matters most to stick to a plan that, from the very start, was built on respect for the place.
Then the details began to return. The contractor spent two days laying the chequerboard floor in the hallway. The plasterer spent several days fitting the mouldings, gluing the bedroom ceiling rose in place piece by piece while standing on scaffolding. Oak herringbone replaced the ruined parquet. Behind each of these decisions were people who worked with enormous patience.
Today you enter through the old doors, walk across a modernist chequerboard and pass a marble-topped cabinet from a flea market. In the kitchen: an arched niche, naturally veined stone, dark oak and brass. In the bedroom: wallpaper and a 1950s bed beneath the ceiling rose. None of it came out of a catalogue. The apartment has modern services and the comfort of our times, and you can still feel 1934 in it.
A renovation that brings out character
An old apartment does not lose its soul because of a renovation. It loses it through haste, random decisions and throwing out everything old simply because it is old. When the renovation is led by someone who understands the building's history, the result can be more beautiful than the interior once was - and far more comfortable to live in.
Text: Katarzyna Uziembło, architect, Duet Studio. Session photos: Pietruszka Fotografia, styling: Ewa Alicja Jezierska