NATAŠA JANJIĆ – ADAPTATION LOG / PART 2

by | May 28, 2020

It has been some time since Nataša Janjić, then still pregnant for the first time, was decorating her apartment. In the first part of the adaptation blog, we brought you a story about the choice of parquet and all the dilemmas and wishes of the apartment owner that needed to be satisfied. This time we bring her apartment in its entirety, from the perspective of the famous actress, the owner of this beautiful old-town apartment in the center of Zagreb.
Writing: Nataša Janjić

The living room is the central room in the apartment through which all the others branch. It is 18 square meters in size and is separated from the kitchen by a load-bearing wall with beautiful cassette stock and a door for intimacy as needed, located to the south. Although not the largest room in the apartment, connected to the kitchen in this way, it forms over 35 square meters of the main living space with 3 seating points. Enough for one fair party, right?

In it we kept an old tiled stove, the only one of the three from the remaining rooms that was connected to the chimney. I dismantled the others and kept them in the woodshed. Somehow I even had the idea that one day, in case of a change of interior, I could put a fireplace in its place. But the tiled stove fit in wonderfully with the style, and around it I decided to form a small reading nook, with a comfortable dark green armchair and a coffee table. The main element of the living room is a large gold-colored corner sofa, which, despite its large dimensions, did not visually endanger the squares, and which we warmed with green pillows and connected to the armchair of the reading corner.
When removing the old paint in this room during the renovation, we were reminded of one fantastic salmon shade of the walls that had opened up in the background, which we then decided to replicate anew. Fearing that we would not be able to hit it faithfully, and with the certainty that we definitely do not want white walls after it, we turned to the ‘safe’ variant and painted them gray. We didn’t regret it because the gray warmed the room, accentuated the white stucco, and soothed all the other color games. Gray curtains also fit into it. Three-meter-high windows provide so much light, and given the old protected construction and the requirements of the existing facade, blinds were out of the question.

Libraries are my true fetish in apartments and although I have always dreamed of walls full of books, we opted for breathable glass shelves in metal construction, not at all expensive, but high to the ceiling and very functional. All the memories, books, gramophone and records took place there.

I brought in a large tree and a small double metal-gold coffee table, complete for enjoying movie nights.

We renovated and refreshed all the doors in the apartment with paint, and we did the same with the beautiful cassette stocks that everyone is in love with when they enter the apartment. We even kept the antique brass door handles we found upon moving in, polishing them to their former beauty.

We have come to the most important part of my apartment, the one I call my empire. Although I do not present myself as a great housewife, what brings me closer to that title is a beautiful and well-organized kitchen. You know for yourself that in small and dilapidated kitchens you don’t have much inspiration or will to cook. Well, I decided to prevent that. It’s no secret that the best parties, as well as all house gatherings, always end up in that part of the apartment, and I had that in mind when furnishing.
The 17-square-foot room to the north with access to a 4.5-square-foot balcony, overlooking a quiet courtyard and garden, was a dilapidated but functional warm kitchen with a dining area and I decided to keep it that way.

I mentioned to you that an important factor in my purchase was that I didn’t have to move it. I knocked down only a small pantry, which I decided to turn into a third kitchen row, and use a pull-out element to replace that pantry. I also envisioned a place for an oven and a refrigerator there. In the middle is a dry island, intended as a work surface, but also as a bar with two bar stools for gathering or morning coffee.

At the very beginning, I was in favor of new trends: all pastel, lavender and mint colors. I admired all those open kitchens without the top elements from Pinterest, and then I tried to think longer term and regularly went back to basic colors and non-colors and a classic proven design.

I decided to bring a plant into every space, thus gaining warmth and life. Impressive lighting, as well as paintings on the wall, which, they say, are the last to be placed, so it won’t be any different here.

 

Finally, I take you to the bedroom, to the room where I tried to fulfill all those desires that had accumulated and shaped in my 18 years of living in rented apartments. In it, I sublimated all those unfulfilled needs of us who are prone to collecting and accumulating things, which in my case was conditioned by the fast (and public!) rhythm of life…

I therefore intended for bedroom the largest room in the apartment, 30m2 in size, and although many tried to persuade me to place a representative living room, and some even a dining room and living room, I did not give up the picture that in an intimate room such as a bedroom, I have everything that is intended for personal use and routine, and it turned out that it will serve comfortably for the baby while she is still quite small to sleep with her parents.

Undoubtedly, the Mopar parquet fit perfectly in this interior. The charming French style pattern leaves no one indifferent, and more about the Castle collection, you can find out at link.
Photo: Sanja Bistričić