- Design: Shai David, STUDIO SHAI DAVID DESIGN
- Photography: Tali Kendal
Twelve years ago, the couple made Aliyah from Switzerland. They purchased a 135-square-meter apartment in North Tel Aviv, plus a 10-square-meter balcony. They approached interior designer Shai David, requesting a rustic style with a modern twist. The home was designed in cream tones, very pleasant and calm, with a lot of wood and chandeliers. Except for a blue dresser, designed by David years ago when he worked at Castiel as the house designer.
Over the years, the family grew, and the couple had three children (now teenagers). Then came a surprising phone call from the woman, who told the designer that following her separation from her partner, she wanted to renovate and transform the house completely. A house with a completely different style, including planning an additional children's room (in the first design, only two children's rooms were planned).
The new style chosen was Scandinavian, with a strong contrast of colors in the space. The homeowner wanted a calm and refreshing house with an airy feeling of freedom. Interior designer Shai David explains: "After more than a decade, I met someone entirely new. Lively and full of joy. It was clear to me that the style in this current iteration needed to reflect her new beliefs - more modern, Scandinavian, strong, and one that exudes a lot of freedom and lightness."
Upon entering the house, we encounter a concrete wall with a special stripe texture, on which a television and a mirror are placed, next to a large vase. A power wall by definition, despite being minimalist. In the living room, a powder-colored banana sofa and a powerful rug in the center, very unusual in its colorfulness, were chosen, with two small tables on it. The same color scheme is repeated in touches throughout the house.
At the back of the living room, there is a small work corner with a dresser on the side and a chair, and an art picture that matches the rug's colors. In the previous house, there was no work corner.
The dining area, in its elliptical Scandinavian style, has a pearl-colored gauze surface, and above it, a burgundy light fixture from the old house, which was changed and oven-painted. The blue dresser that also featured in the previous house continues in its new location, close to the dining area.
The kitchen was expanded at the expense of the service area of the house and was designed in the new format from birch wood, with the contrast expressed in brushed stainless steel accessories (faucets, handles), a natural stone-look grayish countertop, and tall powder-colored cabinets that match the banana sofa.
The designer reduced and redesigned the master suite to create an additional bedroom for the daughter. The suite has a low Japanese-style bed, very minimalist and unusual in the landscape. On both sides, bowls (not dressers) were placed. A unique and different concept by the designer who wanted to create a different experience, liberating for the homeowner's renewed soul. The cabinets were designed to be relatively low, 1.5 meters, not up to the ceiling, and on them were placed stone art pieces that provide airiness to the space.
Two high doors (2.4 meters) lead us to the mother's bathroom. The bathroom wall was designed with herringbone-style rose gold stainless steel. Two oval mirrors, with freestanding dressers, create a lot of lightness, and the rest of the space is white. The faucets were chosen in brass gold, an interesting and unusual connection that creates curiosity in the space.
The children's rooms, in accordance with the free spirit of the house, are very colorful: a room with pink touches, a green room with yellow, which is the new third room added in the current design. The children's bathroom was designed with terrazzo flooring and a royal blue cabinet that matches the dresser in the living room and the powder-colored countertop.
The balcony continues the house's light line. The designer placed a rug intended for indoor use, but its material is relevant for the outside as well, and lounging sofas in different shades of pink with an iron cactus.
The windows were changed from bronze-brown to white. This provides the house with the lightness and bright innovation that the designer wanted to create in the house. The current house is full of colorful, stylish, ethnic-African art. It is woven throughout the house, adding a lot of interest.
In conclusion, David explains: "The truth is, this is not the first time I am redesigning houses for the same family, and the demands change completely. People change over the years, travel the world, grow up, the children leave the house, hobbies, jobs, and interests evolve. I designed a house for a high-tech professional who, over the years, changed his career and is now a psychologist. As the job changes, so does the house."
According to him, "The wisdom is to create new placements, infuse new content into the existing, place furniture in a different space, paint, and not rush into an endless shopping spree. Here lies the greatness of the designer."