Agathoupoleos Street, Athens

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Situated on the first penthouse level of a seventies polikatikia, this 130 sqm apartment in Kypseli was bought by a German client whom our studio helped in finding the property. The client was bold enough to agree to some strong highlighting colours. 

Most of the depicted pieces of furniture, i.e. Bauhaus desk, were either found on the street, salvaged and revived or bought at vintage shops. Budget restrictions and necessity can sometimes be the mother of invention and creativity.

Most details like door handles, wooden windows and balcony doors, wardrobes and radiator covers were refurbished and preserved. 

The sixties tiles covering the walls and floor in the kitchen, as funky as they were, to the most part, had to be removed due to the numerous slits made for electrical re-wiring and plumbing. One wall was preserved as an ode to the original design. The remaining walls, floor and new kitchen counter were covered with a plaster treatment known in Greece as "patiti tsimentokonia". A vintage marble sink was re-introduced into the counter, in keeping with Athenian and Greek traditional use of marble elements. 

The cabinetry is original, hinges and knobs were replaced to allow for smoother mobility and a cleaner look. Equipped originally with only one bathroom, the client's wish was to create a second bathroom with a shower.

The space where the second bathroom was built was originally a dressing room whose shelf we salvaged and re-used over the freestanding bathtub. 

The original green marble floor tiles from Tinos, typically used in many Athenian buildings of the sixties, were preserved and the damaged ones were carefully resourced and replaced. As were the original porcelain soap holders, removed carefully and stored during renovetion, and re-inserted into the new tiled walls. The ceilings in both bathrooms were exposed to reveal the concrete surface. 

The peocock wallpaper adds a bohemian touch, perhaps as an ode to the old artistic center that once was Kypseli.