The project

A Quiet House near Sofia

An old rural house opened again, warm white, timber and greenery in a quieter order.

An old rural house with a fully renewed interior. Much of the volume is opened and reorganised; some windows are rebuilt with larger openings, so the house reads more contemporary and more light.

Warm whites are combined with generous timber and greenery. Large-format paintings keep the walls in the same measure. The offices are meant to feel part of the living room, yet separable, screened rather than closed rooms.

Location: Near Sofia
Type: House
Status: Visualization
Designer: Irena Rumen

Living room with timber slats, a linear fireplace, a bonsai and a lit stair.

Gallery above the stair, with a large painting and a glass balustrade.

Open volume: sofa, dining, kitchen, stair and a study behind a screened partition.

Living and studies

The offices as part of the room, and still separable.

The idea was for the offices to feel part of the living room, without closing them into separate rooms. Bronze-mesh screens hold two desks to the garden, visible from the sofa yet separable when needed. A bonsai, a large painting and timber slats keep the same quiet register.

Living room toward two studies behind screened partitions and a long dining table.

Sofa toward the windows, the bonsai and the timber slats of the hearth wall.

A desk to the garden, looking through the screen toward the stair.

Dining toward the lit stone stair and the kitchen island.

Kitchen and dining

Stone, steps and one axis to the fire.

A pale stone kitchen island and a walnut dining table sit on one level with the living room, divided only by a few lit steps. The same warm plaster and timber panelling continue toward the fireplace under the windows, the house reads as one floor, not a sequence of rooms.

Pale stone kitchen island and two white pendants.

The stair toward the fireplace under three windows.

Master bedroom

The same quiet, carried upstairs.

Warm plaster, timber wardrobes and a large-format painting keep the bedroom in the same register. The bathroom continues the stone, timber and black fittings in a long vanity and a glass shower, the private rooms do not change the language of the house.

Bedroom with a linen bed, walnut nightstands and a large abstract painting.

Bedroom toward the corridor, timber slats and a narrow window to the hill.

Master bathroom with a long stone vanity, a glass shower and linear lighting.

Upper gallery with a large painting, a glass balustrade and a view to the living room.

Hallway and stair

The paintings hold the path between floors.

Large-format canvases animate the hallway without leaving the measure of the interior. A glass balustrade with a bronze frame keeps the stair open to the living room, so the upper floor stays in conversation with the house below.