Apartment designer in Moscow's "Stalinist"

Today we will show you an apartment in a "Stalinist" building, where the new owner managed to preserve the spirit of the old era: in chandeliers, stucco, parquet and radiators

It's always interesting to take a look behind the scenes of something goodrepair. Today, the art director of the community of decorators Studio No. 5, Nelly Alekseeva, helped us with this. Nelly interviewed Galina Lugina, the owner and decorator of the studio of the same name.

Galina lives in a "Stalinist" house on Baumanskaya, intwo-room apartment, next to the office, and walks to work. Her bureau specializes in textile decoration of country houses, apartments, offices, studios, masterfully equipping them with curtains, textiles, changing upholstery and restoring furniture. In addition, Galina leads full-format personal interior projects. She is fond of photography. — How did it happen that you settled in this apartment? — This apartment was "waiting" for me. For six months I was constantly looking at apartments until I realized: I want to live in the center, in a house with history, the apartment should have an interesting layout, high ceilings and be as quiet as possible. And I found it. Initially, the apartment belonged to Boris Pavlovich Beloglazov - a teacher, professor from the Tupolev Design Bureau. With the apartment, I also inherited the history of Soviet aircraft manufacturing, medals, certificates, letters of thanks, drawings, piles of papers covered with formulas, and a library. My main task in creating the interior was to preserve its spirit. I wanted to include the remaining aircraft-building artifacts and associations with the era to which they belonged. The windows, parquet and radiators of 1938 were restored in the apartment, and the objects of the living environment of that time were also preserved - a telephone, an ebonite meter, chandeliers. All the furniture was designed with a reference to this style, doors with transoms, an oak bookcase, a chest of drawers, bedside tables... It was important for me to preserve the moldings, volumes and proportions of the rooms, adjusting them to my needs - thus, the kitchen and living room were united, but all the old boundaries of the layout, "readable" on the floor and ceiling, were preserved. — How did you become a decorator?— Until I was 30, I was an accountant in a large construction company. Then I quit everything and graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute, Department of Architectural Environment Design. And for over 10 years now, I have been inventing new ways of sewing curtains and textile decor. Textiles are 30-40% of the interior. For decorators, this is almost a religious issue. The most important thing is to preserve the atmosphere of the interior or help make accents. Each project is unique, even in its simplicity and minimalism. Therefore, sometimes I order a custom fabric color from the factory, do complex embroidery or develop cornices and holders with hand carving and painting with a carver. Now I am working on a collection of braid and tassels for the Russian market and my projects. France is expensive, and braid is in trend. For me, there is no word "impossible" in textile decor, there are different ways to implement an idea… — Tell us about the cuisine.— My kitchen is essentially a part of the living room, so it should be as neutral as possible, but functional. That is why it is in white gloss, without handles and accent details, even the apron blends in with the color of the walls. It has everything, the smallest details of the filling are thought out, it is just not visible. — Share with us your favoriterecipe. — I have a weakness for fish and seafood, especially scallops. Here is my favorite recipe. Scallops in pumpkin sauce. The scallops should be perfectly fresh, if not, defrost them in milk at room temperature. After defrosting, remove from the milk, let it drain, add salt, a little ground pepper. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil into a frying pan and fry on both sides for 2-3 minutes. Cut the pumpkin into pieces and boil in milk, then add a little honey and butter, beat into a puree with a blender. Put the golden scallops on a plate, decorate with sauce. This is not even food - it is 100% pleasure in halftones.