Note Design Studio enriches Stockholm apartment with “cloudy” ceiling stucco

Note Design Studio has updated this formerly characterless apartment in Stockholm to feature bespoke Douglas fir joinery and curvy stucco ceilings designed to suggest cloud formations.

Although the Cloudy Outlines apartment sits within a building dating back to 1842, Note Design Studio says the interior had been stripped of any historic charm and “traces of craftsmanship” during previous renovations.

It also had a poor layout, with a living area that could only be accessed via a dark, lengthy corridor snaking around the back of the apartment while the remaining rooms were awkwardly shaped and difficult to furnish.

The studio decided to redesign the home from scratch, knocking down all of its internal walls to form a more cohesive floor plan.

The corridor was repositioned to run parallel to the building’s window-lined facade and, as a result, is now flooded with natural light.

Rooms were classically finished with white-painted walls and Douglas fir flooring.

Billowy stucco moulding was added throughout to give a soft “cloudy” quality to the ceilings and provide a contrast with the “rationality and material robustness” of the apartment, the studio explained.

“With the previous interior and finishes removed, a new holistic design was developed with a limited amount of design principles, all with a timeless ambition,” Note Design Studio said.

In the kitchen, Douglas fir was used again to create simple cupboards and a striking circular cover for the extractor fan.

The countertop, on the other hand, is overlaid with a sleek metallic finish.

All of the apartment’s doors, as well as its window sills, are also made from Douglas fir.

The material palette only deviates slightly in the bathroom, which features grey-tile surfaces and flecked terrazzo-like flooring.

The Cloudy Outlines apartment is one of several residential renovations that Note Design Studio has completed in the Swedish capital, where the firm is based.

Among them is Habitat 100 – an apartment littered with references to the Swedish Grace movement – and the Mantelpiece Loft, which is distinguished by its colour-block bedrooms.

The photography is courtesy of the studio.

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