Faded frescos offer a backdrop to contemporary furnishings in Brolettouno Apartment, a holiday home in northern Italy that has been refurbished by local studio Archiplan.

The property is located in Mantua, Lombardy, in a building that dates back to the 15th century. It belongs to a young couple, who asked Archiplan to transform the space into a getaway for tourists. Their only requirement was that costs for the revamp be kept to a minimum.

Left with this largely open brief, the designers decided to make very few changes to the property – choosing instead to honour its timeworn aesthetic.

"We tried to keep together two worlds – the one of the old and the one of the new – in a balance able to guarantee the identity of both of them," said Archiplan, which is led by designers Diego Cisi and Stefano Gorni Silvestrini.

Several original frescos appearing throughout the apartment are preserved. Areas that could not be salvaged are covered in plaster or painted a shade of mint-green, to complement the pastoral scenes depicted on some of the walls.

A partition has been knocked through in the apartment's main room to form an open-plan living area and bedroom. Privacy is provided by a tall, perforated headboard crafted from light-hued ash wood.

Directly behind sits a simplistic bench seat made from birch. This material was also used to create a large dining table and chairs.

To "emphasise the differences between [the apartment's] individual spaces", the architects employed a more muted material and colour palette in the bathroom, which features stark white walls and a wide stainless-steel basin.

Meanwhile the kitchen features black surfaces and cabinetry.

Similarly, interior designer Kristina Lastauskaite-Punde chose to keep fragments of fresco in her overhaul of a 19th-century apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Photography is by Davide Galli Atelier.