TDesign consultant Andreas Bloy was sure of one thing when he began renovating his one-room apartment four years ago: There would be no white walls. And no white ceilings either. “I couldn’t live with that,” he says with a slight grimace. “I’m a colorful person. I enjoy using colors in different ways.”
Andreas keeps his word and avoids distracting neutral surfaces in his house in Oldenburg, northwest Germany, where he lives with his two dogs Paula and Emma. Instead, he opted for a more atmospheric design, mainly with dark green tones, mixed with accents in tangerine and rust red. “I have loved the combination of green and orange since I was a child, but also dark colors because they are cozy and have more impact.”
After years of renting in Hamburg, Andreas saw the purchase of the raised ground floor apartment, originally with two bedrooms, as a long-awaited opportunity
Andreas found the apartment in 2020 when he visited friends who lived in the same building from the early 1900s. The previous owners only used it occasionally and were eventually persuaded to sell. “There are two houses next to each other, one from 1907 and the other from 1905,” he says. “Both have four apartments each and we all share a single large garden. So it’s like a small community, which is also what attracted me.”
Less appealing was the interior of his new home. The apartment was spacious and bright, but with its color palette of white, gray and black typical of the era, it was stuck in the style of the 1990s. It was immediately clear that a complete renovation was needed to achieve the warm, minimalist look that Andreas was longing for.
The apartment “needed everything – new floors, doors, windows, kitchen and bathroom,” he recalls. “There was a lot to do, but luckily I was able to get a good team together to help me.”
The starting point was deciding on the colours. Andreas wanted each room to be painted a different shade of green to make each room stand out and add depth to the scheme, so he ordered bespoke paint from German brand Caparol.
The walls of the open-plan living room, kitchen and dining room were painted a rich emerald shade. One wall was panelled floor to ceiling in oak to house a fireplace. Bookshelves flank either side, hidden behind wooden slatted fronts. “I’m a big fan of natural materials and I particularly like oak,” he says. The flooring is smoked oak in a herringbone pattern for visual contrast.
The kitchen, hand-crafted by a local artisan, features pistachio-coloured cabinetry that allows for integrated appliances and leaves little visible – it’s a kitchen without a kitchen. The fluted island is a striking addition, but has equally important hidden drawers to hide utensils.
“I love cooking and entertaining friends, but I didn’t want the kitchen to look like a regular kitchen,” he explains. “I wanted the kitchen furniture to look more like furniture, because the living, dining and cooking areas are all in one room. It was important to me not to create three separate rooms. I wanted each room to have a connection to the others.” Even in the entrance area, an elegant oak cabinet turns out to be a home bar, where guests are served drinks before they make their way to the living area.
In his ongoing quest for a clean, uncluttered look, Andreas transformed the second bedroom into a dressing room, with the slatted wooden wardrobe fronts mirroring the wall in the living room.
“I don’t like having clothes in my bedroom because it’s not relaxing,” says Andreas. “I like my bedroom to feel more like a hotel room and everything else is hidden in a separate room.”
In the petrol green bedroom, the navy blue velvet bed with the curved headboard by Luiz was chosen because it envelops you like a cocoon. “It’s very cozy. When you go to bed, it’s as if the arms are wide open to hug you,” says Andreas.
The furniture is more in the midcentury classic style. In the living room, next to the orange sofa by Piero Lissoni for Knoll, there is a Bertoia high-back chair and a Platner table from 1966. In the entrance hall, there is a Barcelona chair in green leather and a Saarinen table and a set of Tulip chairs make up the dining area that opens onto the balcony. “I love the table because its shape doesn’t obstruct the view of the garden.”
While the dining table and chairs came with us, many of the other pieces were purchased for the apartment. “All the things I had before in Hamburg were at least 20 years old and it was the right time to create a new home,” says Andreas.
The bathroom features another shade of green, this time soft with grey undertones and given a functional touch with open metal shelving and an industrial-style freestanding sink by Ceramica Cielo.
For Andreas, his home has become the perfect antidote to his hectic career. “I wanted it to be a place that suits me, where I feel calm and have colors that appeal to me,” he says. “I have that now. Every time I enter the apartment, I feel warmly welcomed.”
