Mid-century modern interior design in Batumi: furniture, wood and lighting

Why mid-century modern suits Batumi new builds

Mid-century modern grew out of American and Scandinavian design of the 1940s to 1960s: houses with large windows, open living rooms, furniture of bent plywood and veneer on slim legs. A mid-century modern apartment interior in Batumi fits a new build almost as it is: floor-to-ceiling windows, an open-plan kitchen and living room and a balcony give exactly the connection with the outdoors that the style was invented for.

It needs no mouldings or high ceilings, so the project costs the same as a standard full project. The designer's work here lies elsewhere: finding a place for every piece, choosing the wood so that it doesn't merge into one patch, and arranging the lighting.

Furniture: vintage, new in the style or made to measure

Mid-century furniture comes from three sources. Genuine vintage pieces are brought with you or found through listings, but what will turn up and in what condition can't be known in advance, so we don't build the project around a piece you don't have yet. We source new furniture in the spirit of the style from suppliers, and whatever has to fit exactly we draw to be made to measure: a long low TV unit, shelves, built-in wardrobes.

After the move to a damp climate, vintage furniture first spends a couple of weeks in the apartment away from the air conditioner and the sun: old veneer and glue get used to the humidity gradually. We check the legs and seat rails of old chairs for wobble, the upholstery often has to be replaced, and we put that into the budget straight away. Before buying a large sideboard we check it against the dimensions of the door and the lift car: furniture like this can't always be taken apart. How we select and order the rest of the furniture is covered on the page about the furniture package.

Wood: how much and in which tones

The main danger of the style is walnut furniture, an oak floor and a wooden wall in the same tone merging together until the room looks like a sauna. We keep the tones apart. The floor is lighter, natural or whitewashed oak, the furniture darker, walnut or teak, and there is only one wooden wall, behind the sofa or the headboard. Its substrate and fixings are described on the page about wood in interiors.

We lay the floor in long straight boards, because herringbone pulls the style towards classic. Engineered wood flooring suits the living rooms, and terrazzo-effect porcelain tiles, also typical of the mid-century, suit the kitchen and hallway. Teak behaves calmly by the sea: the wood contains a lot of natural oil and copes with humidity better than many species.

Colour, wallpaper and graphics

The base of mid-century modern is warm: creamy white, light beige, sometimes a dark green or graphite wall. Against it, mid-century accents do the work: mustard, olive, turquoise, burnt orange, brick red. We use one or two of these colours per room and repeat them in several pieces, otherwise the interior starts to look like a retro café.

Graphic wallpaper with geometric patterns or large foliage goes on one interior wall, not the whole room. We calculate rolls with a large pattern repeat in advance, as they leave more waste from matching the pattern than small ones. Wall preparation and pattern matching are covered on the page about how we hang wallpaper.

Lighting: globes, floor lamps and sockets for them

Mid-century lighting comes not from downlights in the ceiling but from objects: a globe pendant or a Sputnik chandelier over the table, an arc floor lamp by the sofa, table lamps on the sideboard and chest of drawers. So the electrical plan has more sockets at sideboard height and near the floor and fewer light points in the ceiling. An arc floor lamp usually reaches out one and a half to two metres, and it needs space behind or beside the sofa and a socket nearby so that the cable doesn't cross the walkway.

In a room with a 2.7 m ceiling we hang a Sputnik chandelier over the table rather than in a walkway: its arms spread wide, and a tall guest will hit them with their head. We use warm lamps, because walnut and teak look dull under cold light.

Storage with low furniture

Low sideboards and chests of drawers on legs look good but hold little. So that your things don't end up on show a month later, we move the main storage into ceiling-height wardrobes in the hallway and bedroom, with smooth fronts in the wall colour or in veneer. In a hallway by the sea we make a separate ventilated compartment for beach bags, umbrellas and wet shoes. The TV unit is wall-hung or stands on legs, about 40–45 cm deep, and we hide the router and cables in it.

Mid-century modern for rentals and neighbouring styles

The style is convenient for a rental apartment: it photographs well, and the colour can be carried by cushions, throws and pictures that can be changed in a day. We don't put genuine vintage pieces into a short-term rental: an old chair breaks under a guest who rocks on it, and no replacement can be found. We use new furniture in the spirit of the style, on a metal frame or in solid wood.

Mid-century modern is closest to Scandinavian style: Danish and Swedish mid-century furniture belongs to both. A Scandinavian interior is lighter and softer, mid-century darker and more graphic, and a light Scandinavian base with one or two mid-century armchairs looks calmer than the pure style. It shares wood and low furniture with Japandi. Pieces like these can be chosen and arranged in a finished apartment without a full project, as part of interior decorating.

Mistakes in mid-century modern

• wood of the same tone on the floor, walls and furniture;
• every piece straight out of a design textbook, so the apartment looks like an exhibition;
• mustard, orange and turquoise all in one room;
• furniture on slim legs on a deep-pile rug, where the legs sink in;
• vintage bought without measurements, so the sideboard won't fit the wall space;
• apart from the low sideboard there is nowhere to store things, so they live on show.

How much a mid-century modern interior costs in Batumi

A mid-century modern design project costs from 145 to 190 ₾ per m² of the apartment, the same as a standard full project: layout, 3D, working drawings and a materials list. The price is for the designer's work, without furniture or finishes. If you are bringing vintage furniture, we fit it into the layout as part of the project, while finding and ordering furniture is charged separately, as a furniture package.

The finishes go into the renovation estimate. A turnkey timber wall, with materials, installation and finish, costs from 215 to 310 ₾ per m², the engineered wood flooring itself from 185 to 265 ₾ per m², and wallpaper hanging from 36 to 54 ₾ per m² for the labour.

The project price goes up with made-to-measure furniture, wooden walls and ceilings in several rooms, and lots of vintage pieces that each need the layout adjusted around them. Ready-made furniture from suppliers' catalogues brings it down. We give the final cost after the measured survey and agreement, once it is clear how much furniture we are drawing to be made to measure.