Minimalist apartment interior design in Batumi

Minimalist apartment interiors: storage comes first

A minimalist apartment interior in Batumi rests on one condition: everything has a closed place of its own. A clear worktop and an empty table happen when the wardrobes already have places drawn for the suitcase, the vacuum cleaner, the chargers and the beach bags. Without those places, things soon end up on the windowsill and the chairs.

So our first meeting starts with an inventory. We ask what you keep and how much of it: clothes for every season, shoes, suitcases, sports gear, appliances, supplies, and for a rental also linen and consumables. This list gives us the linear metres of wardrobes, and only then do we draw the walls and furniture.

Minimalism came into interiors from modernist architecture and its rule “less is more”: plain surfaces, two or three materials, almost no decor. When there is nothing for the eye to catch on, every gap shows, and the demands on the building work grow.

How much closed storage you need

In a 1+1 apartment for two, we usually end up with 4–5 linear metres of floor-to-ceiling wardrobes, not counting the kitchen. We put them where things are used:

Room for wardrobes can often be found above a door, in the stretch of wall by the entrance, at the end of a corridor. We draw the interior fittings of every wardrobe on the elevation, and how they are made is described on the page about made-to-measure wardrobes and walk-in wardrobes.

Hidden systems: doors, skirting, curtain tracks, hatches

The fewer details you can see, the more of them are hidden in the walls and ceiling. In a minimalist project these get sheets of their own: details of paintable concealed doors, concealed skirting flush with the wall, recesses for curtain tracks, ventilation grilles. The door frame and the skirting profile go in before plastering, the curtain recess is built together with the ceiling, and a decision made late here means rework.

In the bathroom the toilet goes on an installation frame with a wall-hung bowl, and the boxing above the cistern becomes the shelf from the table, while the floor under the bowl can be mopped right through.

Everything hidden needs access. An access hatch to the meters and valves, a removable panel under the bath, a cover over the lighting power supply: we draw them straight away and paint them in the wall colour. Without them, the first leak or burnt-out driver means opening up the finishes.

Air conditioning you can't see

A wall-mounted unit with a pipe running down the wall spoils a minimalist room more than any shelf. We don't advise hiding it in a recess or behind a decorative grille: the unit draws air in from above and starts recirculating its own cold air. If the unit mustn't be seen, we fit a ducted air conditioner above the hallway ceiling and bring slot diffusers into the rooms instead of square grilles: a narrow line in the ceiling by the window or along a wardrobe reads as a shadow gap.

We draw the diffusers and return grilles on the ceiling plan together with the lighting, so that the lines don't cross. We try to place the unit itself where the hatch for cleaning the filters can't be seen from the rooms: above the hallway by the walk-in wardrobe or the bathroom. If there isn't enough space above the hallway, the wall-mounted unit stays, but it gets a wall that can't be seen from the entrance or the sofa, and the pipe run and drain go into the wall before plastering.

Handleless fronts: three ways to open them

A push-to-open mechanism responds to any nudge: brush the door with a bag or a knee, and the front opens by itself. So in the kitchen we more often fit an aluminium profile handle: it can't be seen, and the door opens with your fingers, without pushing.

Dark matt handleless fronts show fingerprints. Boards with an anti-fingerprint coating cost more, but in the kitchen and hallway you notice the difference every time you clean.

Walls and lighting without extra details

When there is nothing on a wall, it has to be almost perfect. For minimalism we put Q4-level skim coating into the estimate wherever light falls along the wall from a panoramic window or linear lights: in that light every ripple shows. The levels and coats are explained on the page about skim coating walls.

The lighting is hidden too. Instead of a grid of downlights across the whole ceiling, a room has one or two lines, and each one is tied to something already there: the curtain recess, the edge of a wardrobe, a shadow gap. A grid of spotlights gives flat light, like in a shop, and punches holes in the only empty surface in the room. We set up the “evening”, “cleaning” and “all off” scenes on a multi-gang switch by the entrance and by the bed.

Minimalism in a rental apartment

A guest doesn't know where the wardrobe is, and if all the fronts are handleless and in the wall colour, the suitcase will stay in the middle of the room. For short-term rental we make minimalism easy to read: a profile handle instead of push-to-open, hooks in plain sight by the entrance and in the bathroom, an open recess for a suitcase and one shelf for things during the stay.

White walls in the hallway quickly collect wheel marks, so we use washable paint, and sometimes the bottom of the wall by the entrance is clad in the same porcelain tiles as the floor. A long-term tenant, on the other hand, needs more closed storage than a guest staying three nights, and we plan the wardrobes as we would for your own home.

Mistakes that stop minimalism from working

• fewer wardrobes than belongings: no inventory was made, and a month later there are boxes on the windowsill;
• push-to-open mechanisms on every front in a row, including the dishwasher and the cupboard with the bin;
• concealed valves and drivers without hatches, which later have to be reached through the wall;
• not a single soft surface, so the sound echoes between the panoramic glass and the porcelain tiles.

If you want more wood and natural fabrics on show, the project shifts towards Japandi style: the layout and closed storage stay the same, and the materials change.

How much a minimalist design project costs in Batumi

For a minimalist project we charge from 145 to 190 ₾ per m² of floor area, the same as for a full project in any other style. There are more drawings of wardrobes and details here, but they are not a separate line. This is the price of the designer's work; finishes and furniture go into the renovation estimate.

In the renovation estimate, minimalism shows in two lines. A paintable concealed door with an aluminium frame, installed, costs from 2,130 to 3,000 ₾ each, and a 1+1 apartment usually has two or three of them. A shadow gap profile for the ceiling adds from 42 to 54 ₾ per linear metre.

Designer supervision costs from 48 to 66 ₾ per m², and here it is especially useful: an error in a door frame set before plastering can't be covered up with paint later. We give the final cost of the project after the measured survey, once its scope is agreed.