Neoclassical interior design in Batumi: apartment projects with mouldings

Neoclassical: classic without the excess decoration

A neoclassical interior in Batumi sits well in an ordinary new-build apartment, where a strict classic interior lacks height. From classic style it keeps symmetry, tall doors and moulding frames on the walls, while the gilding, carving and heavy fabrics go. The furniture is comfortable and contemporary, the lighting simple, the background light, and the style shows itself through the shadows of slim profiles rather than the amount of decoration.

What also sets it apart from a classic interior is the designer's workload. We don't draw coffers, door surrounds or carved furniture here, but every wall with frames gets an elevation, and how the room will look depends on the accuracy of that sheet.

Wall elevations: frames, sockets and the air conditioner

A moulding frame works only if it matches what stands in front of it. So we draw the elevation after the furniture has been placed: the frame behind the sofa is wider than the sofa by the same margin on each side, the frame behind the bed is in proportion to the headboard, and the TV gets its own panel with room to spare, because the next one will be bigger. If the furniture changes after the elevations have been approved, we recalculate the frames.

The same sheet shows the sockets, switches, wall light outlets and the air conditioner unit. We place the unit on the axis of a frame, above it, or move it to a wall without frames, otherwise it will later be hung right across the pattern. A door you would rather hide becomes a hidden door, and the frames on the wall continue across its leaf. How paintable hidden doors are installed is described separately.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and the curtain wall

We don't decorate a glass wall with frames: curtains do the work there. We hide the track in a ceiling recess running from wall to wall, the fabric falls from ceiling to floor, and the window reads as one large frame. A drawn-back curtain usually takes up 20–30 cm by the wall, so the frames on the adjoining walls start beyond that line: a frame that disappears behind the curtain is only half visible.

If the window has both a sheer and a heavy curtain, the recess needs two rows of track. We set the depth of the recess on the ceiling plan together with the light points, otherwise the second row won't fit or will run into a light fitting.

Palette: tone on tone

Neoclassical relies on a light background, and the frames show through shadow rather than colour. So we paint the wall and the mouldings in one shade with the same sheen, and this makes the room feel taller. Semi-gloss on mouldings against a matt wall picks out every joint and every flaw in the profile, so we don't use it for frames.

For depth, we paint the lower part of the wall below the dado rail a shade or two darker, or make one wall in the bedroom dark. We leave the ceiling white, but not a cold white: next to a warm wall, pure white looks bluish. We approve the shade from a sample painted on a wall in the apartment, not from a colour fan.

Floor: herringbone in engineered wood or vinyl

Herringbone or chevron sets a classic tone even when the walls are almost bare. For your own apartment we use engineered oak in a natural or light tone, so that the floor stays in the same warm range as the walls. The subfloor and adhesive for it are described on the page about engineered wood flooring.

For a rental, the same herringbone can be laid in SPC or LVT vinyl: it isn't bothered by water or sand from the beach, and a glue-down plank with a deep scratch can be replaced on its own. In the hallway and kitchen, light marble-effect porcelain tiles suit a neoclassical interior, and we run the joint with the herringbone along the door opening or the edge of the kitchen area.

Furniture, kitchen and doors

The main furniture in a neoclassical interior is contemporary: a simply shaped sofa upholstered in fabric, a bed with an upholstered headboard, a pedestal table. One or two pieces recall classic style: an armchair with curved legs, a console under a mirror, a chest of drawers with panelled fronts. If everything in the room is made to look antique, the result is a poor imitation of a classic interior.

We draw the kitchen with framed fronts, or flat fronts with a fine routed detail, take the wall cabinets up to the ceiling and finish them with a cornice. Interior doors are ceiling height, panelled or flat and painted in the wall colour. Made-to-measure wardrobes get the same frames as the walls, and when closed they read as part of the elevation.

Rental apartments and combining styles

Of the decorative styles, neoclassical copes with renting better than the others. A light background photographs well, the frames make the photos recognisable, and there are hardly any small objects that need wiping between guests. In a short-term rental we keep frames behind the bed and the sofa, leave the corridor and kitchen without them, and choose upholstery with removable covers.

Neoclassical mixes easily with Scandinavian and contemporary style: light wood and simple light fittings don't get in its way. Brass wall lights, a velvet armchair and a geometric mirror pull it towards art deco, so we keep such pieces to one or two per room. The concrete and exposed pipes of a loft, on the other hand, clash with frames.

Mistakes we see in neoclassical interiors

• frames on every wall in the apartment, including the corridor and kitchen;
• a frame drawn without the furniture, so a wardrobe or headboard cuts it in half;
• the air conditioner hung over a frame after the renovation;
• mouldings painted semi-gloss on a matt wall, so every joint shows;
• a crystal chandelier and pelmets borrowed from classic style, which clash with the slim frames;
• frames on the developer's walls with no preparation: a moulding shows every place where the wall leans.

How much a neoclassical apartment interior costs in Batumi

A neoclassical design project with wall elevations and made-to-measure furniture costs from 205 to 265 ₾ per m² of the apartment. This is the designer's work: on top of the layout, 3D and working drawings come elevations of every wall with frames and drawings of the kitchen and wardrobes with framed fronts. If there are only a few frames and the furniture is bought ready-made, a standard full project at 145–190 ₾ per m² is enough.

Mouldings and the floor aren't included in the project price. As a guide, moulding installation costs from 15 to 24 ₾ per linear metre, the polyurethane mouldings themselves from 34 to 60 ₾ per metre, and laying engineered wood flooring from 51 to 66 ₾ per m².

The project price goes up with frames in every room, hidden doors with the frames continued on them, and framed fronts made to drawings. Frames only in the living room and bedroom bring it down. We give the final cost after the measured survey and agreement, once it is clear how many walls will get frames.