Sunlit Berlin apartment with ornate white ceilings, open double doors, oak herringbone floors and colourful contemporary art and furniture.

Altbau Apartment

No.
5
Berlin, Germany
2025

Location

Berlin, Germany

Year

2025

Area

185 m²

Status

Completed

Type

Interiors

Interiors

Hartwell & Kessler

Photography

Jonas Becker

The apartment

The second floor of a 1905 building in Prenzlauer Berg. The ceilings are 3.8 m high, but over the decades the space had been broken into small rooms with dropped ceilings. The client, a gallerist, wanted room for her collection and a home that didn't feel like a museum.

The interior

We removed the later partitions and restored the original enfilade, so you can see through four rooms from the entrance. The walls stay white, and the colour comes from the art and from a few strong pieces: cobalt chairs in the living room, a terracotta bed, dark oak shelves in the study. The bathroom was lined entirely in pale pink marble, from floor to ceiling.

Materials & details

The original oak parquet was repaired and kept, and the stucco ceilings were restored by hand. The new joinery stands clear of the old walls, so everything we added can be taken out again. The lighting is placed on picture rails and low lamps, never on the restored ceilings.

Floor plan

Floor plan of a Berlin apartment with four connected rooms, a long entrance hall and a bathroom with a freestanding bathtub.
Sunlit study with dark smoked oak bookshelves, a library ladder, vintage walnut desk, cognac leather chair and a large blue abstract painting.
Bedroom with a terracotta upholstered headboard, white linen bedding, abstract art and ornate stucco ceiling, lit by soft morning sunlight through tall windows.
Bathroom with a pale pink marble bathtub, matching walls and floor, brass taps and a leaning mirror beside a tall window.
Sunlit living room with a soft white sofa, cobalt blue armchairs, an aluminium coffee table, a faded Persian rug and ornate white stucco ceiling.
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