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A Room With A View: Connecting the dots through colors
Sun, 06/01/2008 10:44 AM | Home & Family
Every room tells a story about the owner. The Jakarta Post's Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo talks to Christianto Roesli about his inspiration and ideas for his apartment at the Apartment Taman Rasuna in Kuningan, Jakarta.
Please briefly describe yourself to readers? My name is Christianto Roesli, but many people call me Andre, which is the name I received at baptism. I'm a staff member of Lasalle College International and I teach interior design. I also work on interior design projects.
Practically, the teaching is for the idealism and the projects for my professionalism. My sibling has a furniture workshop, and sometimes I help to design the furniture.
In this apartment, I live with my roommate Silvia Pasaribu. She works for an advertising agency.
Apartment vs. house? Actually, space wise, a house is much better, as we can have garden and so on. However, for practicality, I prefer an apartment. One benefit is the location. Living in Taman Rasuna is strategic as Jakarta is already very congested, so reaching home after a tiring day at work is easier.
Moreover, my roommate and I are frequent travellers. So it's more secure to leave an apartment because the security system is much better. Both of us are busy people, sometimes we don't even meet for one month straight.
Can you give a brief description of the apartment layout? This is a two-bedroom unit. Inside my bedroom, I hung dark curtains to give a sense of spaciousness. But if I get bored, I can just flip the curtain to the other side, which is a lighter color.
There have been few changes from the original situation. We just changed the colors of the walls. Originally, the walls were painted in a Mediterranean style -- full of striking colors, such as orange and blue. Neither of us were fond of those colors. Now we have clean colors, such as brown, terra cotta and gray.
The finish of the ceiling and the floor has remained the same.
We were being playful with the style of the furniture. We also mixed and matched with the stuff we had. One thing we've avoided is the minimalist style because we don't want to be trapped in such a "cold" environment.
The style here is more eclectic. There is a classic Jepara table in the dining room. The dining chairs are modern but similar in color to the table.
I also put up Chinese propaganda art posters, which have images of Mao Tse Tung on them. I brought them cheap in China. They suit the mood of the dining room.
We both like an oriental look, so we concentrated on objects that display a Chinese influence.
What changes did you make from the original layout, and why?
Just like I mentioned before, only the colors on the walls have changed. We own all the furniture here. We collect things from traveling and we buy them one by one.
We have a Chinese table that we bought in BSD (Bumi Serpong Damai) area. At first I thought it wouldn't fit in the car, but it did fit, so I brought it.
Did you have a theme in mind for the apartment?
The dominant look here is the oriental theme. We started from what we have ... and we have many things from that theme. However, I call this style a personal style, which tends to be eclectic.
Some designers think the eclectic style is hard to execute because people have to understand the basic style of all the stuff they want to use.
Professional designers can mix and match easily. For ordinary people, in order to harmonize things, the easiest way is to connect the dots through the colors. Modern and classic sofas can match if they have similar colors.
Are there any aspects of your design that you are particularly proud of?
A lot of people like the dining area. They say they like the blend of classical and modern pieces. I often invite friends to come here. The dining area has become a spot for us to chat and hang out. Many of my friends are foodies so that spot quickly became their favorite.
The dining area beats the living room in terms of people's favorite hangout zone.
Renovating bathrooms can often pose particular problems. What were some of the issues for you?
There is no problem with the bathroom. We didn't renovate it. In an apartment, it's hard to renovate because of the plumbing system. It's because the plumbing position is permanent.
We just repainted the bathroom wall from striking blue, which has a dizzying effect especially in a small area, to a calmer color.
Theoretically, light colors should give a sense of space compared to darker colors. But sometimes we have to be brave in deciding which color to use in a small space. For example, the curtain in our living room is brown on one side and black on the other. The black color can make the wall seems further away.
It's how diligently you choose the colors. Sometimes, the combination of colors is the key. The minimalist colors, such as gray and white, can make a room feel like a gallery.
However, in Indonesia, the minimalist style is still in fashion, though outside the country that is no longer the case.
The modern approach to design relies more on function rather than aesthetics. There is even a phrase "detail is crime", which came because they got tired of classical designs.
What would you change?
I'd be more interested in restyling than renovation. We might change the colors of the walls. We are thinking of an urban city theme. If we opt to go with that modern look, then we may paint the walls differently. Whatever didn't fit with the new theme would go into storage. The posters would have to go.
