Create Architectural Interest in Bland Condo

Just because your condo looks like a box, that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.  By hiring a good interior designer or architect you can create the illusion of architectural detail in even the blandest spaces.  

High rise condos are often designed to sell, not necessarily to live in.  In fact, most builders hire interior designers to dress up models and make them appear more livable than they are.  

Many times, after a person moves in, they realize their condo is just a boxy apartment with better appliances. 

That’s why I. Michael Winegrad, an award-winning interior designer, shocked friends and family when he totally ripped apart his parent's new luxury condo in Baltimore.

His parent’s condo, in a luxury high-rise, came with every imaginable upgrade.  “I got a lot of negative feedback from people who had seen the condo before we started the remodel,” said Winegrad.  Friends and family members booed Winegrad when he arrived at a party in which the word had spread that he was tearing down walls and dismantling what most perceived to be a dream home.

“I have experience and a knack for interior architecture as well as design,” he said.  “I looked at the bones and the layout of the space and realized the rooms didn’t work.” 

To make it work Winegrad expanded the foyer, removed a den wall to open up the space and replaced vanilla interiors with rich brown woods and soft grey walls.  He used 3-inch planks of Brazilian cherry floors throughout the condo.   

Winegrad chose ebony-stained oak, cut flat, to produce a more modern-looking kitchen, filled with an abundance of cabinets and even a butler’s pantry just off the foyer.  Dark brown and black blend granite pop against a glass-tiled backsplash.

Interior designer Pierre Jean-Baptiste took a 1980s Bethesda condo and turned it into a Hollywood glam bachelorette pad.  He did this without tearing down any walls or altering the floor plan.  He even kept the dated parquet floors.

“I like to use splashes of an element when I design.  Here I used splashes of crystal and metal to take the eye off of standard architectural things that might not be as pleasing” said Jean-Baptiste. 

In the home’s foyer, an old shaped room that received little use, Jean-Baptiste arranged two large micro-fiber chairs around a round rug reshape the room.  He hung six framed Picasso prints on a large wall to give the space the upscale hotel lobby look.   “I wanted something nice that had visual interest,” Jean-Baptiste said.

In the master bedroom, Jean-Baptiste created the illusion of a canopy bed, using metallic paint and white trim.  He trimmed space on a wall behind the bed and on the ceiling.  He painted inside the trim to provide a focal point around the bed.  He installed a crystal chandelier over the bed to add to the canopy effect, creating  a brilliant focal point.

By thinking outside the box, you, too, can turn bland into brilliant.