How 2 Designers Made a Cozy, Clutter-Free Home in 481 Square Feet
Samantha Weiss-Hills
Updated
To Talitha and Michael Bainbridge, the highest compliment someone could pay their flat in Southwestern Germany is that it looks bigger in pictures. At only 481 square feet, it’s close quarters—but that’s just why the Bainbridges chose it. Talitha and Michael are the designers behind ZWEI Design, a small interior and home object design studio nestled in a corner of Germany affectionately (and appropriately!) called Dreiländereck (which means "tripoint") because it’s situated at the intersection of Switzerland, Germany, and France. It’s the region where Talitha grew up, before going to the U.S. to study in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she met Michael, a born-and-bred Midwesterner. When they moved together to Germany—only 15 minutes from design mecca Basel, Switzerland—seven years ago and were looking for a place to call their own, the couple was intrigued by the tiny countryside home, mostly because of the rare garden attached to it. (It’s atypical for flats in Germany to have a garden, Michael says, because of the price of land.) The apartment checked off all the boxes they were looking for at the time—affordable, modern layout, easy to grow into, that garden space—so they jumped at the chance.
To Talitha and Michael, the most important aspect of designing their home was to consider how to minimize any physical and visual clutter. “When you’re restricted to such a small space, you have to think about decisions carefully,” Michael said. Talitha added that they used the concept of zoning—dedicating areas to specific purposes—to define the 217 square feet of main living space in the flat, which includes a living room, dining room, and kitchen all wrapped up in one. The space constraints are actually what led them to begin designing their own line of home objects and furniture: lamps, hooks, pillows, even side tables and coffee tables. These pieces compliment their other classic European design choices like the Ligne Roset Togo sofa, Knoll Saarinen Tulip table, and Knoll Wassily chair. The use of color accents here and there—purple and black to highlight a fireplace facade, dove grey to create a focal point in the hallway—was all about height and drawing the eye up (and are an easy swap, as well, if they’re feeling over the hues). Maximizing light with mirrors and a majority of Dreiländereck was pretty important for keeping things bright, too, with only one window and one set of French doors in the whole flat. For themselves and ZWEI Design’s clients, Talitha and Michael use interior design as a way to add a layer of design instead of spinning a whole new tale for a space—letting the architecture, whatever it has to say, speak for itself. “My favorite thing to say is to lean into things,” Michael explained. ”If it’s something that isn’t perfect, lean into it until you make that thing a design masterpiece.”
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