design | light: cool in pink
Casa Deco 4 | 2003 | English translation
With white surfaces, a lot of glass and colorful light installations, interior designer Michael Morten Neumayr makes small rooms look big.
To combine minimal available space with a maximum of usability is a specialty of interior designer and feng shui consultant Michael Morten Neumayr. The 35-year-old Austrian, who runs studios in Munich and Los Angeles, was added to the list of the 200 worldwide best designers and was also honored with the coveted “Joseph Binder Award”. No wonder. In his hands even XS-apartments are well taken care of. Neumayr is a master in intelligently using each centimeter to bring lightness and openness to even the smallest rooms through a play of light, colors and materials. This way he was able to integrate a double vanity, separate bathub, shower and toilet into a tiny 6,25 sm (67 sq ft) bathroom of a historic Munich apartment and still making the room look spacious. By using a lot of glass, her created transparency. The stainless steel bowls let the room look light and airy. Also the above pictured kitchen he was able to visually widen by designing a merely 6cm (2.5”) thick vent that accentuated the horizontal lines and used frosted backlit glass to lighten up the space.
In order to let the large but dark hallway of a 1960’s apartment shine, Neumayr combined white surfaces with bright light installations. The hardwood floors were painted white, the frosted sliding glass door to the walk-in closet was backlit in a light blue and the ceiling was lit through pink light channels, integrated into a soffit. A beautiful detail is the sideboard for shoes, which emanate a pink ambient light through its translucent back, which makes it look as if it was literally hovering in the room. All light sources are controlled separately, so the owners can adjust the light scenery according to their mood. A big 210cm (82”) tall mirror, framed in Palisander wood, leaning against the wall, lets the entry area feel bigger and breaks up the somewhat stringent layout. The joyful “ant-chair” by Arne Jacobsen custom painted in pink fit perfectly into the newly designed hallway.
Caption 1. Inside the spacious hallway, which is kept all white, magenta ambient light and an icy blue backlit glass door, create different moods. 2. The Austrian-Danish Designer Michael Morten Neumayr. 3. Thanks to illuminated glass elements in the cooking area, the kitchen feels very light and open.
