Design of holiday apartments with Santos kitchens, by Ana Montarelo
12/ 03 / 2021
In a previous blog article, we featured Ana Montarelo’s holiday apartment design for the second floor of Real Segovia Apartments, which beautifully showcases the versatility of her style. Here’s an update to this decorating and interior design project, where Santos kitchens are back in the limelight.
The challenge of designing interiors for the hospitality industry
Throughout her professional career, Ana Montarelo has carried out several decorating and interior design projects for hospitality businesses. Although she didn’t really set out to work with the hospitality industry, the interior designer acknowledges that, given its peculiarities, the experience has enabled her to grow and develop as a professional. Right from the start, Ana understood that through her efforts, she could directly contribute towards the success of the business, which posed an additional challenge. In this regard, it was very clear to her that an in-depth study of the space would be crucial to increasing business profitability. The main premise of these businesses is having the most number of units for rent and, to meet this need, it is essential to create compact and functional spaces that, regardless of their size, had a spacious and comfortable feel to them.
The designer also took the constraints posed by the current health considerations on the industry into account. Under the circumstances, having minimalist spaces that are easy to clean and disinfect is a key differentiating factor that has led her to reflect on which items are essential or not when it comes to designing interiors. Likewise, she came to terms with the need to prioritise smooth, nonporous surfaces, ventilation, sustainability and the versatility of the rooms. For her, this does not mean that interior design will necessarily become boring and unattractive—as proven by her design project for Real Segovia Apartments. It only means that interior designers and decorators should tailor their ideas to the paradigms defined by the new social and regulatory frameworks.
Interiors designed to make guests feel right at home
Real Segovia Apartments is located in an old office building in the heart of Segovia. The building was meticulously refurbished to preserve its historical value and grandeur, which is shown in features such as the height of the ceilings, the spiral staircase and the marble floors with brass profiles. Its apartments—distributed across four floors—have a floor area of between 35 and 90 square metres, and come with a kitchen, living room and one or two bedrooms.
The interior design of these holiday apartments, located on the first floor, was defined by two major structural elements: the high ceilings and balconies. To emphasise the beauty of the former, Ana Montarelo decided to install an impressive moulding. The balconies—in contrast—aside from providing magnificent views overlooking Plaza de San Martín, are an endless source of natural light. The designer knew how to take advantage of this and play it up by using a colour scheme where light colours predominate.
The modern décor and furniture come with velvet or brass accents, which create an interesting contrast without breaking the harmony of the whole. As far as flooring is concerned, while the original rhombus wood parquet flooring of the second floor was recovered, here, floating natural oak wood flooring was installed over the porcelain tile to add warmth to the rooms and ensure the flooring matched.
The refurbishment considered the furnishing of each holiday apartment down to the last detail, from the layout to the finishes, creating attractive, elegant and practical spaces that are comfortable and welcoming at the same time. This way, guests can enjoy a comfortable and pleasant stay, as if they were in their own homes.
Holiday apartments with Santos kitchens
One of the major challenges of this project was to harmonise the different rooms comprising each apartment. To do this, the kitchen served as the hub between the living room and bedrooms. What’s more, visual barriers between areas were kept to a minimum, using glass partitions and wood or metal lattice dividers to enhance the space’s brightness and open-plan design.
Ana Montarelo chose Santos units to kit out the kitchens due to their aesthetics and functionality. Santos kitchens, with their clean lines and smooth fronts, seamlessly blend into such minimalist, open-plan interiors. Furthermore, their multiple shelving options make it possible to maximise the space, and the quality of their materials assure a higher level of resistance against constant wear and tear.
In the lower area, all the kitchens come with a sink unit, a hob unit with an oven, a built-in dishwasher and a drawer unit. The latter has full-extension, large-capacity drawers and double drawers to store cutlery, pots and pans in an organised way while keeping them easily accessible. The Innsbruck White, Cashmere and Mink Grey finishes were chosen for the fronts, as they contribute towards making the space feel so much bigger and brighter.
Kitchen design: Ana Montarelo
Santos distributor: Ceisa
Location: Real Segovia Apartaments (Segovia)
Layout: In-line / L-shaped
Santos units: ELEA Cashmere / ELEA Innsbruck White / ELEA Mink Grey
Worktop: Neolith Polished Bombón / Pulpis Silk
Architecture: Tz2 – Trazados Arquitectura
Interior architecture: Ana Montarelo
Photography: Costa Fotógrafo
Ana Montarelo
Calle Daoiz, 13, 40003 Segovia
T +34 609 027 113
estudio@anamontarelo.com
https://www.anamontarelo.com
You can find more information about Ana Montarelo and her studio at this link
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