Dreamy 1930s apartment in the heart of Bucharest

We have a special home today on the DailyDreamDecor, a 1930s apartment in the heart of Bucharest! This dreamy apartment is the home of my friend, Sinziana @sinziananastase and her partner. They’ve recently moved to 78 sqm apartment in a small apartment building located in Amzei Market, a bustling area in Bucharest. The space is exquisite, with tall ceiling and windows, preserved original floors, window frames & more.

The renovation took about 5 months, without an interior designer and with a couple of bumps on the way. Sinziana will tell you more herself.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m 37, born and raised in Bucharest and in love with this city. Love to travel and I am always trying to surround myself with beauty. Have a regular day job and a business (Feel Good Beauty).

What is your home style?

I don’t think I have a home style, the only constants are art, books and an old table I inherited from my aunt. Otherwise I try to work with the space I have and let myself get inspired by the “bones” of the space.

I try to make a pretty space that will give me pleasure to return to when I am away, give me the comfort I need (but not sacrificing on the “pretty” factor). Plus I am a hoarder so usually my home is full of stuff and things continue to accumulate as time passes.

Domicilio chairs and Vivre mirror

Where do you get your inspiration?

Daily Dream Decor 🙂 Joke aside now, I do get a lot of inspiration online, from blogs, decor magazines, instagram accounts. I used to obsess over Pinterest, now all I find there I have already seen elsewhere.

I am also inspired by spaces I visit, like hotels, restaurants, shops, museums… and I am inspired by my artist friends, by going shopping and finding a piece for which I can immediately see a place and a story in my home.

I rarely give into following a trend when it comes to decor, but sometimes I like buying accent pieces that are “trendy” and which could be replaced / repurposed.

Jysk Sofa, wallart Madalina Andronic, Irina Neacsu and Diana Cojocaru – all Romanian artists

What were the challenges of renovating a 1930s apartment?

Hahaha, this is a funny one. But even funnier is what were the challenges of renovating a 1930s apartment during the COVID pandemic. First of all, we were very lucky that our contractor was the previous owner’s partner and he was more than familiar with the space.

But he was not involved in the previous remodel, so many things came as surprises for him too. One of our main wishes was try and keep as much of the original elements still present (floors, doors and door frames, windows etc.).

So it was a bit harder to work around what was already there than starting from scratch.

It delayed us by 1 month the fact that we had to replace some of floor wooden tiles, and surprise, the size is not standard anymore and they needed to be custom made.
None of the walls are straight and almost no angle is 90 degrees. So most of the furniture was custom made and there are areas where you can see they are not perfectly aligned.
Materials used for some walls is a more brittle brick so any hole drilled needed to be reinforced before hanging something there
The bathroom is small and has a very odd shape so we had to get creative with the organization of space.
The kitchen was not planned to be used for cooking when the building was first built (there was a big kitchen in the basement and food would come via the service entrance) so we had to find the best way to organize things in it.

Custom made kitchen cabinets

Which is the dreamiest part / room in your home?

I would say the living room with my big windows and gallery wall and now also with the wallpaper we installed as a DIY project. I love spending time here, almost as much as in the bedroom. And the absolute favourite thing is the way morning light dances on my oak floors and how they shimmer. They creak a lot but I would not replace them ever.

Vivre TV stand, PhotoWall Sweden marble wallpaper, Pepco vases, vintage deco items

Any tips for people starting to decorate their home?

Listen to your voice and your needs. You do not need to follow trends or someone else’s vision. If you do not feel comfortable thinking about everything and risking not being happy in the end find a designer to help you. Also, do not be afraid to say when you do not like something / disagree with something, it will be you who will have to live there for a while not the contractor or the designer.

We did everything in terms of design ourselves and ordered all the “visible” materials (floors, tiles, paint colors), but we trusted and delegated the contractor to handle everything else. And this really kept us quite relaxed. Also, we did not respect a lot of rules designers stress about, we followed our feelings and we are happy with the results and that is what matters.