Designer Anna Gawlik Is Spot-On With This Black-And-White Space

Time, it seems, is rarely on our side. When we’re not under the gun, we’re behind the eight ball. And we all know what haste makes. But despite a tight schedule – a heart-stopping five days – and a limited budget, designer Anna Gawlik managed to conjure an immaculately appealing pied-à-terre in Kraków’s historic Kazimierz district.


The “deconstructed” wardrobe is all part of the plan to keep the space visually unobstructed.

Fashioned for a Polish-born graphic designer who resides in Paris, the studio apartment is an uplifting study in white. “On one hand, white was a strategy to optically enlarge the space, and on the other, it was a way to emphasize the architectural details while at the same time not allowing them to dominate the key assumptions of the project,” relates Gawlik.


The compact, highly functional kitchen is a luxury in such a small unit.

Objects can take on a determinedly arty appearance in a minimal, neutral environment, but because function truly drove the design decisions in this small space, the furniture and fixtures strike one as sensible rather than sculptural. The little wire stool would look at home on a pedestal, but paired with a slender trestle desk, it’s simply a smart looking seat. Gawlik did, however, take an almost Surrealist approach when it came to the headboard – a loose grid of pillows that climb the wall and float across the ceiling. “While working on 3D visualizations for the headrest,” says Gawlik, “I started to play with the cushions and then I thought, this is the moment, the right client, when we can afford to wink at the typical concept of a headrest.”


Dreamy takes on a whole new meaning with this pillowed headboard.

Luxe hotel room is often default position when it comes to designing a tiny, occasionally used apartment. But as Gawlik has so scrupulously shown, the chocolate-on-the-pillow road isn’t the only route to take. A coat rack takes the place of a closet, but there’s a great big mirror for that one last look. The bathroom may be compact, but how nice to have a little kitchen, perfect for two. The reduced palette and just-the-necessities approach generates a certain chic, a sort of insouciance that seems to suggest that for all its composed comfort, this space is but a resting place, a prelude to the city streets beyond.

Photography by Hannah Dlugosz.

For more like this black and white space from Anna Gawlick, be sure to check out this eclectic home that’s breaking tradition in Tuscany.

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