A space shaped by the people who live in it
The interior of this family house in Kbely grows as a natural continuation of its inhabitants' story. This is not simply a refurbishment of a space, but a considered transformation of the house into a place that reflects the family's values, its rhythm and its way of living. The underlying motif is the search for balance between calm and function, between openness and intimacy — the layout follows a clear circulation logic with no rooms passed through to reach others, while allowing for change over time, as the family itself develops.
The detail that turns a house into a home: the family's own logo is subtly worked into the glazed internal partitions — a personal element that keeps the house from being an anonymous environment and makes it an authentic imprint of the people in it. The interior thus echoes the house through the same balance between calm and function, between openness and intimacy. And the space does not stay still. It shifts with the daylight, and it will shift as the family grows. Material, detail and craftsmanship speak the same language as the people who live here — quietly, naturally, and with respect for what genuinely matters to them.
The interior is built on the principle of gentle layering. Pale, clean surfaces form a calm background into which warm materials enter — wood in honey tones, sand-coloured skim coats, terrazzo textures. The base is a three-layer oak floor in a natural honey tone, joined in wetter and harder-wearing areas by large-format 60×60 cm terrazzo tiles, and by natural linoleum in the children's room and the gym. Ceilings remain exposed concrete bearing the imprint of the board formwork, in a warm sand-coloured coating; walls combine white gypsum plaster with a decorative sand-toned skim coat, moisture-resistant in the bathrooms. A recurring motif is the rounded form, in the detailing of both furniture and building elements, softening the space and tying its individual parts together. Together with the views cut through the house — from the entrance all the way to the garden — they strengthen the sense of the interior as a whole. The joinery follows the same logic, for the most part designed in natural oak with a pronounced veneer figure in a honey tone. In the study, the joinery takes a darker, stained turn — oak in a dark shade, or walnut — while in the hall, the circulation spaces and the children's wardrobes it is simplified into matt white laminate or MDF. Supplementary metal elements move between gold and black; window and door hardware is matt black with rounded forms, and the entrance door has stainless steel rose hardware.
Joinery accompanies the house from the entrance through to the bedrooms — from the wardrobe unit and the storage cupboard beneath the staircase just inside the door, through the TV unit linked to the bookcase and the kitchen with its coffee bar in the main living space, to the separate bookcases in both studies. Upstairs these are continued by the double bed unit with a chest of drawers in the bedroom, the wardrobe units by the bedroom and the children's rooms, and the bookcase with shelving in the children's room. Characteristic here is the play with height and mass — a combination of tall and low modules, open and closed shelving, variable dimensions and rounded forms on the central islands. In the wardrobes, the combination of rails, drawers and shelves recurs, joined by mirrored door leaves to make the space feel larger, by clever drop-off points at the entrance (hooks, a key holder, a compartment for wallets) and by shelf lighting.
The bathrooms hold to the same material logic — figured oak veneer on the washbasin units, terrazzo floor and wall tiles in two colour variants (earthy for the parents' bathroom, more colourful for the children's). The washing machine and dryer are built directly into the washbasin unit, the showers have recessed niches, and countertop basins are paired with large mirrors. Taps combine matt black and chrome, accessories black with gold — the same colour pairing the house holds to in its lighting concept as well. That concept works in several layers — functional, ambient and accent. Daylight is drawn deep into the plan and artificial lighting picks up from it: recessed LED strips, spotlights, pendants with gold details above the dining table and the staircase, and sensor-controlled ambient night lighting, again combining brass/gold with black.
Client's comment: "A pleasant collaboration and a result that matches what we had in mind."
Architects: Michal Rouha, Marie Delongová, Barbora Jurášová
Location: Prague 19, Kbely