An Almaty Apartment Composed in Sage, Sunlight, and Serendipity

Some homes begin with a site visit while others begin with a passing thought. But this project belongs solely to serendipity. Months before Fariz Mamedov of FM Interiors Design Bureau was formally approached to design this 150-square-meter apartment in central Almaty, Kazakhstan, he would often drive past the residential complex while it was still under construction––musing of one day working on its interiors. Soon after, clients reached out with an apartment in that very building.

Whether you call it coincidence, intuition, or something closer to good fortune, that story set the tone for a home shaped as much by feeling as by floor plan.

The apartment belongs to a family of five: a warm, creative household whose interests orbit music, theatre, art, travel, and one another. Mamedov describes them not only as people whose energy immediately moved him. Their conversations were open, their connection instantaneous, and their sensibilities uncannily aligned with his own. That emotional fluency became the project’s quiet engine.

Mamedov speaks of color almost musically. When he looks at people, he says, he instinctively associates them with shades. Images appear; colors begin to play and sound. For this couple, the note that emerged was a complex sage, or light olive: calm, elegant, restrained, but far from simple. It became the apartment’s emotional foundation moving through the home like a recurring melody.

Around that central tone, Mamedov layered a more expressive score: red appears as bold and energetic; blue brings depth and calm; and a sunny yellow elicits joy, play, and invention in the children’s spaces. In the primary bedroom, pastels meet burgundy in a quieter arrangement of tenderness, unity, and intimacy. Color is allowed to travel beyond the expected surfaces, appearing not only on walls, doors, baseboards, and wallpaper, but on ceilings as well. The result is restrained without being timid, colorful without becoming theatrical.

The palette also helps the apartment overcome one of its central architectural challenges. Because Almaty is in a seismically active region, the building came with a significant number of columns and beams, which Mamedov leveraged as a defining rhythm. Mirrored columns in the living area visually divide the open space into conceptual islands, while an accent-colored ceiling cornice frames the beams and unites the apartment as a coherent whole. What could have interrupted the home instead becomes part of its tempo.

The layout follows a similarly measured logic. Originally an open plan with structural columns and a narrow entry corridor, the apartment was reorganized into public and private zones. The kitchen, living, and dining areas form one generous family stage for cooking, reading, entertaining, watching films, or listening to music. Beyond double glass doors, the bedrooms retreat into a more intimate realm beyond a symbolic threshold.

Paris was an important reference, though not in any literal or overly styled way. The city offered a state of mind: soft light, refinement, intelligence, rhythm, and the ease with which new and old can coexist. To that Parisian sensibility, Mamedov added Italian warmth: sunshine, sensuality, softness, and a little more emotional volume. Yet the apartment never drifts away from its Kazakh.

French herringbone parquet, natural textiles, ceramic tile, rattan, raffia, wool, cotton, silk, wood, and metal create a home that feels layered and lived in. The furnishings and objects were gathered from many places, but the composition avoids the clutter of overdetermined eclecticism. Each piece seems to have arrived through conversation, travel, memory, or instinct.

A custom rug made in India from Mamedov’s sketches sits alongside pieces from Saba Italia, Gubi, Louis Poulsen, Thonet, Fritz Hansen, &Tradition, Potocco, HAY, and more, while local craftsmanship grounds the apartment through custom cabinetry, benches, vanities, and other bespoke elements.

This apartment feels less like a finished image than an ongoing state, its beauty found in the way the many elements make space for life to continue unfolding. It leaves room for new art, new routines, new conversations, new memories.

To see this and other works by Fariz Mamedov, visit tktktk.

Photography by Damir Otegen.

With professional degrees in architecture and journalism, New York-based writer Joseph has a desire to make living beautifully accessible. His work seeks to enrich the lives of others with visual communication and storytelling through design. When not writing, he teaches visual communication, theory, and design.