Cabinet Barbiere is an upscale beauty salon for men. The venue espouses an Italian approach to fashion and style. Cabinet was created for clients who appreciate comfort, high-level service and a unique atmosphere. One or maximum two clients could be served there at a time. For instance, two friends or business partners who could discuss some business while having procedures.

The main challenge we met in this project was its small square space that is 45 sq m. The common space with 4.2 m ceiling height and a reach library lets a customer immerse himself in the atmosphere of an old bourgeois living room with an intellectual background. We place there a laconic reception desk and two chairs for customers. Eventually, we found out that small space became an advantage. It helped us to arrange everything extremely thoughtful and concentrate on what is really important.

We aimed to create an atmosphere of maximum trust and relaxation. An important point was the location in an old renovated building in a historical center on the Sofievska square in Kyiv. The interior combines restrained colors and dark shades, we put there some traditional materials – brass, marble, timber, and leather. It is quite an unusual project in our portfolio where we mainly have light colors and minimalistic interiors.

The green marble wall became the expressive accent of the project. Tubes and bottles of upscale cosmetics that stand on laconic shelves look like an elegant artistic installation in the marble background.

An armchair for the waiting area, pendant lamps as well as most of the other furniture were custom made on our design. Luar armchair by the leading in the professional furniture for beauty industry Japanese company Takara Belmont can be entirely transformed during the work with a customer. It allows a client to choose the maximum comfortable position for every procedure.

Cabinet Barbiere combines elegant aesthetics with high technologies and the latest developments of the beauty industry. At some point, a customer could feel that he came not to a beauty salon but to visit some Italian aristocrat. Such an effect is created by shelves with books, black herring-bone parquet pattern, dark walnut timber, and chairs upholstered in leather. Pieces of modern art redouble an intellectual mood of the place. We placed in the Cabinet two sculptures by famous Ukrainian artist Nazar Bilyk. They are laconic and deep objects about men's beauty and charisma. During some time the collection of books on shelves will be enriched and artworks will be shifted.

– We had a kind of paradoxical task to create a bourgeois atmosphere without any classical furniture and decorations. It reminded me of painting an abstract portrait where there is no direct similarity, but you could easily recognize the character of a person. We worked with actual shapes and solutions we know and like the most. Only color shades and textures remind us of classics. Together with modern sculptures, they led the interior to the required luxury level, – said an architect Olga Bogdanova.

Design team:

Bogdanova Bureau