Moving up

Nicola and Nils are in their mid-twenties and have just moved into a new apartment in the vibrant and hip area of St. Pauli in Hamburg, Germany. They describe their home style as young and simple, with a preference for natural colors and warm tones.

Moving into a new apartment often involves getting new furniture. But sometimes the sheer range of options available can turn the joy of buying a new piece of furniture into a long, time-consuming process. In our stores, you will meet skilled interior design consultants who can help and advise you with your interior design challenges. Here's how Nicola and Nils turned their apartment into a modern, functional living space with our help.

Nicola & Nils' interior design challenge

'We love the style of the apartment with its wooden floors, big windows and tall, white walls. The rooms are not that big, but beautiful and bright. When we moved in, we brought along a wonderful mix of things from our student days and things we had just recently bought. But unfortunately, we've ended up with too many things in different colors that leave our living room looking unfinished and lacking any distinctive style.

We are both busy with our careers and enjoy going out in the evenings, so we don't spend a lot of time in our home. But when we do, we want to be able to relax. The living room is relatively small, so we want to keep the amount of furniture to a minimum. It has to be simple, yet harmonious. So with this in mind, we set out to get a new sofa and some storage space, mainly for CDs, DVDs and books to keep our clutter under control.

We had never been to a BoConcept store before, but we liked the style of their design and the prices. Having just rented a new apartment, we didn't want to spend a fortune on new furniture.'

Our solution

Jochen Streinz, who works as an interior design consultant for BoConcept in Hamburg, came up with the interior plan for the living room.

'Nicola and Nils were very clear about what kind of style they liked and what kind of furniture they wanted. Having seen and measured the room, I started to make my layout proposal. The room needed a focal point that would tie in the color scheme of the room. I suggested a spacious Nova sofa and placed it against the long, main wall. This became the centerpiece of the room.

With the sofa against the main wall, there was not a lot of wall space left. And keeping in mind that they didn't want to overload the room with furnishings, I came up with some alternatives to a wall system for storage space. The small Volani unit hides away their

1. The spacious Nova sofa has been placed against the main wall in the room as a focal point giving more access to the large windows. 2. The walnut coffee table ties in with the color scheme and has storage space beneath the tabletop. 3. The Volani unit neatly hides away CDs and provides a perfect spot for the entertainment equipment.

DVDs and CDs and provides a perfect spot for their entertainment equipment. The coffee table also has storage space beneath the tabletops. Both the storage unit and coffee table are in walnut veneer that has a very modern look and these warm tones complement the sofa.'

Nicola and Nils were invited back into the store to see Jochen's drawings. 'It was easy to imagine how this was going to work perfectly for us. We were able to see and touch all the different fabrics that were available for the sofa and we love the softness of the fabric we have chosen. The small storage solutions are great and don't take up a lot of space in room. The coffee table is a particularly clever feature.'

Jochen Streinz made his layout proposals with our interior decorating software Furnish. The software is used in all our stores. If you have a PC, you can download Furnish free at www.boconcept.com. Recommended minimum requirements Pentium 566MHz or more with Windows 256 MB RAM l 16 MB VRAM, XGA screen resolution (1024x768—16 bit colors).