THIS 937-SQUARE-FOOT SEASIDE HOME IS A COLORFUL POTPOURRI OF OLD AND NEW

A few years ago, Monika and Michal, their two sons, and their whippet, Donn, decided they’d had enough of Warsaw. “We wanted to seriously slow down,” says Monika. Luckily she and Michal had the option of working from home, which meant moving to a smaller, slower city within Poland was a very real possibility. The seaside city of Gdansk topped their list: It was equally ideal for windsurfing in the summer and long beachside walks in the winter. Finding a home there, however, was another matter. “We had been looking for two years when we saw an advertisement for this one,” notes Michal of their current home, a 937-square-foot circa-1978 terraced house. “When we stepped inside, we knew right away it was the one. It was six minutes from the beach and surrounded by greenery.” What they didn’t know was the amount of work it would take to bring it back to life.

There was lots to love about the home, but just as much to not. Built during the Communist rule, when brick and building material were scarce and of poor quality, some of its walls had been severely compromised with broken brick, crumpled newspaper, and cement. The couple would need help fixing its bones, and luckily, they knew just the person who could lend it: interior designer Katja Sadziak of Warsaw-based ID Studio, with whom they had previously worked on their Warsaw home. For Katja, priority one was getting rid of some internal walls, partly because they were so weak and partly to open up the footprint. More room meant more scope for storage, something the designer leveraged by installing built-in, floor-to-ceiling units—concealed in the bedrooms, left open in the common areas. She also re-homed many of the accents and furniture she had designed for the family’s previous home in Warsaw in a way that felt true to their new one in Gdansk. “We now have enough space to host many guests, as well as sleepovers for the boys’ friends, which is an amazing upgrade,” shares Monika.

Some things the couple loved—and didn’t change—were the sea green staircase and the oak floor pattern, typical of Polish homes built in the 1970s. “We wanted to keep the vintage character of the house,” reflects Monika. After all, the home was built in 1978, the year she and Michal were both born, so preserving its best features was significant in more ways than one. But staircase and floor aside, Monika and Michal were keen to start anew. “We wanted a house that was totally different from the one we had in Warsaw,” avers Monika. “We envisaged lots of color, beautiful lights, layers of wood, and art.” Many of those things weren’t just approximations; they were characterized by actual objects—lamps, paintings, chairs, cement tiles, wallpapers—that the couple had already added to their shopping list over the years or brought home from their many backpacking trips. Other things were found on Instagram or in vintage shops around the city.

Because Monika was keen on color, Katja designated each surface or object a different tone. Chairs were enlivened in teal and cherry, door frames were painted green, and the kitchen millwork was animated in mulberry. “I think we did 20 different color samples for the custom furniture. Thank goodness we had such an understanding carpenter!” laughs Katja, who opted for a mix of bespoke pieces from her own studio and modern and vintage Scandinavian and Polish designs for the furniture.

Admittedly for the couple, moving to Gdansk has been worth their while. “We love spending time in the living room and the kitchen, playing board games, cooking with the boys, or listening to music. Here, we can still enjoy the city life minus all the crowds and noise, with just the sound of the sea for company. It’s really quite surreal,” Michal finishes.