When the world grew too cramped, one family decided it was time to expand their space - and their lives. The pandemic, four people in a city apartment, two restless boys and parents desperate for a breath of fresh air became the catalyst for a new beginning. They wanted a place where they could breathe deeply, move freely, and see the sky not through a window, but directly above them.
Active by nature - skiing in winter, tennis, golf and yachting in summer, football matches with the boys, business trips and endless movement - their lives suddenly paused. In the stillness, a new longing emerged: to shape a home that held warmth, quiet and closeness. And so the story of this house began.
It rose among the trees, light-filled and modern yet warmly inviting - an architectural extension of nature itself. Designed by One Buro studio, the home avoids rigid style. Classic forms and contemporary solutions sit comfortably together, creating interiors that breathe. At its heart is the feature that first captured the family’s imagination: a three-by-three-metre glass ceiling in the living room. Morning sunlight spills through it, leaving shifting patterns on the walls; by day it reflects drifting clouds, and at night it becomes a window to the stars. "Sometimes we just lie on the sofa and look up. In silence. That is probably our favourite moment of the day," the hostess smiles.
Natural materials guide the interior: oak panelling, parquet, stone surfaces, soft shades of earth and sand. The hostess’s love for organic textures defined the entire palette—calm and embracing, as though lifted from the landscape outside. Terracotta accents bring warmth and vitality, echoing hearth, home and the earth beneath their feet.
In the living room, a bio-ethanol fireplace flickers, offering the comfort of a real flame without the need for logs. "We rarely light it because the boys immediately bring marshmallows and start roasting them as if it were a campfire," she laughs. Under the sky-lit ceiling sits a Parfe sofa, paired with a Eurofort rug from the Treasure collection. The fireplace surround is finished in Italian Florim porcelain stoneware from the Prexious Dream Arabesque collection. Behind the sofa, a treadmill nods to the family’s ongoing commitment to movement - daily steps still count, even at home.
The study carries its own atmosphere: a place for work, for rest, for inspiration. After twenty years away from music, the hostess returned to the piano, and now her Kawai acoustic piano - one of the finest in its class - stands proudly in the space. Sometimes she plays at dusk, the soft notes mingling with the breath of the forest outside the window. A custom-designed sofa converts easily into a guest bed. The room’s layered palette - deep sea-blue cabinetry with Sahara Noir stone inserts and cushions featuring Chinese motifs - creates a cocoon for thinking, dreaming and making music.
The children’s room belongs to two spirited brothers, eight and ten - one devoted to judo, the other to football. Designed for energy and curiosity without chaos, it features Petite Friture lights shaped like playful hats, Sanderson Embleton Bay wallpaper with a delicate graphic pattern, and a wool Art de Vivre carpet softening the floor. It is lively yet harmonious, a perfect meeting point between children’s excitement and comforting warmth.
The parents’ bedroom is an oasis of calm, shaped by gentle light and effortless simplicity. The en-suite bathroom continues the theme with natural tones, dual basins and a central vanity clad in Italian Florim porcelain stoneware from the Etolie Symphonie collection - luxurious not through excess, but through intention.
And then there is the tree. A real, four-metre Prunus cerasifera ‘Royalty’, its purple leaves unfolding beneath the roof. It sheds in autumn, gathers sap in spring and lives with the seasons - an indoor reminder that the home itself breathes. "Everyone said it was impossible," the designer recalls. "But we did it, and now the tree has become a symbol of this space, its breath."
This house is more than a project. It is a story about family, about light, about breath. It is a balance of speed and stillness, glass and wood, silence and movement. A place where mornings begin with the sun and nights end under the stars. Where the sky becomes part of the interior - and the house becomes part of life.
Credits
Designed by Dilyara Ershova
Photography by Natalia Gorbunova
Styling by Anastasia Bauer
