{"id":594461,"date":"2025-11-26T06:47:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T06:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/594461\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T06:47:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T06:47:26","slug":"juli-bolanos-durmans-edinburgh-home-celebrates-beauty-in-imperfection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/594461\/","title":{"rendered":"Juli Bola\u00f1os-Durman’s Edinburgh home celebrates “beauty in imperfection”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Salvaged and upcycled<\/a> materials add character to Costa Rican artist Juli Bola\u00f1os-Durman’s renovated Edinburgh<\/a> flat, which she designed in collaboration with Architecture Office.<\/p>\n

Bola\u00f1os-Durman<\/a>, who is known for her work in glass and her use of waste materials, prioritised sustainability and comfort when devising a brief for La Casita, which she says translates as “the wee house”.<\/p>\n

\"JuliJuli Bola\u00f1os-Durman’s Edinburgh flat “celebrates the beauty in imperfection”<\/p>\n

The artist partnered with Alexander Mackison of local studio Architecture Office<\/a> to design the interior of the compact flat, which was long-listed for Dezeen Awards 2025<\/a> in the sustainable interior category.<\/p>\n

She told Dezeen that the project provided an opportunity to work closely with local fabricators who helped transform reused, reclaimed and offcut materials into bespoke architectural elements.<\/p>\n

\"AlexanderShe partnered with Alexander Mackison of local studio Architecture Office<\/p>\n

“Our main objective at the start of the project was to create a cosy home that also reflects my personal ethos of celebrating the beauty in imperfection,” explained Bola\u00f1os-Durman.<\/p>\n

“While I typically work with found glass, designing this flat allowed me to apply a similar approach on a larger scale using a broader range of materials.”<\/p>\n

\"VictorianThe apartment is located on the first floor of a Victorian tenement in the Leith neighbourhood<\/p>\n

Located on the first floor of a Victorian tenement in the Leith neighbourhood, the flat had not been renovated in decades and was stripped back to the bare walls before being comprehensively restored.<\/p>\n

Mackison helped devise a series of architectural interventions that make the most of the available space and transform overlooked or imperfect materials into carefully crafted objects.<\/p>\n

\"MutedMuted tones feature throughout<\/p>\n

“The fabric and furniture that form the project are a direct response to the materials at hand, shaped through close collaboration with fabricators and suppliers in a material-first approach,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mackison designed a bespoke kitchen that was crafted by woodworking specialists Silvan Studio<\/a> using surplus materials from previous projects.<\/p>\n

\"BathroomColourful accents create “a bit of Latin-infused sass”<\/p>\n

A combination of oak, cherry, Douglas fir and ash wood was used for the cupboard doors to highlight the tonal and textural variation between the different species.<\/p>\n

The internal carcasses are made from a dyed fibreboard material called Valchromat that was left over from one of Silvan’s commercial projects.<\/p>\n

The colourful interiors contrast with the kitchen’s natural wood fronts, providing a fun detail that Bola\u00f1os-Durman described as “a bit of Latin-infused sass.”<\/p>\n

\"PinewoodExisting pinewood floors were lightly sanded<\/p>\n

Throughout the home, existing pine floorboards that had been hidden beneath carpeting were lightly sanded to retain their uneven texture and provide a counterpoint to the oversized, gloss-painted skirting boards.<\/p>\n

The rooms are mostly painted in muted tones that provide a neutral background for Bola\u00f1os-Durman’s collection of colourful artworks, including many of her own creations.<\/p>\n

\"MonolithicThe discovery of an old fireplace in the living room informed the creation of a monolithic mantel<\/p>\n

The rooms were decorated using Little Greene<\/a>‘s Re:mix paint collection, which reformulates leftover, unwanted paints into an upcycled product with a matte finish.<\/p>\n

A vibrant yellow hue chosen for the hallway provides a bold contrast and a warm welcome to the flat, while also evoking the Cortez Amarillo tree that flowers in the artist’s hometown.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Kitchen<\/p>\n

Luke McClelland uses stone and oak to overhaul Georgian apartment in Edinburgh\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The discovery of an old fireplace in the living room informed the creation of a monolithic mantel made from three stone slabs salvaged from local mason AB Mearns.<\/p>\n

The stone’s raw edges were left exposed to celebrate its natural state, while one of the supporting slabs was rotated to add a contrasting element.<\/p>\n

\"StoneThe stone’s raw edges were left exposed to celebrate its natural state<\/p>\n

In the bathroom, British-sourced stone supplied as offcuts by Britannicus Stone forms the ledges and backsplash. The different stones create a patchwork of colours and were organised based on the available slab dimensions.<\/p>\n

Overall, the project embodies an approach to sustainability that promotes resourcefulness, reuse and an intelligent approach to elevating overlooked and discarded materials.<\/p>\n

“La Casita is the result of an open yet intimate dialogue of reuse,” Bola\u00f1os-Durman concluded. “It reflects a shared spirit, where waste is given a second life and the chance to become beautiful again.”<\/p>\n

\"Light-filledThe project embodies an approach to sustainability that promotes resourcefulness<\/p>\n

Bola\u00f1os-Durman grew up in Costa Rica and studied in several countries before moving to Scotland in 2010 to complete a masters degree at Edinburgh College of Art.<\/p>\n

Her mixed-media works made from repurposed found objects have been widely exhibited, including as part of a presentation of unconventional Christmas installations<\/a> held at Harewood House in England.<\/p>\n

Other recent Edinburgh projects include a listed home with a “modernist extension”<\/a> and a renovated industrial-style gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Richard Gaston<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Salvaged and upcycled materials add character to Costa Rican artist Juli Bola\u00f1os-Durman’s renovated Edinburgh flat, which she designed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[20842,748,1102,4884,5224,17022,712,126129,127074,20918,16,15,36506],"class_list":{"0":"post-594461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-apartments","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-renovations","13":"tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-sectionall","16":"tag-sectioninteriors","17":"tag-sustainable-design","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-upcycling"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115614663317276302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}