VIVIEN Apartments · Interior story
Five atmospheres.
One signature.
How our design apartments in České Budějovice came to be and why each of them has its own character.
It began with a question
What feeling should a space leave in a person?
When we started creating VIVIEN Apartments, it was not only about furnishing five rooms. We thought about how a person would feel in them. After a long journey, after a working day, during a weekend together and on an ordinary morning.
We could have chosen one colour scheme and repeated it. Instead we gradually created five different atmospheres. But all of them come from the same view of interiors. We care about the harmony of materials, light, function and art that is not mere decoration.
So these are not five unrelated styles. They are five different forms of one authorial signature.
It is in these two apartments that the difference is easy to see. Gentle Harmony is light, soft and airy. Evening Elegance works with deeper colours and bolder contrasts. Still, you can recognise their kinship. In both, what matters is composition, thought-out lighting, furniture and above all the relationship of the space to art.
Five moods
Each apartment has its own voice
The differences are not only in the colour of the kitchen or the upholstery. Each room has its own rhythm, degree of contrast and artistic composition.
Gentle Harmony
Cream, cappuccino and softly golden shades. The lightest apartment in the house, which lets the space breathe. In such a calm interior a painting or an artistic ceiling can come to the fore without the whole room becoming visually restless.
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Golden Balance
The warmest colour scheme of the five. Chocolate tones and gold create a more intimate, warm atmosphere. Above the bed there is an illuminated ceiling with a golden motif, whose form we searched for over many months. It is one of the best examples of how a work of art became part of a specific room.
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Evening Elegance
A royal blue kitchen, darker contrasts and art that asks for attention more strongly. Of the five apartments it has the most striking artistic composition. On the ceiling there is a composition created after the last work of Dimitrij Kadrnožka, and his work runs through other parts of the interior too, including the bathroom.
View the apartment“…I felt like I was somewhere in a gallery, and at the same time I still couldn't get enough of the environment and the interior.” Nikola, Czechia · Airbnb, July 2026 · Evening Elegance · Full review
Noble Contrast
An olive green kitchen, a darker bathroom and golden artistic elements. Here we looked for a balance between contrast and elegance. The stronger materials and colours are not meant to compete with each other. Each has its place. The apartment also includes its own terrace to the garden.
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Comfort in Muted Tones
The darkest and cosiest apartment in the house. A matt black kitchen, a separate living area and muted colours create a different kind of calm than the light Gentle Harmony. Art has its own space here too. In the shower there is a motif of a female silhouette and overhead another of the five artistic ceilings.
View the apartmentArt that belongs to the house
We did not choose the paintings at the end
In many interiors paintings come last, when everything else is done. For us they were part of thinking about the space from the beginning. We worked with the work of the academic painter Dimitrij Kadrnožka, whom our family knew personally and whose works have long been connected with our story. After seven years in Cuba he moved from landscapes to abstraction and worked in his Prague studio for more than sixty years.
Each room has different colours and a different intensity. That is why we did not choose paintings in isolation. We looked for the main motif for a specific place and then for other works that would work with it. Sometimes the size of the reproduction had to be changed, at other times the colours slightly adjusted or a less striking composition chosen, so that the individual elements would not drown each other out.
The result is not meant to feel like a collection of separate paintings. We want a person to perceive the whole room as one.
“Sometimes a calm room needs a stronger painting. And a striking room needs a place where the eyes can rest.”
That is why the ceilings matter so much to us too. Artistic motifs overhead can create an unexpected experience when a person looks up or lies down on the bed. At the same time they are not constantly in direct view. You can notice them, but you do not have to look at them all evening.
This was not an afterthought for marketing. It was one of the ways we tried to combine striking art with the possibility to truly rest.
“What struck me personally was the sense of detail, and that even in such a small space there can be so much art.” Luna Ka Udegan, Czechia · Google, August 2026 · Noble Contrast · Full review
From a painting to light
One ceiling. Many decisions.
In Golden Balance the story of the ceiling began with a photograph of a painting that caught our eye in Kadrnožka's studio. Months of searching followed, trying compositions and colour variants. The original blue, green and yellow tones gradually turned into a warm golden motif that now belongs to this apartment.
It was not a simple matter of taking over a painting and printing it. The angle, the scale and the colour mattered, as did how the motif would work in a real space and in light.
Design for life
A beautiful room must also work well
Art and atmosphere are important, but an apartment must above all serve the person who lives in it. That is why we gave the same attention to things that may not be visible in a photograph straight away. A comfortable bed, good lighting, the ability to regulate the temperature, practical furniture and equipment that has its place.
Some apartments are larger and offer a separate living area. Others are more compact and their space is arranged differently. We did not want to disguise these differences. On the contrary, we looked for a way to create, in each of the five floor plans, an environment that feels natural and complete.
We believe this is where design shows best. Not only in a photograph, but also when you spend a whole day in the room.
“Here you can really see that the owners put in the work, not only in the implementation, but already when they were thinking about how it will all look.” Pavel, Czechia · Google, June 2026 · Comfort in Muted Tones · Full review
At the beginning we knew how we wanted our apartments to look. Only when the first guests started arriving did we learn how they really experience them. And their experience helps us keep thinking about details that make sense.
Each of the five apartments is a little different. People are different, so we wanted the apartments to differ too, from light harmony to muted tones. At the same time everyone should feel good in any of them. But all of them were made with the same care and the same question. How to create a place where a person will not only sleep well but will also be glad to be?
For those who like things clear
Practical information
How many apartments does VIVIEN have and how do they differ?
Whose paintings are in the apartments?
Who was Dimitrij Kadrnožka?
What are artistic ceilings?
How did the ceiling in Golden Balance come about?
Which apartment is the lightest and which the darkest?
Which apartments have a terrace?
Are the design apartments also comfortable for everyday living?
How do I choose an apartment that suits me?
Find your atmosphere
Which of the five worlds is yours?
Some people feel best in a light, airy room. Others like muted colours, the warmth of gold or bolder art. View all five apartments and choose the one that feels closest to you.