Interior of the Week (Moscow): Mama Ro
Mama Ro is the first business project of three friends who one day lost their jobs all at once. A photographer Volodya Nizovtsev, and directors Anton Kozlov and Anatoly Smirnov, decided to try something new about a year ago. In the beginning, the idea was to open a hostel, but then they realized that they couldn’t afford such a business model and they decided to try another way.
It all started from two studios on Patriarshy ponds. They were completely redecorated and ready for living (including long-stay) and started to rent out. They had a minimal view of the business, so they had to learn by doing. They even made the redecorations with their own hands.
As a result, they got something between a small hotel, hostel and apartments with a low-budget but high-quality implementation and technical equipment. The friends wanted not only to provide maximum comfort to their guests for the right price (3000-7000 rubles per night), but also to help them to explore the city through its best manifestations, which are the atmosphere of the historical center of the city with pleasant views and walking routes. The adventure was a success, as there was not a single night of downtime from the very beginning, and it lasts till today.
A year after launching this project, the partners decided to continue working in this direction and found a new place in the historic center not far from Chistye Prudy. In a pre-revolutionary residential house, they occupied the whole floor where they managed to locate six more studios. They acted the same way as before. The foundation was white brick walls and the space was equipped after long arguments.
In every studio there is a kitchen, a bathroom and a library. With the Smart home system, you can control technical equipment. For example, the different settings of light, music or the projector.
Each space has its own character. According to the partners, they often supported each other’s crazy ideas. They created the mosaic in byzantine studio with visual chronicle themselves and they also bought quite expensive books and albums for the libraries in every studio. Each of them is very attentive to detail and have cinematic way of thinking. They replenish the failures of texture with accurate details such as small car models placed everywhere.
The mosaic in Byzantine studio, for example, the guys invented the process on how to make smalt out of glass and laid out the picture with their own hands. The table with a stand for devices is Anton’s invention, which they cut and worked the pine in the Moscow region. Things made of glass are created by Volodya who likes to work with this material.
The design of the studios is partially affected by some features of the premises. For example, in French studio they decided to work with a romantic view of the old Moscow. To do this, the bed with baldaquin was lifted on the podium so that the line of the bed coincides with the line of the windowsill.
Suprematist studio is decorated with the corresponding composition on the wall and double-sided projection screen made of glass. Chosen aesthetics in Moscow and two-floor Chinese are supported with details and libraries, too.
