“This apartment will never end really because I am always thinking something else I want to change,” Edel Helmers says with a laugh. When it comes to renovation and presenting a historical Berlin apartment, she and Stephen Razak are the perfect couple. Raczak runs a real estate company that designs and rebuilds properties. Hellems, who are originally from the United States, studied Road Island School of Design And both America and Berlin have projects. The couple’s apartment was a true diamond in a rough when they found it, and now they have polished it in a unique house. Here, helmers tells us more about the design and renewal of the couple’s dream apartments.
Edel Helmers on renovation of your Berlin apartment
Advertisement: Edel, let’s start from the beginning, where did you grow up?
Edel Helmers: I grew up with four other brothers and siblings in a very old house in South Carolina, which my mother was rebuilt and decorated with love. My childhood part also included going to ancient shops with him and my brothers and sisters. We used to call him back candy store because the owners always gave us something to have breakfast. So I grew up around the antiquities. After school, I began studying textile design at Road Island School of Design.
what happened next?
After my studies, I went to Morocco and worked for various non-profit organizations. I then went to Berlin, where I met my husband relatively quickly – which was about eight years ago.
Did you like Berlin from the beginning?
Berlin has now become my home, I love the city very much. But if I had not met Stephen, I would definitely not survive in the first winter. We quickly went together and started rebuating by the bit by this apartment bit.
At which point did you decide to open your interior design studio?
When we started renewing our house, I started sharing the process on social media. And we also like entertaining! Suddenly I started getting more and more requests- “Hey, I have gone, can you also help me?” And that was the beginning Edel Helmers Studio,
Do you now have a specialty?
I work mainly on projects on the eastern coast of America or in Berlin. I usually renew old buildings; In those places that I breathe in new life. For me, all this begins with architecture and how it shapes the visual and emotional rhythm of a space. I work very easily and always try to create a concept that deepens only than the aesthetics of the surface.
The internal style of Americans and Germans are very different. How do you deal with it in your designs?
In my designs, I combine both: the comfortable, tangent aesthetics of American interiors with the clarity and visual order of German designs that do not feel overdone.
How the changes of Helmer created a flood of light in a historic Berlin apartment
How did you work together as a couple during renewal?
