Design office Thisispaper Studio used clean white surfaces and simple birch plywood furniture to transform a Soviet-era dental clinic in Warsaw into a space for its first shop (+ slideshow).
The Warsaw-based multidisciplinary studio, which is made up of designers Zuzanna Gasior and Aleksandr Zacharow, aimed to create a quiet but informal space to sell Thisispaper products, books, and Japanese tea.
The designers wanted the store to be an extension of the brand, which favours a minimal aesthetic. To achieve this, they chose natural materials and a muted colour palette.
"We try to keep our digital and print projects – a magazine and a blog – in a simple and clean aesthetic," Gasior told Dezeen. "We truly wanted to keep this atmosphere in our shop as well."
"That is why we decided to use some plants and natural materials; it makes this space more informal and human," she added.
The shop is located next to the duo's studio, and both spaces have grey-painted facades with large windows that open onto the street.
Inside the store, the existing floor was covered with a transparent resin floor to give the space a "raw feeling", but birch plywood furniture was used to warm up the space.
"We didn't want to lose ourselves in a completely new project, that is why we decided to leave the residue of the building in this interior as a kind of reminiscence of the previous surrounding," said Gasior.
The main element of the interior is a shelving unit designed in collaboration with Polish furniture company Tylko, which extends over the entire back wall.
The shelves all slot into place without the need of any additional fixings. They all have white outer surfaces, contrasting with the exposed wooden edges.
A stereo by German industrial designer Dieter Rams' enables customers to choose from a curated selection of vinyls.
Thisispaper Studio was founded in 2011 by Gasior, who was working as an interior designer, and Zaharov who was a freelance graphic designer.
Their shop is located on Odolańska street in Warsaw. Other stores with interesting interiors in the Polish capital include a fashion boutique with an upside-down living room on its ceiling, and a baguette bar modelled on market stalls from the 1990s.
Photography is by Maja Wirkus.