Armine Harutyunyan
photographed by grisha petrosyan
Tell us about your home, how did you find this place?
We spontaneously sold our house in Komitas and were looking for a new flat in the same district to be near our grandparents, around Kochar 13. We have been searching for a long time, and then the real estate agent told us that there is a place on Avet Avetisyan 4, where exactly my grandmother’s sister was living. That made us very excited, she is like my second grandmother, we are very close. We loved the flat, because it was very sunny when we came to check it for the first time, everything was shining. And we didn’t tell anyone that we were checking it, but my grandmother saw us from the window when we were leaving the building with the agent and asked: “What are you doing here?” And we replied: “We are your neighbors!” It was great the first time, before grandmother died, we were running to each other’s house, drinking coffee together.
How long have you been staying here?
I guess already 5 years, no, 4 years. But I grew up in this yard, because I was always at my grandmother’s house, I had a lot of friends here. It’s like I came back here after all.
Was the interior different when you moved in? Have you changed it a lot?
Yes, we changed it a lot, there were ugly wallpapers around which we hated. We are used to having white walls, because we have a lot of paintings which we hang up around the flat, like a gallery. But I did not implement all my ideas in the interior, because I live with my mother and I have to take into account her opinion too, it’s our home, not only mine. So, what you see is the result of work we did together, I think it turned out to be a very girly apartment. My grandmother also influenced the interior design a lot, because the furniture was designed by her sometimes with my consultation. For example, the bookcase and my desk were designed by her. I like that it is made very thoughtful, the desk can close and open depending on what I need.
Your home is like an art gallery, who are the artists behind these works?
There are works of lots of different artists. Mostly there are works made by my grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather, mother, me. We also have lots of works by our friends artists which they gave us or we bought, like Martins’, Sirabyan, there is one painter Arman, etc. And my mother has a lot of her portraits drawn by almost every painter who visited Armenia. She wanted to put all her portraits on one wall but we thought it might be creepy.
Is in not overwhelming to live like in a gallery?
Oh, not at all, maybe because I was living in an art workshop since childhood, always surrounded with paintings. It’s even not enough for us now, we want to hang up paintings from the ceiling to the floor to cover all the walls. It’s not overwhelming for us, on the contrary, it’s interesting for us to live in such an apartment, we are used to it.
What was the inspiration behind the apartment’s interior?
As such, there was no inspiration or reference, it was important for us that the apartment was comfortable, functional, beautiful, and served as a gallery. A little Paris, a little Yerevan, a little England and Berlin.
What is your favorite painting, does it have a story behind?
I really like the Ararat painting with a pink sky. It is called “Black-black clouds move away”, you can see the top part of the mountain. It is painted in quite a different way my granddad used to. The Ararat is green here, the sky is pink, it’s quite unusual but it’s definitely one of my favorite ones. I also really like this painting of a naked woman by my grandfather. When we moved in, I brought this painting first because I liked it a lot. And there is a funny story about it. During quarantine I was giving interviews to some Italian magazines or doing lives with them while sitting under this painting. And only the bottom hairy part of the naked woman was in the background but I noticed it after all the interviews.
Your personality is well reflected in the overall design of the apartment, do you think this color palette will stay with you?
Yes, I guess even my Instagram account’s color palette is very similar, but it happens naturally, I just like these colors, I do not match them specially. I love all the colors on this planet, I hate when people say that they don’t like a particular color. But I guess it just happens naturally, what goes well with my skin or character and I love warm colors, especially at home. I love yellow, like sun, white, rose, green.
What do you wear at home?
Comfortable, loose clothes, always soft slippers, sometimes I go barefoot, but I prefer soft slippers.
Your place is like a gallery. I feel like you dress up here everyday.
Ha-ha, no, always at home wearing comfortable clothes even with stains.
Who chose this chandelier?
Me and mom, we couldn't find the perfect chandelier for a long time. We wanted something old-style with crystals and we came across this one. It looks old and new at the same time. Also, these chairs are very old, it’s a long story, they are my mom’s friend’s chairs which were given as a gift to my grandmother and were at her country house for a long time. And when they were selling the house three years ago, my mom asked if she could take the chairs. So, we brought them here, restored and changed the upholstery. They are very comfortable, you never get tired sitting on them. By the way, my grandmothers made almost all our tablecloths and embroidered our initials on them, we do not use purchased tablecloths at all. Our New Year tablecloth is made by my grandmother and it is just a masterpiece, we love it a lot.
Tell us about an object with the most interesting story in your place.
I don’t know about the most interesting story, but I had an idea to make a mirror in a silhouette of my grandfather’s graphic works. It was quite tricky, the mirror cutter told us that he has never seen something like this before. He destroyed tree mirrors before making this one, because the lines are quite deep. At the end after installing it, we were very happy, it was like a party. Also, this carpet was given to me by my grandmother’s sister. We already had the pink sofas and she thought that her pink carpet would go quite well together.
