Siranush Stepanyan
photographed by grisha petrosyan
how long have you been living here, how did you find this place?
My husband Toros, found this place on List.am. But he didn’t tell me, he made a surprise. One day we came here and he showed me this flat. I didn’t understand what kind of place is this, why we came here, who this apartment belongs to, and then he proposed to me, after which we got married a month later, very quickly.
That’s so sweet, have you changed something here?
There were ugly wallpapers, we tore them and painted the walls.
Did you do it all by yourself?
No, we wet the wallpapers, tore them off, then we realized that we were too lazy to do that, ha-ha. It turns out that the walls had to be painted over instead of torn off, because they were very old. And on the last day we called masters to paint the walls, it was our wedding day, ha-ha. Toros was at the wedding and home with the masters at the same time.
So, what’s on honeymoon?
Ha-ha, the next day we went to Georgia and our godfather and godmother Vahan and Maria gave us money and wrote that we should spend it on something we memorable. On our way back we entered a vintage store and found these white chairs and table. Now we are telling everyone that these are the gifts of our godparents to us.
What furniture was there when you first moved in?
There was no furniture at all. We brought the bed, and it was the only thing when we moved in. Then we brought these chairs and table from Georgia. We found this couch on List.am and changed the upholstery on it. It was red at first, we also removed the legs of it to play PlayStation better. After that Stitch (the dog) appeared and started ruining everything.
How old is Stitch?
He’s only one we got him last November.
And where is this console with interesting legs from?
Toros has a lot of vinyls and we needed something to fit them all because they were all lying flat on the floor. When we were looking for ready-made options, we didn't like anything. And since we always decide and do everything at the last minute, we decided that we will measure, write the dimensions on paper, go and cut all the parts and assemble them in one day. And just like that, we went and cut the parts and bought these legs from the Gnuni market and assembled them together in one day.
The legs are very nice and they match the lamp, where is this lamp from?
The lamp is also from List.am.
Do you know Sophie, her husband Hakob found a Meblo lamp there. I was thinking maybe this is a Meblo as well.
Meblo has lamps like this but unfortunately this is not. This was found by Toros from Vanadzor, and we asked our friends to go get it so that someone else doesn't suddenly buy it.
There is many different sport equipment here: skateboard, snowboard, hockey stick, where is it from and who’s the sports person?
There is a shop on Komitas near Yerevan City that you will never notice if you just walk by. It is a small shop of Soviet sports goods and we bought this from there. There is hockey equipment, sticks, skates, etc.
Did you just buy it or do you play hockey?
No, we bought it because it's nice, ha-ha.
What about the snowboard?
We bought a snowboard last year and we went to Tsaghkadzor every weekend to learn how to ride.
I see a small bar over there who’s an alcohol enthusiast here?
We both love cocktails. In the evenings when we put on some music, we also love to have something to drink. Toros always makes wonderful negronis. At first, I hated it but with time I growed a taste for it. I also love to drink this vermouth called Dante on it’s own. Toros also makes other cocktails like Campari orange, Aperol spritz in the summertime.
It’s very convenient to live with a bartender, ha-ha.
Ha-ha. True.
Tell us a bit about your work.
I am teaching graphic design at the Tumo center at the moment. I wouldn’t say that my life revolves around graphic design, because of what I do, it's more like an office job. And I’m trying to live my life the last two hours of the day after work. I work till 9pm and I have only a few hours for me.
What do you do during these two hours?
Sometimes I go home to take Stich for a walk, and go to bed. Because there’s no time to do anything else and I'm getting tired. Sometimes we go to our friend's bar Ruzanna with my husband to play pool. We also love to go eat out with Toros, and we really love burgers and all the worst food that you can imagine. We can stay hungry the whole day just to go eat together at night, that's how much we love to eat together.
We see different cameras here, what’s your relationship with photography?
When I was going to college I was obsessed with photography, and I even wanted to become a photographer. I would go for hours long walks just to take pictures. I loved it but with time I got bored of it and stopped taking pictures. I even noticed that I take fewer photos on my phone as well, earlier I was constantly having my phone out photographing things and now I don't do that anymore.
Do you have favorite objects in this home?
Well, my favorites are these chairs and the table, for sure. I also really like this citrus squeezer; this was also a gift for our wedding. You know also, because we constantly feel that this house is temporary, not ours. There is no connection with this flat because we will not be here until the end of our lives, that's why we don't do some very good things here and we don't buy everything we want. We give temporary solutions to the problems because Stitch is going to ruin everything anyway. Only when we see some good things on List.am, we can't ignore them, ha-ha.
Do you also go to flea markets?
Yes, recently we go there not so often because there are more tourists and they take away the good things too early, there are fewer good products compared to before. What do we have here, yes, those colored glass vases are from there. You can find good things at the vernissage, you just need to know who to go to.
Once I was in Vajrapar when Toros came, he was really excited. He was telling us to look at what he found at the flea market. It was keychains with pool balls.
Ha-ha, yes, he gave one to me. I had so many keychains on my keys, it was too heavy to carry around, because every time Toros gives me one I hang it on my keys, and I want to keep them all. Until once he saw my keys and told me that I don’t have to carry all that with me, and I took them off.
Who is responsible for music in this household?
I like when people put music for me to listen to. There was a time when I was memorizing all the singers’ names, songs names but now I can't recall anything.
Me too, I need to have my Spotify playlist in front of me.
That's why I love when my favorite people put music on for me. Toros can put the chair in front of the player and play his vinyls for hours.
Like a meditation.
Almost yes, and I’m lying on the bed and listening to it. Sometimes he also plays his guitar while the music is playing.
