Office São Francisco Reworks a Seventies Apartment
Office São Francisco converts a nearly seventy-year-old apartment in Curitiba, Brazil, into a workplace for one of the city’s well-known thrift store networks. Designed by Leonardo Tulli, the office treats retrofit as more than renovation, using restored finishes, new partitions, and layered textures to connect meetings, partnerships, and daily creation with the apartment’s past.
About Office São Francisco
In Curitiba’s historic center, a nearly seventy-year-old apartment takes on a new role as the office of one of the city’s well-known thrift store networks. The address keeps its sense of domestic scale, but the rooms now support meetings, partnerships, and work sessions. Leonardo Tulli approaches the project as a retrofit, preserving what gives the place character while giving it a clear contemporary purpose.
The original wood parquet floor is restored and becomes the thread that links the rooms. Concrete slats, inspired by Brazilian modernist architecture, sit in conversation with natural wood and matte black finishes. Rather than erase the apartment’s age, the intervention brings its layers into view and lets memory sit beside new use.
The former living room becomes a reception area with voluminous leather armchairs, a Persian rug, and an exposed brick wall in warm tones. The room feels grounded and familiar, with surfaces that carry the trace of time. From there, the plan moves into a meeting room wrapped in deep blue, where classic boiserie and a black table set a more introspective tone. Indian cane chairs and a shelving unit with organic niches turn thrifted objects and accessories into part of the interior narrative.
The kitchen brings back the comfort of older homes. Hydraulic tiles with retro patterns line the floor, while brushed São Gabriel granite defines the countertops. Concrete slats return on the walls, and the leather and black metal of the bistro stools sharpen the contrast between the apartment’s inherited character and its present-day use.
Elsewhere, the powder room shifts the mood again. Deep blue walls, a wooden mashrabiya ceiling, and eucalyptus arrangements introduce texture and scent, while mirrors of different shapes and vintage frames multiply reflections and small visual histories. The shared bathroom is fully renewed with gray porcelain flooring, linear wall tiles, and gold fixtures that give the room a cleaner, more functional finish. A round mirror and globe lighting complete the composition for the partners’ daily routine.
Outside, beneath a metal and glass covering, the service area feels lighter and more open. The former laundry room is painted white and cleared of excess, extending the project’s calm through a modest back-of-house setting. Across the office, the same idea holds: preserve what matters, adjust what is needed, and let the marks of the past remain visible.
Photography courtesy of Leonardo Tulli
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