Calm rooms for real lives.
We design homes and small hospitality spaces around the way you actually live — the morning light, the long dinners, the places where the shoes end up. Then we stay with you until the last door handle is fitted.
Ten years of quiet, careful work.
Kova Studio was founded in 2014 by architect Maja Kovač and interior designer Tomaž Rebec. Today we are a team of eight, working from a converted print shop in Ljubljana’s Trnovo district.
We design the architecture and the interiors together, in the same room, at the same table. So the window is placed where the reading chair will be, and the kitchen is planned before the walls are drawn. The building and the rooms inside it become one thing. We choose materials that are honest and durable — oak, lime plaster, terrazzo, local stone — and that look better in twenty years than they do on the day we hand you the keys.
- 120+Completed projects
- 10Years of practice
- 14Design awards
- 96%Clients who refer a friend
Spaces we’re proud of
A few recent projects. Each one began with a long conversation.
Villa Bled
Trnovo Loft
Hiša Vina
Kras Stone House
Café Nebo
Hotel Sava Rooms
A clear process, from first coffee to final handover.
Building or renovating is one of the largest decisions you will make. We keep the process transparent, so you always know what happens next, what it costs, and what we need from you.
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Conversation
It begins with a free thirty-minute call. Then we visit your site or your home and mostly listen. How your mornings run, where the light falls, who cooks on a Sunday. And what the budget really is, said out loud.
Duration: Week 1
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Concept
We sketch by hand and build physical models you can hold and turn toward the window. You see a materials board with real samples: oak, plaster, stone. And you get a first honest cost estimate, before anything is fixed.
Duration: Weeks 2–6
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Design development
The drawings become precise. Lighting, joinery, the height of the kitchen counter, the swing of every door. We prepare and submit the permits. And we choose every surface together, in the studio, with the samples on the table in daylight.
Duration: Weeks 7–16
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Construction
We don’t hand over drawings and disappear. We are on site every week, working with local craftspeople we have trusted for years. Every Friday you receive a short update: what was built, what comes next, and any decision we need from you.
Duration: 4–12 months
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Handover
We walk every room with you and fix the small things. We help style the shelves and hang the last lamp. You receive a care guide for each material. A year later, we come back to see how the house has settled.
Duration: Final month
What we can do for you
Architecture
New houses, extensions and careful restorations. We draw buildings that sit quietly on their site and turn towards the light. We know the planning offices, the heritage rules and the paperwork, so you don’t have to learn them. You get one set of drawings, thought through to the last detail, and someone to answer the phone.
- New homes
- Extensions
- Restorations of listed buildings
- Planning and permits
Interior design
Rooms planned around what happens in them. Where the coats go, how the kitchen works on a Sunday, which chair catches the evening sun. We design joinery that is built locally and made to last, light that changes with the hour, and fabrics you will want to touch. Nothing comes from a catalogue by default.
- Space planning
- Custom joinery and kitchens
- Lighting design
- Furniture and textile selection
Hospitality
Cafés, wine bars and small hotels that guests remember and staff enjoy working in. We think about the noise at a full Saturday lunch, the floor that has to survive ten thousand chairs, and the route from kitchen to table. The interior carries your brand, but it has to work on a busy night first.
- Concept and brand-aligned interiors
- Cafés, wine bars and small hotels
- Durable finishes and acoustics
- Layouts planned around operations
Not sure what you need? Most projects combine all three. Let’s talk it through.
Trnovo Loft: an attic that finally breathes
Petra and Luka bought the top floor of a 1930s house in Trnovo with two small children and one long, dark attic. The ceiling sloped down to knee height. The only window faced a wall. For years, it held boxes.
We opened the roof with two long skylights running along the ridge, so daylight falls straight onto the floor and moves across it through the day. A custom oak staircase climbs to the new mezzanine, and every tread doubles as a bookshelf.
The kitchen moved up into the brightest corner, around a terrazzo island. Now the children do their homework under the skylight while dinner is made. On clear evenings, the plaster turns pink.
We didn’t know an attic could feel like a garden.
What our clients say
They listened more than they talked. Two years later, every corner of our house still makes sense.
Our wine bar opened on time and on budget, which our friends in hospitality still don’t believe.
Maja found light in a stone house I had given up on. I cried at the handover. Good tears.
Recognition
- Plečnik Award, Honourable Mention — 2022
- Big SEE Interior Design Award — 2023
- Archdaily Building of the Year, Nominee — 2024
- Slovenian Design Biennial, Winner — 2021
As featured in
- Dezeen
- Wallpaper*
- Architectural Digest Mitte
- Outsider
- Ambient
A small team, on purpose.
We stay small on purpose. Eight people, two partners, one long table. Every project is led by Maja or Tomaž from the first coffee to the final handover. No account managers in between. The person who listens to you is the person who draws, and the person who answers when you call.
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Maja Kovač
Co-founder, Architect
Collects old door handles from demolition sites.
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Tomaž Rebec
Co-founder, Interior Designer
Believes every room needs one slightly strange object.
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Eva Golob
Senior Architect
Bakes bread every Sunday, and judges kitchens accordingly.
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Jan Kralj
Project Lead, Construction
Has never missed a Friday site visit.
Notes from the studio
Why we still build physical models
A screen can show you a room. A model lets you hold it. We still cut card and balsa for every project, because clients understand light best when they can tilt it towards a window.
Lime plaster: the most forgiving wall finish
Lime plaster breathes, softens the light and forgives a knock from a pram. Here is why we use it in almost every home, and what it asks of you in return.
Designing a café that's still beautiful at 4 pm on a Tuesday
Opening night is easy. We design cafés for the quiet hours too: the afternoon light on the counter, the sound of two people talking, the chair someone stays in for an hour.
Before you get in touch
If something is not answered here, ask us on the discovery call. There are no silly questions about building.
What size of projects do you take on?
Mostly private homes between 150 and 600 square metres, renovations of older buildings, and hospitality spaces up to about twenty rooms or eighty covers. For our full architecture and interiors service, budgets usually start around €250,000. If your project is smaller, ask anyway. We often know someone good to point you to.
Do you work outside Slovenia?
Yes. We regularly build in Croatia, Austria and northern Italy, working with trusted local partners for permits and site supervision. Concept work, interior advice and material selection we can do remotely for a project anywhere. We plan visits carefully, so travel stays a small and predictable part of the fee.
How do your fees work?
In two parts. The concept stage has a fixed fee, so you know the cost before we draw a single line. If you continue with the full service, our fee becomes a percentage of the construction cost. Everything is agreed in writing before work begins. Nothing unexpected arrives in the post.
How long does a typical home take, start to finish?
Usually 12 to 20 months. Around four months for concept and design development, some weeks for permits, then four to twelve months on site, depending on size and complexity. Renovations of older buildings tend to sit at the longer end. Old walls have opinions, and we take the time to listen to them.
Can you work with our existing builder?
Often, yes. If you already trust a builder, we would rather meet them early than late. We share drawings, walk the site together and agree how decisions get made. If we have concerns about quality or capacity, we say so plainly, and suggest craftspeople we have worked with for years.
What happens on the free discovery call?
Thirty minutes, by video or in person at our studio in Trnovo. No preparation needed, though a few photos help. You tell us about the place and how you want to live in it. We ask questions and talk honestly about budget and time. You leave with clear next steps, even if we are not the right fit.
Let's start with a conversation.
Thirty minutes, no obligation. Tell us about the place you have in mind.
Book a free discovery callTell us about your project
- Address
- Kova Studio, Kolezijska ulica 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
- hello@kovastudio.si
- Phone
- +386 1 234 56 78
- Hours
- Monday–Friday, 9:00–17:00