Tour Illustrator Alja Horvat’s Historic Slovenian Apartment

This 129-Year-Old Apartment in Slovenia Has Charming Floral Prints and IKEA Hacks

published Sep 12, 2025

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You’ve possibly seen the work of artist and surface designer Alja Horvat before — her cheerful and colorful illustrations have graced products for Anthropologie, WallPops, Bemz, and more. I’ve even purchased several of her illustrated products from Society6 (you can see them in the house tour of my last apartment in New Orleans). Her own home is a gorgeous historic apartment built in 1896 in Maribor City Center, Slovenia, that she’s owned for two years with her partner, Niko, and their dog, Holly.

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Credit: Niko Obran

“We had been searching for a high ceiling apartment in the old town for quite a while, but nothing we saw really checked all the boxes. Many of the historic buildings in our area are poorly maintained, and the apartments we viewed were often in disappointing condition,” Alja begins.

Credit: Alja Horvat

After seeing another apartment that looked great online but not in person, Alja and Niko heard about this 1,470-square-foot apartment when the real estate agent said she was selling her own home. The couple was sold on this place the moment they saw the building’s entrance. “We’ve never seen a more beautiful building entrance — and we saw many apartments,” Alja writes.

Credit: Niko Obran

“The apartment had everything we’d been dreaming of: beautifully preserved original windows, original herringbone flooring, original doors, high ceilings, and even a balcony, three original and functioning ceramic fireplaces, and a parking space. That’s incredibly rare here. As most old apartments have been ‘renovated’ over the years, that often means plastic windows, vinyl floors, and lowered ceilings,” Alja describes.

Credit: Alja Horvat

"Our building’s hallways has very 'rich' moldings and trim details, so we wanted to bring that feel to our apartment as well," Alja writes.

Though it was love at first sight, Alja and Niko wanted to renovate the “structure of the apartment to feel more Haussmannian, then layer it with a mix of modern and classical furniture.” Everything but the bathroom got a renovation, since it was redone in 2015 and still looked brand new. (You can see some before and after images on Alja’s Instagram account!). But they did carefully revive the 129-year-old wooden herringbone floors. They hacked some IKEA pieces to make them feel custom. And they, of course, added some of Alja’s gorgeous patterns and prints in the space.