If you are looking for a whole new rabbit hole to fall in to, we’ve got you covered. Boryana Ilieva, aka Floor Plan Croissant, was a co-founder of an architectural studio in Sofia, Bulgaria, under the name of 11AM, developing small design projects, mostly single-family houses and condo interiors. From this experience, she took her skills from the studio and applied them to her passion for film, and more specifically, interior architectural spaces. Now she creates incredible watercolor images featuring spaces from fantastic films, she does it full-time now and we STILL can’t get enough.

Here is something from her OFFICIAL WEBSITE. Originally Boryana’s Floor Plan Croissant project was created to examine cinematic spaces and to take director’s spatial language to her own architectural understanding. Later these translations became more or less socially oriented – being an architect herself and a passionate film admirer Boryana senses a general gap between cinema and architecture, or in other words, a state where architects simply won’t watch enough film, at least not as phantasmal explorers. So her work is based on extracting floor plans of main character houses in notable films as she believes a film floor plan forms a ghost matrix around which directors not only build plots but place hidden messages.

Boryana was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions for us and as we have been fans of hers for some time now, this was special for us in so many ways. Here is what she had to say.

Do you ever run into roadblocks with a floor plan? How do you solve it?

Roadblocks happen on one of every three-four floor plans. In the first years, I used to abandon the project, but then sleepless nights followed; I laid in bed and rolled in my mind tens of options to solve the problem. Usually, the answer was to start from zero and find a new approach; for example, dig up the place on Google Maps or search for the contact of the production designer. The Dreamers by Bertolucci was such a project. I threw it over several times until I figured out where the American’s guest room was, which was my trouble there. Nowadays, I feel brave enough to solve problems with my artistic additions. I put my 15% to have a complete painting.

What was the most difficult floor plan you’ve done to date and why was it so troublesome?

The Dreamers is still unbeatable.

You work with watercolors which seems, from our perspective, one of the more difficult mediums to work with, how did you choose this and does it limit you or ADD to the overall outcome?

Watercolors are fantastic because sometimes they make decisions instead of you. You can’t fully control watercolor. I leave it to dry and form its shapes to surprise me.

What is one of the biggest challenges you run into on a regular basis?

To figure out the 2D scheme of the floor plan puzzle of rooms.

We LOVE the piece you did for “Tove Jansson’s studio in Helsinki.” SO much detail and we love the way the light comes in from the arched windows. It must be excruciating to get that much detail with watercolors. (Bookshelves must be the bane of your existence!) How long does a piece like this take from start to finish.

Thank you! Tove took three months—one month for the pencil part and all the detail, one month for coloring the artwork hanging on the walls of Tove Jansson because they are entirely separate worlds, and one month for coloring the rest of her room.

We noticed you were commissioned to do a piece for “After Yang” as a gift for the director of film. Who else have you done commissions for?

The production designer of Amy Schumer’s Life & Beth, Joshua Petersen, commissioned the watercolor of Beth’s childhood home. Amy Schumer’s childhood home inspired that house. Joshua has the original painting and separately took copies for the whole film crew. They loved the surprise, I believe. They were shooting Season 2 at the time.

What is it about Kafuku’s living room from “Drive My Car” that “haunts you.”

What he saw in the mirror when he surprisingly entered his home. And how he reacted to that.

Do you have a favorite floor plan?

I love my Nostalghia by Andrei Tarkovsky. Also, Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski hangs in my living room. I will never separate those two from me.

Any upcoming films that you are looking forward to in hopes of your next floor plan project?

I am impatient for some Cannes 2023 titles—La Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher and The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer. Apart from them, I am waiting for Passages by Ira Sachs.

As you can see, she has found her lane and we can’t wait to see what she creates next. Be sure to follow her on INSTAGRAM and if you would like to purchase some of her work, or find more ways to see what she has coming up, CLICK HERE. Before we let you go, here are some more images from her for some of our favorite films/ TV.