There’s no shortage of interior inspiration at artist Giacomo Balla’s Rome apartment, where a new public tour programme is letting visitors get a close-up look at its swirls of pattern and colour.

It’s the first time the home has been opened to the public, with the tours part of a major Balla exhibition at Rome’s National Museum of 21st Century Art – which is celebrating the painter and Futurist’s 150th anniversary.

The artist, who was a key figure in the Italian art movement, moved into the fourth-floor Della Vittoria apartment in 1929 and spent the next 30 years transforming the space. Casa Balla, as it’s called, contains wall paintings, furniture, floor tiles, carpets, cabinet handles, dishes and lights all designed by the artist and his family.

The hallway is covered in a dizzying, camouflage-esque pattern of blues and yellows, complete with cloud-shaped light shades. Hand-painted tiles dot the floor of the easel-filled living room, while the kitchen contains unusual geometric dining chairs and crockery designed by the family.

Balla’s apartment is open for tours until 21 November, as part of MAXXI’s Casa Balla: From The House to the Universe and Back exhibition.

Inside a Danish antique trader’s museum-like home in Zealand