00:06I think my favorite part of the apartment is the sunroom. It's a great space. You feel like it's almost
00:14a terrace when you open the doors. So it's like you have this exterior and interior space.
00:26The building was built in 1870. We wanted it to become a modern, clean and open apartment while respecting the
00:35original charm that made us fall in love with the apartment the second we work in.
00:42With this inspiration in mind, many elements were kept, such as the flooring, the ceilings and many doors and windows
00:50that we personally restore.
00:56I love this kind of flooring. I love the colors. I love the personality that it brings.
01:05My name is Carlota Siberio. I'm a freelance architect from Spain and I live in this apartment with my wife,
01:12Carla.
01:24The apartment is in Conte Borrell Street, part of the lively neighborhood called San Antonio in Barcelona.
01:32Conte Borrell is now a quiet pedestrianized street during weekdays,
01:37than transformed into a dynamic street during weekends with live music and a book market.
01:49When we found the apartment, we immediately loved the cementite flooring and the high ceilings.
01:55There were two bedrooms, but the size and distribution of the rooms were not practical.
02:01We moved the kitchen and dining room to the center of the house.
02:06We made the master bedroom wide enough to fit a double bed, making the living room smaller.
02:13The bathroom was kept in its original location, but we added a new entrance to make it more functional.
02:20We transformed the kitchen into the sunroom to feel like a balcony.
02:25The second bedroom was small and dark, so we removed one of the walls and created an opening to the
02:31sunroom to let in more natural light.
02:37When you first enter the apartment, you find the entryway, kitchen and dining room combined.
02:44By the door, there is a small cabinet that we use for living our keys and shoes.
02:50For the kitchen itself, we choose natural materials that match the original flooring.
02:56The cement tiles in the floor create patterned zones, defining different areas in the apartment.
03:03The entrance door is the original from 150 years ago and was one of the elements that we personally restored.
03:14All the elements needed for cooking are easily reachable for a streamlined experience.
03:20We also have a small panel dishwasher.
03:22The kitchen counter is made of granite and the cabinets out of melamine wood.
03:29The floor to ceiling cabinets contain functional elements such as the switchboard, the integrated fridge, the oven and a small
03:36breakfast bar perfect for hiding small appliances.
03:40We choose white melamine so that, at a glance, they merge together and feel like another wall.
03:46The same material was used for all the similar storage in the apartment to gain consistency.
03:54The living room is facing a pedestrianized street.
03:58When opening the balcony doors, you feel like you are in a quiet village.
04:03The living room has the most impressive flooring with more than eight different colors.
04:09Traditionally, the most special tiles were usually located in the rooms facing the street.
04:14This was a way to show wealth back in the 19th century.
04:19We also decided to leave the original wall uncovered and created a built-in shelf to display our favorite art
04:26pieces.
04:29When we removed the ceiling, it revealed a stunning structure which we had restored.
04:34It brings a lot of character to the room.
04:39In the living room, we continue with the same strategy for the storage.
04:44A bar cabinet and a display shelf serve to show some personal objects.
04:52The bedroom is next to the living room.
04:57The sleeping room also has a balcony.
05:01In this room, we can easily fit a double bed.
05:10Also, we continue the floor-to-ceiling closets line from the living room, which now serves as a closing closet.
05:18To have more storage, we custom-made a chest of drawers that delineates the dressing area and the sleeping area
05:25without physically dividing the space.
05:28We add the same wood handles from the dressers to the closets, to have a more cohesive look.
05:35The lighting continues to the bedroom to visually connect both rooms.
05:43In the bedroom and home office, we couldn't keep the original flooring as it was too damaged.
05:48To create the new mosaic, we work with a company that is still using the same method, to build the
05:54tiles.
05:56They are handmade one by one, and we were able to make a few ourselves.
06:02To bring more natural light into the office, we create a second entrance from the sunroom.
06:09We decided to leave this space open to keep it flexible.
06:13We used the same strategy from the bedroom, using a low storage unit to delineate the space.
06:20In the bathroom, our priority was to make the most out of the space we had.
06:26We designed the wash washing cabinet to perfectly fit that space.
06:31There is a built-in shower niche on one side of the bathroom.
06:37And a ledge behind the toilet to hide the plumbing that doubles as a shelf on the other side.
06:43There is a small window connecting to the sunroom, to help with ventilation and bringing more natural light.
06:52Our favourite part of the apartment is the sunroom.
06:56We decided to use the same tiles, rasilla, that were widely used in balconies and terraces when the building was
07:04first built.
07:06We also replaced the windows, so they can be fully opened to convert the sunroom into the exterior space it
07:13originally was.
07:17On one side of the sunroom, there is a closet which contains the washing machine and the boiler.
07:25There is also a spot for our cat's litter box.
07:29In the afternoon, it is really sunny here, so this is the perfect spot to read a book.
07:40When it comes to designing small spaces, I think customization is key.
07:46It allows you to create clean and organized schemes, which make spaces feel bigger and easy to live in.
07:54Flexibility is also important, as people's needs evolve, and their homes should be able to do so too.
08:01Small apartments offer a more affordable option to live in the city centre, but we need creativity so these spaces
08:08can meet our needs.
08:23Things from the map.
08:26A wonderful place.
08:26The moment of the house is not even up to the outside.
Comments