Name: NEVER TOO SMALL: Furniture Dealer’s Mid-Century Attic Apartment, Barcelona - 34sqm/366sqft
Uploaded: 2025-01-02T10:58:09.000Z
Duration: 7 min 34 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I love mid-century furniture and I love collecting them.

Basic passive voice

The building was built in 1960 and in this period I loved the materials that were used so I wanted to use the same kind of materials that were available in that moment.

To get the 50s look I used the furniture I've been collecting for years to give me the atmosphere in that period.

My name is Jacobo Valentí, I'm an architect from Barcelona.

My name is Shiro and my human works are never too small.

Like other dogs in the studio, waiting for hours for our humans while they're working can be so so so boring.

So we demand a better work environment for the dogs in the NTS studio.

We demand a change so our humans decided to make a movie room for us using the Nebula Capsule 3, a tiny bright portable laser projector so we can relax while waiting for our humans.

The Nebula Capsule 3 uses a laser so it's 1.8 times brighter than regular LED projectors which means way better colour and you don't even need to completely turn off the lights.

It's also great for small spaces, can run for 2.5 hours with the built-in batteries and also works as a Bluetooth speaker with Dolby Digital sound all while fitting into the palm of your hand.

We can use the projector anywhere we like, in the kitchen, bedroom or even inside a tent while camping with our humans.

And with Android 11, we have access to heaps of apps like YouTube.

Get $120 off the Nebula Capsule 3 laser when you pre-order using the link in the description.

The apartment is in the centre of Barcelona in a neighbourhood called Eixample.

The neighbourhood was designed to connect the ancient heart of the city with the suburbs.

The apartment is 37 square metres including the terrace.

The first time I came into the apartment was kind of a sad space, depressing.

The bathroom was too big and the living area was too small.

I demolished the wall at the entrance of the apartment which was the oversized old bathroom.

My goal was to have a terrace so I moved three square metres from indoor to outdoor.

Another decision was to split the bathroom and have toilet on one end, the apartment and the shower in the other.

I turned the kitchen around to create a corridor with a kitchen on both sides of the space.

When you enter through the door, you will find a wooden wall which is part of the wardrobe.

The position of the wardrobe helps to abstract the inside of the apartment when standing at the entrance.

An artwork is covering the electric box and a collection of keys.

Through a sliding door on the right is the toilet.

There is a small sink inside and lots of art on the walls.

I cut a curtain and hung it covering the toilet tank, giving the effect of a wall-mounted toilet.

Behind the curtain I can store toilet paper and hide the brush.

The kitchen works as a corridor between the entrance and living areas.

The kitchen is wooden with a stainless steel countertop and backsplash.

On one side there is a sink, a fridge, a washing machine and the laundry.

All this lower part is an IKEA kitchen but covered in the same wood that I've used in this area of the apartment.

Also in this part we find the cabinet by Charlotte Perriand.

It's an original mid-century piece and has a lot of room for glass, dishes and food storage.

On the other side of the kitchen there is an induction cooktop and an oven.

Although it's a small kitchen, it feels big because it's wider and taller than a regular kitchen.

The living area is a versatile space that can be used as a living room, a dining room and sometimes as my office when I'm working from home.

There is an IKEA sofa which can fold down and become a bed for guests.

It's also used as one of the seats for the dining table.

I built a custom wood frame around the sofa and there is storage on the right side of the sofa to keep blankets and to connect chargers.

For storage I customized an interesting Danish piece of furniture from the 60s.

It's a low unit that sits by the wall at the end of the bed.

Inside I store my shoes and the amplifier.

The closet storage is an IKEA closet which has mirror doors to give the illusion of a bigger space.

I wrapped wood around the closet and created floating shelves at the end.

Above the wardrobe is the porthole which was originally from a boat.

The projector is mounted above the bed and projects directly onto the wall.

The bathroom is right next to the terrace with a big piece of glass in between, serving very good views when you shower.

As I live here by myself, I didn't feel the need to put the bathroom in a separate room.

So the sink is a part of the main living space.

This frees up some space in a small apartment.

I used the same yellow tiles as the terrace.

This gave some more outdoor feeling to the bathroom.

On the side of the bathroom I made a small niche to use as a small bedside storage.

The apartment is an attic so it has very good views and very good light.

The terrace is the jewel of the apartment.

It works as living, dining, office, green area and it even has a lemon tree.

In the warmer months I have every meal in the terrace.

I try to find a balance between collectible pieces with some other pieces like an IKEA kitchen or everyday objects that you can buy in a flea market.

It's very important to give second life for things and buildings because you don't waste resources.

My goal for this kind of projects is to feel as you are in a bigger space.

Putting together in the same place a lot of uses and then finding the proper objects and piece of furniture for the apartment.

 Thanks for watching and if you're an architect or designer with a project we could feature please share it with us at nevertosmall.com submissions