Tiny apartments are, for many, the only way to access a home at a reasonable price. A reduced useful area can make a significant economic difference when the budget is limited, although with a clear disadvantage: a living space sometimes reduced to its minimum. There are solutions that allow you to make the most of small properties, from renovations to have an open space to multi-use furniture, through modular storage and decoration that provides light and spaciousness. Design is the best ally when the challenge is to squeeze out square meters.
The current real estate market hardly offers affordable options, with housing prices that are close to the maximum of the third quarter of 2007, when an average of 2,080 euros per square meter was paid, according to Tinsa by Accumin statistics. At the end of the second quarter of this year, the appraiser identifies the cities with the highest amounts: San Sebastián (5,154 euros per square meter), Madrid (4,683), Barcelona (4,463), Palma de Mallorca (3,472) and Bilbao (3,240). With this panorama, small apartments reemerge as an alternative for a lower outlay, although in practice they have a much higher price per square than larger apartments and some are sold at a gold price.
In Spain, there are nearly 170,000 residential properties of less than 30 square meters and more than one million with an area of between 30 and 45 square meters, according to the 2021 Census and Housing of the INE, which is updated every ten years. This is where the work of architectural professionals aware of this problem shines. The focus is placed on underused spaces, for example, with the construction of trunks in false ceilings or incorporating a fold-out bed under the step of an elevated hallway. "These types of games, which are very useful for many people, are becoming widespread when it comes to adapting spaces to live in the strangest places. You find a lot, very varied and beautiful," says Sigfrido Herráiz, dean of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM). "I have seen beds that, with a pendulum and a rope, are during the day like a painting on the wall. Then, the bed appears... it is magic," he adds.
A first milestone in the redesign of smaller homes in Spain occurred with the arrival of the American kitchen, which a couple of decades ago represented a great functional change when it was integrated into the living room. Another option that is now quite widespread are raised beds, which take advantage of high ceilings, or fold-out beds so that the living room becomes a bedroom at night. A trend that has been consolidating is open-plan loft-type spaces, what is known as “open concept”, without partitions or doors, with the entire home in sight.
However, renovations to remove barriers such as walls or columns can compromise the structure and stability of the home. In these cases, the supervision of an architect is needed. "There is no other technician to replace him. In a matter of structures, a surveyor or an industrial engineer is not useful. To unload the load-bearing walls with a beam, this professional is essential," warns Sigfrido Herráiz. And serious problems can arise that a qualified bricklayer cannot solve.
Planning is key
The most complex renovations are not always the ones that yield the best results in terms of surface utilization. The most advisable thing is to reflect and do prior planning, taking into account that the greatest impact is obtained with the adaptation of the use of space and the reduction of visual barriers. “In the bathroom, replacing the bathtub with a flush shower tray allows us to gain useful meters and improves the feeling of continuity,” explains Ignacio Artigas, project market director at Leroy Merlin Spain. Alternatives such as smart toilets allow you to eliminate the bidet without giving up this hygiene option, and suspended auxiliary furniture, which offers storage and frees up the floor, provides a feeling of lightness and order, highlights Artigas.
In other rooms, such as the kitchen, the ceiling-high and removable modules allow you to turn a small corner into a useful space. For the living-dining room, modular furniture manages to provide each space with a function: sofas, poufs or benches with storage optimize the space they occupy and folding tables allow you to clear the view when not in use. In the bedroom, the ideal is to have canapés and high cabinets to reduce additional elements.
When furnishing, you have to go step by step. "The first thing is to identify the activities that are going to be carried out at home: working, sleeping or if there are going to be other functions in the same room. Once that reality is identified, we would begin to build the list of products," says David Cadaval, director of design, retail and interior design at IKEA Spain. Modularity, versatility and flexibility are the keys to choosing furniture. “In small spaces they demand modularity from us because needs change and we know that where today you need two, tomorrow you may need three, especially in cabinets and storage solutions,” he explains.
There is a wide range of furniture to which additional pieces can be added to adapt them to new needs: versatility allows you to play with shapes and positions, vertically, horizontally or hanging. The concept of flexibility gives multiple uses to the same room, for example, with folding tables, which can be enlarged with one or two wings and which, when folded, are transformed into a chest of drawers that barely takes up any space. There are also stackable beds, which can be transformed into a sofa. “Our mentality is to stress the product to give it many uses,” explains Cadaval.
Intimacy is a challenge in these spaces, but Leroy Merlin proposes solutions such as room dividers, Japanese panels or double-sided shelves, which divide spaces allowing light to pass through. Or the combination of indirect lighting and LED points to expand the perception of space. And materials with light colors, reflective surfaces and shiny finishes. They are tricks that add up when the challenge is to squeeze the meters of a tiny house.
