How To Renovate

EP67 Design Details I Learned & Loved From Our Barcelona Apartment

• Tash South • Season 1 • Episode 67

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Have you ever visited somewhere that influenced changed how you think about design? 

That’s kind of what happened during my five-week Barcelona getaway. Buzzing Barcelona captured my heart and reinforced my love of cities, just like London did. The medieval alleyways, sunny squares, arty influences, and modern buildings alongside  Gaudí’s dreamlike architecture collide to create a place that is historic, modern,  endlessly alive, and really quite special.

Our family of four stayed in a gorgeously-designed little rental apartment accessed by stepping off a bustling Barcelona street, and  through one of those iconic, massive wooden doors.

The apartment has so many lovely, clever design details that I will bring into projects that I thought I would share them all with you. So, in this weeks’ episode, I’m breaking down the design details I learned and loved for our Barcelona apartment.

Join me inside for a little design masterclass this week, where I’m chatting about taking inspiration from your travels, blending old and new with intention, maintaining those character features, putting together timeless materials palettes, how to use textures well, and how adding just one or two quirks can bring a sense of fun and personality to your space… and a lot more!

I'll see you inside!

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant, and I'm here to help you design, renovate and style your home better. Let's create your dream home together.


Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

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Speaker 1:

Hello, hello everybody. It's me Tash. I'm back with a new episode of the how to Renovate podcast, so today I've got a little bit of a different episode for you. What I'm going to do is talk about all of the beautiful details I loved from the Barcelona apartment we stayed in in August, so we hired an apartment. It was just a simple Airbnb arrangement. And we stayed in in August, so we hired an apartment. It was just a simple Airbnb arrangement and we stayed there for about a month, about five weeks or so, and I just loved so many elements of the apartment that I thought I'd do an episode on it. And also how we can take inspiration from other places, other cities, other and maybe bring some of those elements into our own homes. I mean, the architecture in Barcelona is just stunning and I mean no wonder they had so many famous architects through history working there, living there, designing building there and there, and so you know it's no surprise that some of these buildings and some of these elements and these design features and elements are just stunning and also very clever, some of which I'll talk through in the episode today. But I just love this.

Speaker 1:

I think, if we all are able to travel, which I feel very fortunate to do because, like I've spoken about before, I used to live in Cape Town, south Africa, right at the very most southern tip of the planet, and so travel for me wasn't as easily accessible that as it is now that I live in London. So anytime I can travel, go anywhere in Europe or anywhere, really I just really appreciate it and I really take it in, because it's something that I really wasn't able to do when I was younger. We just weren't able to do it as a family really, because we were just so isolated far away. There were all sorts of political reasons why we couldn't travel when I was growing up, and so I just really really appreciate it now, and whenever we go anywhere, I just really really appreciate it now, and whenever we go anywhere, I just try and soak it all in, take it all in and then kind of bring it all back as inspiration. So I'm really excited to go through this episode with you. So I will start talking about everything I loved in this little apartment. It was only a two-bedroom apartment, but there was so much to love, so I am going to do my absolute best to explain everything, because if you're listening, only. Obviously it's going to be a little bit tricky, but maybe you'd like to watch this episode on YouTube and you'll see all the videos I've put together of the apartment, all the detailing as I talk through them.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's start on the street. So it was a typical Barcelona apartment, one of those huge, gorgeous wooden, massive doors that you just open off of a really busy street and all of a sudden you're in this calm, cool entrance hallway, this little oasis which just protects you from the heat. It's usually stone, stone, stone floors, stone walls, and so this one was no different. It came off the street through this gorgeous wooden carved door, really traditional, with a big door knocker, all in kind of cast iron and metal, and you enter into this kind of calm oasis and as soon as you kind of shut the door behind you, you kind of shut out the noise, shut out the heat and you just feel instantly calmer, cooler and more at home. So this apartment had that this lovely entrance way, and so you walk in and it was really beautifully styled and furnished. Actually, you could really tell that whoever designed these apartments really took care in the pieces of furniture they chose and the materials they chose, which of course I will go through as well as I get into the interiors of the apartment, but it was just really calming. So we you'd kind of come into this big entrance hall tall ceilings, all stone, very cool and then you'd walk through past the lift, the elevator, into an open courtyard. When you look up you could see all the way up the building, which I think was about five stories high, and at the top you had an open rooftop and from the central courtyard it opened up all the way to the sky and you could look up and see all the massive windows from all the apartments opening onto this courtyard.

Speaker 1:

The designers had styled this courtyard really beautifully with just simple seating upholstered in this gorgeous red striped fabric, but then also surrounding the courtyard they'd softened it all. So they'd softened the kind of exterior, plastered walls with these really long drapes, these curtains, in all different but complementary colours. It had dark blue, kind of an ochre colour, and then also a green, a dark green, and they all just worked so well together and it just gave it so much kind of character and softness. And then they added some gorgeous plants, big plants, always great for an outdoor space and then these little marble green side tables which just added that kind of colour contrast with a red, and it was all very kind of Soho house. So it kind of reminded me of, kind of when you walked into a Soho house, hotel or restaurant and the same, with the rooftop really, which I'll discuss more at the end of the episode.

Speaker 1:

And then when you went up to the apartment door itself, what I really loved is how they just kept the original doors. So our apartment door was again this massive, solid, original wooden door with all the original brass fixtures, so the original door pull and the original peephole where you kind of twisted it and you could see through it and then you twisted it shut again. So I love that they kept all these original features, especially on the entrance. It just gave it that sense of history and almost kind of a sense of grandeur, almost as you walked in, having this massive heavy doors, it just that sense of entrance when you're coming into both the building and into the apartment. Of course I cannot do an episode about a barcelona apartment without talking about those gorgeous wooden shutters, the really tall ones that you see if you've ever been in barcelona.

Speaker 1:

You look up and you just see these really tall windows and they all have the wooden shutters and of course some are original and some are new, some are modern, but they all tend to have them because they need to keep the heat out and they need to keep the noise out in such a busy city. But we had a mixture in this apartment, so some were original, restored, and then they had some newer ones but done in the same kind of wood. So it kept the kind of feeling of it all being original and they are just beautiful, just the sense of just opening them up in the morning, letting all the light and the warmth flood into the apartment. I just love that feeling and I just think having these are not only practical, of course, in a city like that, but they also provide this amazing architecture to the building. They just are kind of a design feature within themselves, into the bones of the building. So before you even start with your interior design, you have these amazing shutters to work with, really tall windows, generally quite tall ceilings as well. So just working, thinking of it as an interior designer, having those bones the original doors, the original windows and the original beams and ceilings which I'll get on to next already as the bones of the building. What you get to start to work with is really exciting because you're straight off the bat starting with something beautiful to build on, and so I just thought these shutters were just gorgeous and, of course, practical as well.

Speaker 1:

And then, moving on to those original ceilings so traditional Barcelona ceilings. Cat original ceilings so traditional Barcelona ceilings. Catalan ceilings have these beams, usually wood they can be steel as well and then in between the beams is this kind of curved structure, so the ceiling itself is curved between every beam and that runs the length of the beam. So this way of constructing ceilings is called Catalan vaulting, and it's a tradition that was kind of born out of practicality, really, because they were cheap to construct, they were quick, strong to construct and also they were fire resistant. And so during the industrial boom, this is how the ceilings were constructed and also they're really pretty.

Speaker 1:

So actually, over time, this has been quite a feature to try and keep in the old buildings. It's become a hallmark of Catalan architecture and they're really proud of it. They try to preserve it. Even when renovations are being done, they try and preserve the shape and the beams of the ceiling, and that's actually exactly what they did in this apartment as well. So the rhythm of those beams and those shallow vaults really have become kind of a recognisable part of the Catalan aesthetic and now it's really part of Barcelona's architectural DNA. And even in modern renovations, like they did in our apartment, they often preserve those curves and those beams.

Speaker 1:

And what I absolutely loved about what they did in our apartment is they did a combination. So wherever they could keep the beams, the wooden beams, they did, and so those were exposed as natural wood, with the white curved ceiling, plastered ceiling in between the beams and then in places where they needed to put in the modern elements, like lighting, led lighting, the air conditioning vents and so on, what they did is they dropped sections of the ceiling and created a gap between the beans and the bottom of the dropped ceiling, creating a void in which to hide the practical elements like the wiring for the lighting, like the air conditioning units or whatever needed to be hidden in there. They dropped it, they plasterboarded it. But what I actually loved is how they angled it. They worked with modern shapes, with the dropped sections but still preserving the beam, so you'd see both elements. You'd see the modern angled elements underneath the beams, but you still get that sense of history and that sense of pride in the Barcelona architecture when you're inside the apartment, which I just absolutely loved. And then the lighting really worked well when it was illuminating those historic bits like the beams also. So I just absolutely loved that they did that in this apartment and I do think you know that that is something we can bring into our own home design. Let's say, you have an older property, like a Victorian property, an Edwardian property. What I really love to do is try and preserve as many of the bones, the historic elements of the building as possible, many of the bones, the historic elements of the building, as possible, and then work on top of that as a layer with any modern elements that you want to add in or the client wants to add in, and make those two work beautifully together. And I think that's why I love this so much, because that's exactly what they did in the apartment.

Speaker 1:

And the next thing I really loved in this apartment was the way they did the lighting. So I've kind of covered that a little bit in how they added the lighting into those dropped sections of angled ceiling, but really they used the LEDs so cleverly that they were completely hidden. You couldn't see the actual light source itself. So you couldn't see the LED light anywhere. But when they were turned on you could see the illumination. So it was kind of this glow that appeared when you turned the lights on. You couldn't see the actual light source, but the whole ceiling would glow from behind these drop sections. The LED strips were hidden and the light that would glow out would then illuminate those gorgeous features like the beams and like the vaulted ceilings, which just caused really beautiful shapes and shadows into the room, onto the ceiling when the leds were on. So I love that feeling that I gave you in a room. You know I always talk about how you want to feel in a room. It just had this glow, this coziness when the lights were on at night, but you didn't have the glare of seeing the light source itself. So I just thought that was really cleverly done.

Speaker 1:

And then another place they used this was actually in the bathroom use. This was actually in the bathroom. So above the shower they had exactly the same idea where they dropped the ceiling for most of the bathroom. Perhaps there was a reason they had to cover most of the beams in the bathroom. It could have been a building regs, it could have been a safety reason, but above the shower they managed to keep the beams. So only above the shower area you can see these original beams, and again with a hidden led tucked away into the dropped part, and so when the led was turned on, it then illuminated the entire ceiling of just the shower area onto those beams again, so you had this gorgeous glow that you could just turn on. If you wanted to have kind of a relaxing shower, then you could just turn that one light on and it would be just like the ceiling was lit up, and so I really loved that little design detail as well.

Speaker 1:

Another thing they did in this property which I have not seen before they used spotlights, just regular old spotlights, in a clever little way that I wanted to share with you, and I think this way of doing it came from the wider architecture in Barcelona. So what they did is they used different diameters, so different sizes of spotlights, and then grouped them together in the little corners In the bathrooms. For example, there was a group of three spotlights in two corners in each of the bathrooms. They had this group of one large standard spotlight and then they had two really small ones next to it and they just kind of grouped it in this little group of three on the ceiling and when you turned it on, it just formed this lovely beam that just shone down exactly where you needed the light, so above the vanity unit or in a dark area of the bathroom where you needed it.

Speaker 1:

And I just thought, just using spotlights in such a just a slightly different way, just kind of not, you know, just putting them in a grid, but just using them where the light is needed which I talk about a lot as well not just to line them up in a grid, but actually where you need the light. Think about how you use the room and where you need the light. And I just thought that was so clever and just to use something that you know is really not quite liked by designers. I mean, I don't really like using spotlights. It's kind of almost born out of necessity or practicality. Sometimes, even though I only place them where needed, I still think that they're not the most attractive sources of lighting. I'd rather use something else. But I just thought, if you are going to be using spotlights and you're wanting to be doing it on a budget or quite cheaply. You could do it this way and then still get a little design element out of it as well. So I just thought that was really clever and actually using them grouped that way, actually formed this gorgeous beam of light as well, which is good for illuminating various surfaces. So in one of the bathrooms it had this original brick wall which they'd stripped the plaster back, so the the old brick was exposed, so it was quite textural, quite rough, and then above that in a recess, they put these three different size spotlights and the beam of light shone down onto the textured wall, giving this gorgeous kind of glow, really picking up on the texture of that wall, which is obviously an older feature as well, and the spotlights are obviously a modern feature. So, again, mixing that old and new to really really great effect using those circles.

Speaker 1:

The design of using the circles at different sizes really does come from the architecture of Barcelona, because I saw it in other places as well. So it just shows that if you have something that's kind of quite unique to your city or to your town or wherever you live, you can bring those into your home, which I always find really fun and exciting. They use the same kind of technique on the rooftop, where in some of the walls they had this series of different holes and I think there were vents for some of the buildings, so air vents, and so they were just punctuated with these different sizes of circles of holes and that just made a plain wall, where there would have been just a plain rectangular vent, much more of a design feature and just something definitely more pretty to look at. So I love that they carried that through, the kind of carrying their traditions of their architecture through into something completely different, like the lighting. So taking it from from vents and from airing out the building, probably traditionally, to then bringing that shape into using the lighting.

Speaker 1:

So I think if we can all find little interesting things like that that we notice when we're out and about in our towns or in our cities and we can kind of bring it into our homes in just a little bit of an unusual way, and then also in this apartment they had this really cute feature which I thought was so clever. What must have happened is they had realised that the kitchen was a little bit too dark once all the lighting had been installed or wired in, and what they did is found a really pretty ceiling pendant which was fixed to the flat part of the ceiling in the kitchen, and then it just had the wire exposed, just prettily draped, and hanging from the ceiling onto a hook and then down the wall, and you just use a regular switch, like you would do a lamp, to turn it on and it they made a feature out of it. So I think it must have been an error where there should really have been a light there, but retrospectively it would have been too much work to add it in, and so they added this pendant and made it into a design feature. They chose something that was quite pretty, that cast really pretty light and shadows onto the ceiling when it was turned on, and so it made it again what could have been a mistake into quite a pretty design feature, and I just thought we could bring that into our own homes as well. I know sometimes people always have little corners of their home where they find it a little bit too dark, and this would be a great way to add a source of light into an area and make a design feature out of it as well. So I really love that detail in this apartment, what I also really loved, moving on to the next thing, was the materials palette they used here, and if they use a designer, they did a really good job.

Speaker 1:

The materials are what generally I love to use in home's eye design as well Natural materials that work well together and therefore form a kind of a timeless design. Materials like like gorgeous marble. They actually put real marble into the kitchens, which I thought was quite brave for a rental property, but it was stunning. It just gave it that depth brass tap, so they had a brass tap in the kitchen, brass in the bathrooms, so they kind of carried that through. And then the bathroom countertops had the most gorgeous kind of tactile stone, which was a black stone with kind of earth tones and browns running through it and a little bit of white as well. So that just worked all really well together. And then of course, the exposed brick which I talked about before. All natural tactile materials that work really well together in a palette.

Speaker 1:

They also chose real wood floors, which really gave that sense of kind of luxury when you're walking around and also in a hot city like Barcelona it can get very hot and the wooden floors are obviously quite cool than carpet. And what I really loved is how they also carried that materials palette through onto some of the furniture as well. So I had a marble dining table and they also had kind of other marble elements in the room. They had more tactile wooden elements in the rooms, which I will get into as well when I talk about the interior of the apartment and then the next thing I want to talk about. Well, when I talk about the interior of the apartment and then the next thing I want to talk about is the tiles and the way they did the tiling in the apartment. So obviously I don't think I can talk about a Spanish city without talking about tiling, right? So the tiles they used on the floors in the bathrooms were hexagon tiles.

Speaker 1:

But what I found really interesting about the way they did the tiling in the bathrooms, where they did not tile to the edges of the room, the tiles were kind of laid out in the room within the centre of the room, with a gap between the wall and the tile edge itself, and then whatever they used on the walls it looked like it was kind of a micro cement or some kind of concrete that was then poured around the tiles and also used on the walls. So it formed this continuous kind of finish that went down the walls onto the floor and then met up with the tiles kind of, which were off of the wall with a gap between. So it was almost like you were laying tiles into the kind of puddle of micro cement in the center and I just loved the kind of feeling of that. I just thought it was quite unusual. I hadn't really seen that before. And they also used the same material, so that micro cement into the showers is also and onto the vanity units, which I'll talk about next. But I just thought that was really interesting.

Speaker 1:

And then the kitchen area. They had used a really pretty tile and then just kind of met it up with the wooden floors that they used in the rest of the apartment. So that really zoned the kitchen area really well and of course it was quite practical as well having the rest of the apartment. So that really zoned the kitchen area really well. And of course it was quite practical as well having the tile along the kitchen run of units rather than the wooden floors which would probably stain or damage a lot more easily than the tile. So really practical as well. So I really loved how they did that, particularly in the bathrooms.

Speaker 1:

Which then brings me to the vanity units, which I'm going to try my best to describe it, if you're only listening. But the vanity units were kind of floating, so they were off the floor, completely fixed onto the walls, and then what they had done is used that same material again, the kind of micro cement or concrete, and they've taken it down the wall around the vanity unit and then back onto the floor, and so it looked like the whole vanity unit was had just kind of come out of the wall. It can be kind of molded out of the wall and then into the vanity unit. It looked like there had been carved some recesses of and some shelves, obviously really useful for storage, but also a great design feature as well. And then they had real wood oak doors on sections of the, the open parts of the vanity unit as well. So you had this gorgeous combination of what looks like a molded microment with the natural material of the oak, of the wood, but then also these kind of niches and recesses that were really useful for storage, but they also gave that kind of depth, that design element, to the bathrooms as well, and then of course they had that gorgeous stone on top, which which I talked about earlier. So I just thought the combination of the tiles, the vanity unit and the combination of those materials the micro cement, the marble and the tiles just made for such a gorgeous scheme.

Speaker 1:

Okay, moving on to my favorite part, the interiors. So this apartment had really been decorated well. You could tell they put quite a lot of thought into it. You know they really wanted it to be design forward and pretty but practical, and so I think they really had their target market in mind when they designed this property. So the apartment was elegantly furnished and what I really loved about it, it didn't feel stuffy and too fancy, it was relaxed. The textures they used were soft and it gave you that relaxed feeling. So lots of texture, and they used quite a neutral colour palette as well. So the combination of the neutrals and the textures gave a sense of elegance, but also I loved how it just felt quite relaxing. They also really put thought into the furniture they chose. So I doubt very much these were original designer pieces, but they'd kind of taken in designer inspired pieces.

Speaker 1:

So there was a take on the Noel Soan and dining table again a gorgeous marble on the top a kind of color cutter marble, and then the chairs around it. Again, designer inspired the seska chairs, which are the ones with the chrome, that kind of bend round and the the wicker back, and so those are quite famous chairs. You'd know them if you're watching or if you'd um, or if you googled them. So they had those chairs. But then these seats were upholstered in soft yellow ochre velvet, so really comfortable, and I think they just thought through how the space would be used. And then the sofa was the gorgeous kind of modular sofa, a take on the B&B Italia sofa by Mario Bellini. So that was quite gorgeous as well.

Speaker 1:

And they just put lots of textural cushions on top, not too much colour, but just enough. I love the way they use the colour quite subtly as well. But really what I love most was the way they use the textures, the texture of the marble itself, the texture of the velvet on the dining room chairs. They also had a gorgeous chair and a footstool in kind of a deep tweed. So all in natural, you know browns and taupes and white, but worked so well together because of the deep texture on that. The pendant above the dining table was a wicker pendant and it just had a huge circumference, worked really well above the colder feeling marble, but then with the texture of the wicker above it.

Speaker 1:

Also, what I really loved is how they just brought in more textural elements where they could. So in one of the bedrooms the lampshades were string woven around the shade frame itself. The bedrooms. They added some interesting side tables and they used a lot of natural wood. And you know it wasn't overdone. Just a simple two or four cushions on each bed, a few cushions on the sofa, but everything with a bit of texture and a little bit of subtle colour on the sofa, but everything with a bit of texture and a little bit of subtle colour. And also then just carrying that throughout the apartment so that it had the sense of continuity. So carrying similar colours, similar textures throughout the entire apartment, which, if you've been listening for a while, I'm always on about getting that cohesiveness through your home. And then even down to little things like the, the bench by the doorway that you'd sit on when you came in to take your shoes off. That was gorgeous as well. Again bringing in some natural wood, and then the top had this geometric pattern and it was all woven out of string, so again, very textural and just tactile, but also fitting in with the scheme really really well.

Speaker 1:

And then, something I really loved, which they added to one of my favorite features, which are those tall windows with these sheer floor to ceiling drapes, with these really tall ceilings. The drapes just added the layer of softness, but they were also practical. So when you wanted the those shutters and the doors or the windows open completely during the day, you could then move the shears according to where you wanted the those shutters and the doors or the windows open completely during the day, you could then move the shears according to where you wanted to block view for privacy, block view to filter light, that kind of thing. So the sheer drapes were really useful. Materials palette really really worked to make the space feel not only cohesive but also really calm, which was so nice to have on holiday in such a big busy city, because you come back and just feel really calm and relaxed in this space.

Speaker 1:

And then, finally, what I really loved about the interior of this apartment was the way they brought in little quirky details. So even though the apartment where the entrance door was, they'd painted angular beam of colour coming straight down from the ceiling all the way down to the floor, a kind of a 45 degree angle, and they'd used this kind of like sage green and it was just in that one area of the apartment was to like define the doorway, but the angle was just, you know, a little spin, a little bit more interesting. And then on just the colour part of that painted wall, they placed this shelf which was this really quirky piece. It was looking like a wave or like it was dripping and it was this kind of marbled blue effect, so all these blues. This tiny little shelf looked like it was dripping but it kind of moulded like it was dripping, but only placed within the colour part of that angled section of painted area. And it just kind of made you smile every time you came in because you looked around and everything was was very elegantly done with designer inspired pieces. But if you turn back round towards the door you'd see this beam of colour with this little quirky shelf. So I really loved how, how they did that in the apartment as well.

Speaker 1:

So in the living room, again very elegant. But the coffee table was this gorgeous, gorgeous circular table of solid stone which was kind of flecked and speckled with earth tones of browns and creams, but the feet of the coffee table were these spheres of solid wood. So that just added another kind of quirky view as he came into the apartment. And then I particularly loved one ceramic lamp that they had in the living area as well. The whole lamp was ceramic, so the base and the shade, and painted in these stripes of colour, but not too bright, but definitely brighter than anything else had been used in the apartment itself. So it really stood out. So just show that you can just use one or two really quirky, gorgeous pieces and if everything else is just beautiful and elegant still, you can still make it quirky and personality filled by just adding a couple of unusual elements to the room.

Speaker 1:

Another kind of quirky, offbeat thing that they did in this apartment was the way they hung the artwork. So I did do an episode about how to hang artwork and using artwork in your home not too long ago. I will link to that in the show notes. It was episode 57. So do go and check that one out if you want to learn more about artwork and hanging it in in an unusual way and using it in unusual ways in your home. You can check out that episode. But back to the apartment. So they hung the artwork kind of off center to most things. So at the back of the bed they'd hang an artwork off to the left or off to the right and not really line it up with anything which really catches your eye, because it's not how you would usually see artwork hung. So I really love that you kind of do a second take and it really draws your attention to the artwork as well. So I really loved how they did that, and again, just using very few pieces but to maximum effect, which of course when you're designing a rental is quite important.

Speaker 1:

And then, lastly, for this episode, everybody I wanted to quickly talk about the rooftop. So this was new to me. I did not really know that in cities like Barcelona so much happens on the rooftop. And we were so lucky in this apartment we had this gorgeous rooftop, this kind of outdoor rooftop area that was accessed by all the apartments in the building and it had a very small shallow pool like a splash pool, which was great when we were walking around the city all day with two kids and we just wanted to come and dunk ourselves into something cool. So that was absolutely amazing to have. But also just the way they did the rooftop again was just so much thought you could tell that they took, like they did with the open courtyard in the entrance they kind of took inspiration from the soho house hotels with the striped fabrics, the massive parasols, the mixture of the tile and the wood on the floors and different layers. So I really loved how they just thought to make that a really gorgeous space to also go and hang out in in the evenings when it got a bit cooler or when you just needed to go and cool off somewhere.

Speaker 1:

So I really loved the way they did that and they had some really lovely architectural shapes and little views and elements to work with as well. Some of the ceilings are part of the top of the building, were kind of angled. Some of them had those fluctuations of different diameters of the circles for ventilation so that it just was quite interesting to go up there. It wasn't just a flat rooftop, they really made an effort to kind of build parts of it up, angle parts of it, so architecturally it was interesting to look at. But then also they had decorated it really nicely, bringing in some of the elements they'd used in the interiors of the architecture, like wicker, the stripes, the materials. They'd used all of that into the furniture that they put up there as well the sunbeds and the parasols and the chairs and it really just carried it all the way through and made just for a really pleasant, calming stay. A really lovely experience to have the design just so well thought of and carried through, from when you very first walk into the building off of the street all the way through to the rooftop at the top when you wanted to go and relax up there, have a drink and dunk yourself in the pool because it was so hot.

Speaker 1:

And we did really have an enjoyable stay in this apartment. It's available on airbnb. Um, I'm not selling it, it's not my apartment, I'm just, um putting it out there that if you're interested, you can find it on Airbnb, and I guess I should give them a little plug, as I have used a lot of their design in this podcast episode. It really was a gorgeous stay, really centrally located as well. We threw ourselves completely into it. We were in a touristy area, we enjoyed all that it had to offer. We had everything on our doorstep and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and also in the gorgeous city of Barcelona. We packed it full. We did so much, and I hope that the episode inspires you to travel, to take design elements from wherever you may go in the world, bring them into your own home.

Speaker 1:

There's so much out there to enjoy and to bring home and to bring back into your own design, both for your own enjoyment but also for those memories. I always bring something small back for my home from my travels as well. I absolutely love doing that, so we can use our travels as inspiration for our own home design as well. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you did, give us a little comment, give us a review, send me an email. I love hearing from you all. So I hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to see you in the next episode. I'll see you there. Bye for now.

Speaker 1:

For more information on my five pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudiocom forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process, which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudiocom forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on planning permission. There is one on kitchen design. There is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your renovation.