Playful Apartment in Born, Barcelona by CaSA

Storage may be the greatest puzzle of modern living—and wardrobe storage may be the most mysterious apartment conundrum of all. According to Google Trends, queries like ‘wardrobe storage ideas’ and ‘shoe cupboard’ are on the rise in Australia each year. And, I for one, feel a part of this search data. I have shoe boxes stacked high in our linen cupboard and a (sort of styled) pile near the bedroom door, preventing it from fully opening. Help, please.

Colombo and Serboli Architecture (CaSA)’s recent apartment refurbishment in Barcelona could be filed under ‘storage porn’. It’s a playful modification to a 65sqm flat set within a historic 13th-century building in El Born. The client, a fashion professional, wanted a wardrobe solution for clothes, shoes, accessories, sports equipment, and more. CaSA’s idea was to reinvent the original layout and create a bespoke storage unit that doubles as a dividing wall, a walk-in wardrobe, and a bedroom door.

The royal blue floor-to-ceiling cabinetry is an unfilled, made-to-measure void of sweet storage possibility. A grand 2.5m high cutout doorway in soft pink connects the living area to the entrance while hiding closet doors on both sides. Light from the living room and two huge balcony windows floods in through a wide 1.2m deep opening.

The rest of the refurbishment follows a similarly charming, clever thread. Once dark and pokey, fabricated ceilings were removed to expose the original 4m high Catalan vaults and wooden beamed ceilings. These were painted white to turn up the brightness. All walls were demolished save for one thick structural wall around the bedroom.

Beside the open kitchen is a coral coloured curved volume, which houses a neat sized guest bathroom. “We opted for an arc shape, that while almost touching the wooden beamed ceilings, it enhances and preserves the full room height,” CaSA explains. Both the main and guest bathrooms are clad in dreamy pink tiles, and countertops throughout are a pink terrazzo-like quartz.