This apartment in Barcelona proves industrial can also be inviting and exciting

PROPERTY

A first-floor apartment in Barcelona. The modern home comprises of a living room, kitchen-diner, master bedroom suite – including a living area and office – guest bedroom suite and a terrace, which has both living and dining areas.

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LIVING ROOM

This first-floor principal apartment sits in a historic building, with high ceilings, spacious rooms and a roof terrace. A former solicitor’s office, it had already been stripped bare before it was sold.There was nothing to be salvaged – everything had been ripped out, including the walls. It was devoid of original features and with suspended ceilings and strip lighting, there was complete free reign for a new design.

In the living room, a vaulted ceiling of Catalan brickwork contrasts with the rich pink elegance of the décor, where 1970s chairs reupholstered in soft suede splay brass legs across vivid red- veined rugs (pictured above).

White walls are offset with throbbing pink upholstery and red lines that snake like veins and capillaries across the rug.

DINING AREA

Despite the apartment’s classic proportions, a pared-back, industrial look was created for the space. To achieve this vision, Jaime Beriestain was commissioned – founder of an eponymous concept store and interior design business in Barcelona.

Jaime looked at the brief – concrete floors, exposed brick, factory lighting – and took it to a completely new level.

When the office panelling was removed from the walls, peeling paintwork was revealed, which Jaime preserved to create a raw patina. Air-conditioning and heating pipes made from copper became a design feature. Similarly, rather than channelling the new wiring into the walls, an electrical grid of fabric-wrapped power lines joins plug sockets and light fittings. It’s as if the apartment’s nerves and blood vessels are revealed, a stylistic life force that pulses through and connects the rooms.

The grey-painted walls in the dining room actually consist of three different colours, to create a distressed look.

Exposed wiring and industrial fittings ramp up the rough-luxe factor.

KITCHEN

At the dark heart is the black kitchen, a brooding space leavened only by a trio of white pendants and a touch of wood. It doesn’t get much light, so it was purposefully made even darker.

The bespoke kitchen features a huge slab of black granite work surface with a tactile brushed finish. Just as dark are the walls, units and painted brickwork.

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SECOND LIVING AREA

Two separate living rooms were created, so there is space to retreat to even when guests are staying.

MASTER BEDROOM

Contrasts rule in the master bedroom, with inky furnishings set against white-painted walls, a monochrome artwork and a space-age Sputnik light vying for attention with industrial piping.

MASTER ENSUITE

The master bathroom is a steampunk mash-up of vintage plumbing, valves and piping with contemporary art.

GUEST BEDROOM

A dangling light and lengths of exposed cable emphasise the height of the ceiling, but the row of artwork above the bed brings the room back down to scale.

See more of Jaime Beriestain’s work at beriestain.com

Photography ⁄ Manolo Yllera

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