During his days as a bachelor, Christian Schallert lived in a 258 square foot apartment that looked like an empty cube. That, however, would all change when it came time to cook, get dressed, sleep or eat.
The furniture and functional pieces in his home were carefully crafted by him so they could fit in his tiny space and be hidden, folded or rolled away until it was time for him to use them.
The improvements he made were drastic, to say the least. Here’s what his Barcelona apartment, located in its hip Born district, looked like before his renovation:
“My mother was like, ‘Oh my God Christian what did you do we’re still not there yet,’ ” he explains after she climbed the 100 steps to his fifth floor apartment. “Then we entered the apartment it looked completely different. It looked really dark. There was an old mattress and my mom was like ‘This is crazy Christian what are you going to do with it.'”
Well, he ended up doing quite a bit with it actually.
He enlisted the help of architect Barbara Appolloni who designed the space according to his inspiration from space-saving furniture on boats and tiny Japanese homes. Though he made sacrifices in space, he didn’t have to sacrifice on functionality.
“It’s actually something you come in and you don’t realize what’s all hidden in the wall,” Schallert explains. “It’s full of surprises.”
He has a wooden panel hood that lifts up to reveal a sink, stove, microwave, refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, and cabinetry where he can store food as well as pots, pans, and dishware.
To the right side of his “kitchen” includes storage space for his clothes, a mirror, and sports equipment. He also has a glass cube which serves as his showers. The bathroom is hidden away and is the size of a closet, but it fits a toilet perfectly and has shelves for magazines for your bathroom reading pleasure.
His couch also doubles as a bed and just rolls out from underneath the balcony.
The steps that lead to the balcony also serve as nightstands and his television swings out from the wall.
“It’s like a Legos for adults,” one of his friends explains.
When it is time to eat, a plank comes out from the wall and is propped up onto a flower-stand. His couch doubles as a bench. Schallert says he’s had up to 40 people in his apartment at once.
And refers to his apartment as his “action home” since he’s always moving something around which he says gives him exercise.
“I thought I can definitely live in something like this,” he says. “At the end of the day, what do you need for living? You need a nice comfortable mattress, anice clean sheets, running water, a shower, and a stove to cook something. That’s actually what you need, you don’t need much more stuff.”
You can watch the tour of Schallert’s active apartment in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
