Exploring Barcelona’s Design Trend Swings

When people think of the great, stylish, and idyllic cities of the world, Barcelona invariably comes into the conversation. Perfectly situated on the Catalonian north-eastern coastline, it’s a huge core city that expands and sprawls out to forge one of the most populated urban areas of Europe. Barcelona boasts a distinct mix of architecture and culture, spanning from its founding by the Romans to its own play on the Art Nouveau movement.

From the late 1800s to 1950, modernista architecture took over, creating a whole host of buildings that are now listed as World Heritage Sites. You could look at the yet-unfinished Sagrada Família, the Barcelona Pavilion, Hospital de Sant Pau, Park Güell, and Palau Güell among the many marvels dotted around the city. In amongst these are several superb buildings in their own right that serve as home to the people of Barcelona.

The city is loaded with flats, which themselves require a somewhat distinct approach to interior design. Space is usually limited and each room needs to be maximised for space, utility, and comfort. This, along with the cultural influences of the city, has led to iconic trends in interior design and some newer, perhaps even unexpected swings to different styles in recent years.

So, for anyone looking to move out to the iconic Spanish city or want a Catalonian twist on their interior design, we’re here to delve into the city, its fascination with flats, and the design trends sweeping the city.

Embracing Building Upwards in Barcelona

Housing in Barcelona is dominated by flats. It’s what you’d expect from a sprawling urban area, but in Spain, flats winning over houses is the status quo. More so than in any other country in Europe, Spain sides with flats over houses. In fact, two out of three people live in flats. Only Latvia beats Spain in this regard. Citing Eurostat, BBC relays that only 15 per cent of people in the UK live in flats.

The cause, for the most part, is the cost of houses in Spain and their proximity to cities. Cities and large towns are central to work with less in between in the much more rural areas – as could be expected from such a vast country with so much hilly, steep, and arid terrain. Anyone who wants to enjoy the benefits of a city like Barcelona tends to need to get themselves in a flat within the urban area.

Even with this being the case, Barcelona has become a hotspot for the wealthy folk of the world. Right on the sea, there’s a marina fit for superyachts, luxury flats. Penthouses are becoming more and more prevalent, and there are Michelin-starred restaurants all over the place. It’s an idyllic and historic city, but importantly, it maintains its very laid-back culture, making it perfect for those who need the city for work and to just enjoy life.

People from all over the world are flocking to Barcelona, snapping up flats wherever they can. They know that they can flip relatively cheap space for big money by applying some expert interior design techniques Five-bedroom flats with a sleek, white, modernist design in the Paseo de Gracia area can sell for seven figures, for example. Of course, to do this and any major interior design projects, you will need to get a flat.

However, there is somewhat of a scarcity of flats for sale in Barcelona. Grans tenidors – those with ten or more properties – possess over 36 per cent of all properties in Barcelona. Still, flats do come up for sale, getting funnelled through and posted by companies like Loca Barcelona which offer specialist real-estate services. On any given day, you’ll find 20 flats or more for sale, ranging from single-bedroom flats for €90,000 (£76,000 +) to the much larger third-floor flats with four bedrooms for €860,000 (£735,000 +) and up.

A Great City To Inspire Interior Design

As Vox explains, the Roman Empire has a huge place in the history of Barcelona, but what characterises the city is its regular swings of rebirth and transformation throughout history. Looking around the city, you can see architectural masterpieces that capture these swings to create a truly unique and varied aesthetic. Barcelona’s interior design trends also transform regularly, blazing their own path.

One of the most recent interior design trends to wash across the city, propelled by younger segments of the flat-owning population, was that of maximising the use of large spaces. Naturally, this lent the Scandinavian minimalist design to this trend. Embracing natural colours, white walls to make spaces look larger, and clean-cut furniture all contribute to making a flat feel so much bigger.

This is in quite stark contrast to the more commonplace Barcelona interior design trend, though. For the most part, floors are made more exciting. Materials featuring different colours and tones have long been preferred, which is why granite is a popular pick. For furniture and living spaces, a preference goes to subtle colours and rounded shapes, but also with an eye on ensuring that there is space for manoeuvre.

There’s nothing quite like getting your own flat and redesigning it in the great city of Barcelona, but if that’s out of the question, you could always make your flat feel a bit more like you’re living it up in Cataluña.