Home tour: a 42 m² studio in Lisbon

Inês lives in 42 square metres on the top floor of an old building in Lisbon's Graça neighbourhood. There is one main room, a tiny kitchen, a sleeping loft and a balcony just big enough for two chairs. Nothing in it is expensive, and nothing is there by accident. She showed us how she makes a small home feel generous.

The living room

The main room does four jobs: living, dining, working and, when friends visit, sleeping. Inês solved it with furniture that moves. The sofa is on castors, the dining table folds against the wall, and two stools live under the desk.

The walls are white, the floor is the original pine painted a soft grey, and the colour comes from plants and textiles. "I can change a cushion in a minute," she says. "I cannot change a wall every summer."

A small home has to be tidy to be beautiful. So I own less, and I own things I like to put away.

Inês

The kitchen

The kitchen is 1.8 metres long. It has a two-ring hob, a small oven and open shelves instead of wall cupboards, which makes it look wider. Inês keeps one good pan, one pot and one knife, and she cooks for six in it.

The desk corner

The desk is a single oak board on two brackets, under the window. When she stops working, the laptop goes in a drawer and the desk becomes a shelf for flowers and post.

The sleeping loft

The ceiling is high enough for a platform over the bathroom and the entrance. The loft holds a mattress, two small shelves and a reading light, and nothing else. A white curtain closes it off from the main room when she has guests.

The balcony

The balcony is 80 centimetres deep. It holds two folding chairs, a small table and eleven pots: lemon verbena, basil, rosemary, geraniums and a small olive tree that she brought home on the tram.

How she makes it work

• Everything has a place. If something has no place, it does not come in.
• Furniture on castors or legs. Seeing floor under things makes a room feel bigger.
• One colour on the walls, many in the textiles. It is cheap and quick to change.
• Light at eye level. Three lamps instead of one ceiling light, so the corners are warm too.
• Plants, lots of them. They cost little and make a small room feel alive.

What it cost

Inês rents, so she did not change the walls or floors beyond paint. Her furniture, lamps and textiles cost about €6,500 over five years, most of it second-hand.

The entrance

The front door opens straight into the main room, so Inês made a small entrance with no walls at all: a round jute mat, three hooks, a narrow shelf for keys and a tall plant that screens the view of the sofa. It is only a metre square, but it tells guests where the outside ends.

Colour

The palette is light and warm, chosen to make the most of the Lisbon sun, which pours in all afternoon.

• #F3EEE6 Chalk — every wall
• #B7B1A7 Pebble — the painted floor
• #C9774F Terracotta — cushions, pots and a woven basket
• #7F9670 Olive — the plants, and one armchair cover

The bathroom

The bathroom is tiny, with a shower, a basin and a toilet. She tiled it in plain white squares, added a round mirror and a wooden stool for towels, and hung a small plant from the ceiling, where the steam keeps it happy.

What she would never give up

"The plants and the light," she says, without thinking. "Everything else could go tomorrow. But a small home without plants is a box, and a small home with only a ceiling light is a waiting room." She points at the three lamps: one on the floor by the sofa, one on the desk, one clipped to the loft. At dusk they come on one by one, and the room gets bigger.