A Designer Turned Her Historic Spanish Apartment into a Warm, Personal Family Home
Before designer Marta Fernandez, of Nogales Interiores, and her family of four moved into this 625-square-foot apartment in València, Spain’s Ruzafa neighborhood, she described it as a “typical” early-20th-century apartment. “It had its original layout, timeworn finishes, and all the charm of a historic building that had remained largely untouched for decades,” she writes.
To make the home work for herself and her family, they custom designed every inch, including reworking the layout, which put the primary bedroom on top of a mezzanine overlooking the terrace — what Marta calls a “peaceful retreat elevated above it all, designed for rest.” The children have a cozy bathroom tucked between their bedrooms, giving them a space of their own in the small home. And in the center of the home sits the kitchen.
“The true heart of the home,” Marta calls the kitchen. “It’s where everything happens, where the family comes together, where life unfolds. The apartment may be modest in square footage, but it’s generous in every other way.”
Having lived in the 100-year-old home for a year now, Marta describes its style as a “warm, deeply personal home full of life,” explaining that their renovation “honored the building’s original character — white-painted exposed brick, wooden beams — while transforming it into a contemporary space rich with personality. Books, art, treasured objects, and natural materials coexist effortlessly, making the home feel genuinely lived-in and entirely one-of-a-kind. Mediterranean in its light, timeless in its aesthetic.”
This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity. This submission’s responses were translated from Spanish to English.
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