Sorry, I think you need to add where the water is coming in to the room and the bathroom is.

On the alcove bed-that's going to be super hard to make-are you sure you wouldn't be happier with a Murphy bed that you can reach from three sides and then fold up out-of-the-way?

Practical...where the water is coming in? Do you mean where water connections are? They can go anywhere, since it's not yet built and the builder says I can do whatever I want inside the footprint. As the builder has it planned, (and the rental version is) however the kitchen is the narrower leg that sticks out in front.. One bathroom is the place where I plan to have the bed alcove. The other is where the window is in the middle of the side on the bottom now.

I've attached a sketch of how I have it planned now. Was rather hoping to get a completely fresh perspective, so didn't post it before.

As for the bed alcove, I have thought long and hard about the bed alcove. Well, more precisely I've always loved them and when I started to plan this, realized its perfect for one. I'm the type who doesn't really use any part of my bedroom except the bed, a place to put my book, my glasses and a drink of water and a reading light. I plan to have built ins at the head of the bed for them. Really, to me the Murphy bed seems a much bigger hassle...open and close it every day. In this case, all I'll have to do is close the folding doors and bed, comforter, etc. disappears. The bonus is that there's a window that will look out to the sea.

Thanks for looking at it and giving me your thoughts.

Will your bed alcove include clothing storage? Where will you keep jackets, umbrellas, etc? Cleaning supplies?

No, clothing storage will go in the bathing/dressing area. In my current plan, there's one long wall for a closet system. My plan for cleaning supplies is to use one (of the tall shallow cabinets in the kitchen. Believe it or not, few Spanish apartments have a designated spot for such supplies In most cases, brooms, vacuum cleaners, ironing boards all seem to get shoved into bedroom closets along with clothing and/or left out on terraces or patios. Of course, it's only fairly recently that Spanish builders have started putting in built-in closets. Most older places simply have armoires.

So to summarize:

Flexibility:

• Water can go anywhere
• Support pillars cannot move
• Windows can only move slightly
• What about the pony wall (half wall) - can it become a full-height wall or be removed?
• Can walls be added, if needed to provide more wall space? I know you want an open plan, but it may be necessary to accommodate a wall oven - not sure, but it's something that might come up. (Wall ovens installed under the counter are much closer to the wall than ovens in ranges - so unless you are very short, I would not recommend one, especially if it will be your only oven. The other option is a full range - at least the oven won't be so low.)

Bathroom area:

• Sink
• Shower
• Japanese Tub
• Closet
• Linen & other bathroom storage
• Dresser/Clothes chest space?
• Toilet
• Second Sink (to create a Powder Room within the Bathroom)

Bedroom area:

• Bed - what size? Full? Queen? King?
• Landing space for book, glasses, small light, glass of water - all in a built in so the bed will be longer than normal (unless you plan to recess the built ins into the wall - but it's an exterior wall, so you will be limited in what you can do)

Kitchen:

• Standard DW (24" = 60.96 cm, so 61 cm? or is it 60cm?)
• Wall Oven - single or double? - 60cm (23.6", so ~24")
• Cooktop - 60cm
• Refrigerator - 80cm (32")
• Sink - what size? 60cm? 76cm (30")? 80cm?
• What about a Microwave? Countertop? MW drawer?
• What about food storage - do you need a shallow pantry or cabinets?

Laundry (Possibly in the Kitchen area)

• Washing Machine - what size?
• What about a Dryer?

Dining Room:

• Table
• Chairs - how many? (Determines the table size)
• Banquette is OK (you have one in your proposed plan)

Living Room:

• Large TV
• Furniture

Anything else?

Buehl, you are a wonder of organization! Answers/summary below.

Flexibility:

• Water can go anywhere.
• ·
  Support pillars cannot move
• ·
  Windows can only move slightly, can also be enlarged or shrunk. Builders’ original calls for one sliding glass door to terrace of 1.4 meters and another of
  2 meters. He has OK'd expanding them to 2.4 meters each and substituting accordion doors, like
  these: https:// www.pinterest.com/pin/480970435185540112/

• · Any interior wall can be added or removed.

·
Bathroom area:

• ·
  Sink
• ·
  Shower
• ·
  Japanese Tub

·
Closet. Would like a long wall system incorporating drawer space. I’ll need about 125 linear cm.
of double stacked hanging space, plus about 30 cm. of space for longer items. Plus a modest mount of drawer space...and as much shoe space as possible·

• · Toilet.
• Second Sink (to create a Powder Room within the
  Bathroom)
• ·
  Washing
  machine. II've found it to be very convenient here in the past. Standard - 60 cm. wide, front-loader, under
  the counter. No dryer…very few of them in so. Spain. We use the sun!
• ·
  Linen & other bathroom storage. Don’t
  need much. Above the washing machine?

Bedroom area:

• ·
  Bed – European
  full. It just fits in that alcove area
  with about 25 cm. to spare in both length and width.

• ·
  Landing space for book, glasses, small light,
  glass of water - I’ve been thinking of
  using this Ikea headboard https://www.pinterest.com/pin/480970435186164417/   to accommodate this.

Kitchen:

• Standard DW 60cm

• ·
  Wall Oven - single
  - 60cm

• ·
  Cooktop - 60cm

• ·
  Refrigerator - 80cm (32"). I’d
  rather have an American style of 32”, but I can go with a 60 cm. wide, but tall European model.

• ·
  Sink – 76-80
  cm.

• · Microwave? Anything BUT a countertop.

• · Food storage Need some, A tall shallow pantry 40cm. wide or the
  equivalent would be more than enough. I can always use the adjacent apartment kitchen if i need more for guests.

Dining Room:

• ·
  Table. First choice : Table for four that
  opens to seat 6, preferably 8.
  Then it’s the right size to play bridge at, too! One that seats 6 and opens to seat 8 is fine.
• ·
  Banquette is more than OK. I love them.

Living Room:

• ·
  Large TV.
  I’d like one on a wall
  somewhere, but may have to settle for a smallish one, (maybe hanging from ceiling in bedroom alcove?) if I can't figure out wall space for it. (Would rather have windows and views). Again..if needed for guests, we can use the 52-incher in the next door apartment.
• ·
  Furniture.
  None at present…so flexible. Want seating space for at least four: two loveseats? Sofa and chair? There’s a reasonably sized terrace just
  outside the glass doors and a huge roof terrace. Most entertaining here is done
  outdoors.

Anything
else.

• ·
  Small desk
  area, if possible, but it’s not critical. I frequently work on my laptop on a sofa, at
  the dining table or outside anyway.
• ·
  A few
  bookshelves. Perhaps built-ins, high up
  on a wall?

Thanks!

I think this is a good example of a muphy bed for your space. You can see it has a large framed mirror. If positioned well, a Murphy bed in your space with a large framed mirror would reflect your ocean view so you could probably see it from all points in your living space.

Muphy bed is the mirror on right side of photo:

Hi Benjesbride: Yes, I know leaning over (well in the case of a double or larger bed, it's really crawling over) is a pain. But I've been doing it a long time, as my bed has frequently been up against a wall on at least two sides. I can live with it. And the truth is, I'm a bed slob. My bed is "made" only when I change the sheets. The rest of the time, the most I might do is give a light toss to the duvet (I also have long used them with covers and no top sheet). I LOVE the idea of being able to simply close the shutters/doors and poof...tidy room again!

Okay... One more argument for a muphy bed. Well, two. A) instead of closing doors on an alcove, you just flip it into the wall; just as easy B) if the view is important, you're killing a good portion of it and natural light by closing up that part of the apartment and the window there. Is there not a view out that alcove window?

BB: That's a great looking murphy bed though!

Yes, there is a view out that window, (another reason I like the alcove bed in there...I can wake up in the AM and look out the window at the foot of my bed to the sea. But note that there are two big glass door thingies to the terrace right next to it, so I'm not really cutting off much light or view to the main part of the apartment. And, I can see, I'm going to have to come clean here and confess that I am not only a bed slob, i am a bed slug It is not all that unusual for me to crawl back into bed after getting up in the AM, for a nap. Or to spend a more-than-reasonable part of my day, still in my PJs lolling in bed, reading, working on the computer, etc. I know myself well enough to know that if I had a Murphy bed, it would be open WAY too often and the entire apartment would look like a disheveled bedroom!

OOOhhhh, ooohhh, extraneous item....I just saw two "ultralight" aircraft fly by over the beach. People sitting in some kind of chair hanging from a large parachute/kite thing, powered by some kind of small motor! Really cool!

Gotcha ;-)

Wonder if you could somehow put your bed on rails, like drawer ones, to pull it out of the alcove? Make it easier to change sheets? And you could create some sort of storage under there for seasonal, infrequently used stuff. Like you pull the bed out and underneath have sliding drawers, like the bench coffin ones. Would eliminate the pain of the bed making, and create storage, and be a selling point for resale.

i have no idea if something like that exists.

Have you looked at the "Small Cool" contest submissions at ApartmentTherapy.com? There is a lot of inspiration there for small spaces. The photo above was from a winning space a few years ago.

Found this really cool idea. It's a pull out bed under a platform. I know you love your nook, and I don't know how tall your ceilings are, but this is a neat idea for tight spaces. And I don't think that making your bed is important with this one. :-)

whats neat is you could make a cozy daytime nook in there on the platform above your bed.

Pull out bed under platform.

Thanks for the ideas about the beds, guys. As I said in response to Benjiesbride above, though, a slide away or fold away bed isn't gonna work for me. I'm too much of a bed slob/bed slug. The idea about storage under it, is however, great. Definitely going to look into ways to maximize that. Anyone bought one of those beds that has a pneumatic lift mechanism for the platform? My son in the Marine's has one in his barracks...seems like a great place to put long/bulky stuff that you need infrequently or out of season clothing., etc.

Any thoughts on kitchen/bath layouts. Or maybe a whole new layout for the place? I've been trying swapping out kitchen and bathroom spots, but so far haven't figured out anything better...

I just want to make sure I understand the drawing of the bathroom. If you leave the bathroom door open you would be staring directly at the toilet-correct? Personally, when there is only one bathroom I like to have the toilet in a separate room from the bath shower and sink area so that someone can always go to the bathroom while the other person is using the sink, bath or shower.

In the kitchen the sink is on a peninsula and that peninsula seems to have an L on the other side of the sink area and I'm not quite clear on the use of the space on the other side-are those cabinets or is there an overhang for people to sit at?

I think that Meris's suggestion that the bed go on some kind of wheel or rail is a fabulous idea especially if you could get it so that you had long drawers underneath that could easily be pulled out and used as drawers. And also if you wanted to make the bed you could just pull the whole bed forward (leaving the drawers behind), remake it and slide it back into place that would definitely make your life a lot easier.

I also love Benjibride suggestion of that giant mirror. I would probably put a mirror on one large wall that doesn't catch the sun most of the year.

Do you have a lot of artworks or books that you're trying to include in the space?

Hi Practical: Sorry the sketches were confusing. First, if the door to the bathroom is open, yes, unfortunately, you will see the toilet. BUT, I don't expect that door to EVER be open. I'm looking at doing a pocket door (or possibly some kind of barn door IF I can figure out a way to soundproof it. That triangular area, with toilet and sink is separated from the dressing/bathing area by another sliding door. The hope is that then it can do double service as the water closet for me and as a powder room for anyone visiting, At my age, it's highly unlikely that I'll be sharing the bathroom with anyone! Any stay-over guests will be in the adjacent unit, where they'll have their own two bathrooms.

The L you see on the other side of the peninsula is a built-in banquette for a dining table there. Of course, it doesn't have to be there. In fact, virtually nothing (except maybe that alcove bed!) has to be where I've got it now. That was just the best plan I could come up with..

I do think a huge mirror is a great idea. One thing I'm exploring is finding a giant one to hang on barn-door hardware and use it for the door to the powder room/bathroom. (Again if I can find a way to soundproof it). At the very least, I'm thinking of a mirrored panel door there, perhaps flanked on one or both sides by "mock" doors that are mirrored as well, so that a lot of that angled wall will reflect the outside view.

Thanks for your thoughts! Keep 'em coming!

Did you try something like this? Squares are 50x50 cm.

The kitchen is smaller and the corner is void.

I'm accustomed to the metric system and tried to decipher the measurements as close as possible. But, if you give some measurements in inches I think you may get a lot more ideas.

Wow Sena, thanks! That solves the problem of the TV and it feels considerably more spacious. I like it! One thing, I'm not clear on...what's going on in the wall opposite the toilet...linen closet/storage?

It's really helpful to see it laid out this way. I don't have one of those programs ...maybe I should get one? Know of one that works with a mac?

I'll try posting another layout with dimensions in inches asap.

what's going on in the wall opposite the toilet...linen closet/storage?

Yes, I think you can fit a tiny closet there, but I'm no expert.

Here's a plan written in inches. They are approximate, (very close) because it's nuts to try to do a plan with inches in decimal points. I think they're close enough to work with, using a standard US 24" appliance size (for washers, dishwashers AND ovens and cooktops) to substitute for the European 60 cm. size.

Thought you might also want to see the view! They started excavation last Friday!

Wow, great view!

This is the program I'm using. I don't have Mac, but I understand this and the other programs they have run under Mac, as well.

If you look under the Products you can also find a free trial version.

Holy cow!

I got your message and I'll try to send you the file, but you'll have to enable others to send you messages (go to Edit Profile, choose Advanced Settings then choose "Allow anyone to message me" under "Who can message me")

Edit: Sorry looks like I can send you a reply but not sure I can add an attachment.