The Madrid home of Enric Pastor is a lesson in Nordic minimalism

I am writing these lines as the last details of our new house are being finalised. A year ago the house underwent a set of somewhat drastic changes—partitions were demolished, wooden floors were sanded, and polished materials were installed. We chose a comfortable, simple sofa, changed the paint on the walls, updated the kitchen and bathrooms in a minimalist way, added bookcases, and renewed every last door handle. Now, after living in, and experiencing our home so in tensely over these last few months of confinement, we are happy to see that we made the right decisions.

This HAY ‘Mags’ sofa from Domesticoshop is paired with a Berber white carpet and a coffee table from Habitat. Behind, a ‘Paper Floor Lamp’ by Studio Job and a wooden table, both by Moooi, sit with Vitra ‘Standard’ chairs by Jean Prouvé

The living room in anthracite grey features custom-made sofas, Jonathan Adler cushions, Zara Home terrazzo tables, a Vitra ‘Plywood’ chair by the Eames and an Esther Partegàs artwork.

I always admired interior designers and architects for their agility in making decisions that affect how we live; there is a lot of excitement when it comes to the work of home renovation, but also stress and uncertainty. (I admit to having sleepless nights caused by the measurements of the doors and the tones of the matt varnish on the floor.) Madrid-based Cano Estudio helped us by transforming our ideas into spaces, and contributing with theirs when we didn't have any.

The artwork by the dining table is by Marcel Dzama and the ceiling lamp is a Serge Mouille design. The cube in Neolith's ‘Retrostone’ next to the dining room serves as an island in the ‘Serie 45’ kitchen by Dica, in the same grey colour as the walls. The ‘Ypperlig’ vases on the dining table are from the IKEA x HAY collection.

The artwork by the dining table is by Marcel Dzama and the ceiling lamp is a Serge Mouille design. The cube in Neolith's ‘Retrostone’ next to the dining room serves as an island in the ‘Serie 45’ kitchen by Dica, in the same grey colour as the walls. The ‘Ypperlig’ vases on the dining table are from the IKEA x HAY collection.

The bedroom has curtains that run along the wall and the headboard. It is decorated with Jaime Hayon's ‘Formakami JH5’ paper lamp from &Tradition; a bed from Treca, Paris covered in a HAY quilt; ‘Cuatro’ small tables from Punt and ‘Funiculí’ lamps from Marset.

In the bathroom, dressed in Neolith ‘Retrostone’, a House Doctor mirror and vintage 1970s sconces are paired with a custom-made wash basin

My friends think that I have it easy. Yes, working at AD opens your eyes to the latest in decoration, but you can easily end up overwhelmed by too much information, and opt for something classic and elegant instead of being adventurous. I’m hopeful that this was not the case with us. Inspired by the new Nordic minimalism (grey tones, beige with black, light woods, simple and soft furniture, colour flashes), what we carried out in this house was a decorative experiment. The late Andrée Putman taught us to appreciate spaces of a radical, Cistercian, timeless simplicity. To this great French lady we owe the attempt to turn our house into one of her interiors: very high ceilings, generous baseboards and a contained but theatrical use of colour. Thank you, muse!

More than in square metres, a flat should be measured in calories. If the popular saying that happiness is fattening is true, good decoration, a studied distribution, an extra-large sofa or a large-format work of art can make you go up in size in a few weeks. That's why my diet is aesthetic, decorative.

Those of us who work in the interior design sector must have a certain discipline, restraint, a sense of abstinence. This begins with not taking your work home with you, and not suffering from the ‘I want to put everything in’ syndrome, so that your interiors end up being a baseless pastiche, the result of sudden impulses or the latest fashions. Restraint means something else. It reflects a new way of living that is more nomadic, flexible, and used to moving houses, or changing the decor. (My parents have moved only twice in their lives; I have already moved seven times.)

At the back is a drawing by artist Elena Alonso (left) and a large-format acrylic-on-paper work by Pedro Luis Cembranos. Jaime Hayon's ‘Palette’ table from &Tradition accompanies the HAY sofa

On the far end are a Serge Mouille wall lamp, Mathieu Matégot's ‘Demon’ shelf from Gubi, and Cees Braakman's ‘FM03’ seats from Pastoe. In the foreground, on the right, is Oskar Zieta's Plopp aluminium stool.

A closer look at the kitchen island covered in ‘Retrostone’ from Neolith— lemons from a friend's terrace sit on a Jasper Morrison ‘High Tray’ for Vitra, next to a vintage Fornasetti ashtray

That's why you won't see wasted corners, unnecessary corridors or tiny wardrobes in our space. This house is like an inhabitable Tetris grid where everything is tailor-made for us—although sometimes we do feel the sudden urge to readjust our lives and change the decor. The Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi once said: "The purpose of a house is to provide a good and comfortable life. It would be a mistake to place too much value on an exclusively decorative result." I agree.

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