The day area open to the sea through the glazed terrace, the bedrooms on the inner side, and a palette of whites, marble and natural timber with black accents. A penthouse with 209 m² of built area in a 1988 frontline building on Paseo Marítimo Rey de España came to us with its original layout and services. The brief was a full renovation in Fuengirola with our own interior design: reorganise the floor plan towards the sea, renew everything you don’t see and decide every finish. The works were tendered on a blind bill of quantities and carried out between June 2022 and January 2023.
The brief: changing the layout without touching the structure
The building dates from 1988 and the apartment came with its original layout and services. The first decision concerned the floor plan: open the day area — living room, dining room and kitchen — to the sea through the glazed terrace, and keep the bedrooms and service areas on the inner side. Everything else in the project is organised around that decision.
The scope was entirely interior: layout, services, finishes and interior design, with no structural work. That allowed the project to be processed in Fuengirola as minor works, through a declaración responsable de obras tipo B (a self-certified notice for type B works) and without compulsory endorsement by the College of Architects (visado colegial), supported by our own photographic record and drawings. It was filed on the electronic register on 24 May 2022, a correction was submitted on 8 June after a call from the Town Hall, and the municipal construction tax (ICIO) was paid. That is the entire paper trail for works of this kind.
Blind bill of quantities and tender
Before asking for quotes we prepared the blind bill of quantities: our own document, trade by trade, with the quantities filled in and left unpriced. It is more work on our side. It is also the only way to genuinely compare two quotes, rather than two different ways of describing the same job.
The comparison opened on 6 March 2022 and closed on 13 May with the final tender comparisons. On 16 May the building contractor was chosen — Herguicons, S.L., of Los Boliches; on the 30th the contract went out for signature, and work started on 1 June. On timing, it pays to be honest: the declaración responsable stated three months, from 1 May to 1 August 2022. What actually happened was four monthly valuations between June and September 2022 and the finishing work in January 2023. Between seven and eight months. That is the figure to plan around.
What the demolition revealed
By 22 June the demolition was complete, and with it came the usual finding: the façade had no insulation, only an air cavity. In our site report of 21 June we proposed an internal plasterboard lining with 3 cm of insulation; by July the material was already stored on site. In a 1988 seafront building, this is more the rule than the exception.
The same week revealed three other issues. The marble around the window openings was in poor condition and a quote was requested to replace it. The drainage pipework ran alongside the master bedroom and the living room, so acoustic insulation was recommended. And the 140 and 120 cm sliding leaves of the Cortizo aluminium windows were too slender to guarantee smooth sliding, so we proposed switching them to tilt-and-turn. The ceiling heights were also tight. Between air-conditioning ducts and downpipes, the aim was to keep 2.40 m of clear height.
One decision sums up our approach. After the demolition, the master bedroom doorway would take no more than 72 cm, compared with 82 cm in the rest of the home. Rather than leave one door narrower than the others, we proposed removing it: the bedroom was already screened by the corridor door and had its own bathroom. One door fewer, and no odd door out.
Materials, finishes and result
We handled the interior design ourselves, with a materials dossier dated 10 January 2022 and a revised proposal on the 21st. Porcelanosa porcelain tiles in 120×120 cm for the floors, Farrow & Ball paints and wallpapers (Pavilion Gray 242, Plummett 272, Ammonite 274, Wevet 273, Strong White 2001), timber mouldings and panelling in the bedrooms, marble cladding, Gira switches and sockets, Olivari door handles, lighting by Faro Barcelona and Bover, and a Schmidt kitchen set out on site in July. Underneath, what you don’t see: underfloor heating and renewed services.
An example of why interior design is finalised on site and not in the dossier: the porcelain tile chosen for the bedrooms, Core Sand Nature, was discontinued midway through the project. Instead of reopening the palette, we proposed Solid-ker Adda Sand in the same 120×120 format, from the same series as the Adda Bone already chosen for the living room, which had no supply problems. Same family, same order, schedule intact.
The last site visits were on 4 and 12 January 2023, with lamps and curtains as the only decision outstanding. The home was photographed finished and unfurnished on 24 January 2023, and fully furnished on 27 April. The final palette — whites, marble, natural timber and black accents — is the one you see in the images.
Gallery
Project data
- Typology: Full renovation with interior design of a home (penthouse) in a 1988 residential building
- Use: Residential · home
- Location: Paseo Marítimo Rey de España nº 3, Fuengirola (Málaga, Costa del Sol)
- Units: 1 home
- Programme: Entrance hall, hallway, open-plan living-dining room, kitchen with island, three bedrooms (the master with walk-in wardrobe and en-suite bathroom), two bathrooms, guest WC, utility room, storeroom and two terraces, one of them glazed with panoramic sea views
- Design year: 2021-2022
- Construction year: 2022-2023
- Status: Built and completed
- Built area: 209 m² (cadastral record; building dated 1988)
- Permitting: Declaración responsable for type B works, Fuengirola Town Hall, 17 May 2022, without compulsory endorsement by the College of Architects
- Client: Private client, sole developer of their own home
- Building contractor: Herguicons, S.L. (Fuengirola)
- Site management: Klic Arquitectos (construction supervision, periodic reports and progress valuations)
- Interior design: Klic Arquitectos
- Photography: Fede Nale
- Klic services: Construction (execution) project, interior design, blind bill of quantities, contractor tendering, construction supervision and progress valuations
- Team: Juan Alejandro Goñi Uriarte and Ruth Buján Varela, architects (Klic Arquitectos)
- Studio: Klic Arquitectos
