Interior Designer Manuel Espejo: Which Furniture to Buy in Modules and Which in One Piece So You Don't Regret It in a Few Years

The way we furnish a home is changing. More and more people want furniture that can adapt, without every change in life meaning a new suite. Spanish interior designer Manuel Espejo has a clear answer: the key is knowing which pieces are worth buying in modules and which should stay in one piece.

The living room doesn't always have to look the same

The living room gains the most from flexible furniture. Espejo advises not seeing the seating area as a closed composition: seats can be split up for a conversation corner, pulled closer when guests arrive or turned the other way. "Not everything has to be moved around constantly. The point is to have an alternative when the occasion calls for it," he says. Instead of bulky furniture that separates the living room from the dining area, it's better for the two spaces to flow into each other visually. How many times a year does our living room turn into a guest hall?

The modular sofa, one of the best investments

The sofa is the piece most worth buying in elements, because it defines almost the entire space. Modules let you change the length, add a chaise, move it to the other side or take one seat into another corner. But pay attention to the joins and proportions. "Furniture has to work and look good in the layout we'll actually use," Espejo warns.

Shelves that divide space

Modular shelving can separate zones without walls while also serving as storage. Espejo advises starting with a small structure and adding shelves or closed sections later as needed, mixing open and closed modules and paying attention to height. If the shelving serves as a partition, always check its stability and anchoring.

Which furniture to buy in one piece

The dining table usually stays in one place and is often oversized. If it's matched to the number of people who actually sit at it every day, useful metres are freed up. Extendable tables are practical, but Espejo prefers dining tables, armchairs and chests of drawers to be single pieces, with a clear silhouette and a presence of their own.

A modular kitchen

The kitchen is traditionally the most rigid part of a home, and renovating it is expensive. That's why it's worth choosing elements that can be rearranged or replaced separately. One example is "Kitchen for Life" by architect Paula Rosales: a lacquered tubular steel structure on which drawers, shelves, doors and appliances are hung, with a natural stone worktop.

One room, several uses

A family's needs change: a child's room becomes a teenager's, a study can double as a guest room. Instead of changing everything, Espejo suggests adaptable solutions - pull-out beds, fold-down desks, extendable tables - and planning ahead for the changes you can see coming, rather than filling rooms with furniture that will quickly stop making sense.

Furniture that moves with you

A good piece survives a move too. Choose furniture of moderate size, good material and open purpose: a chest of drawers that can go from the bedroom to the living room, a console that can be a desk, side tables or Alvar Aalto's classic Stool 60 for Artek. And check whether it can be taken apart and reassembled without damage, especially shelving. How much of the furniture you own would survive one move?

Pieces with character

"Not all furniture has to be modular or multifunctional," says Espejo. Some pieces are bought because we like them, like a white upholstered armchair or Charles and Ray Eames's "Time Life" stool for Vitra, in solid walnut. What matters is the balance between an adaptable home and furniture with character.

Before you buy, draw it

Advice that costs nothing: draw a plan of the room, measure it, mark the doors and windows and try out several layouts, with enough room to move around. Furniture should be easy to move, otherwise you'll never move it. "If changing the living room takes too much effort, in the end we'll never do it," says Espejo. Examples are IKEA's JÄTTEBO modular sofa and EKET shelves, light and arranged at different heights.

Buying in modules spreads the investment

Element systems let you start with just the essentials and expand the composition later, as with Schmidt's Zurich shelving. That may be the most Balkan advice in the whole piece: buy what you can today, add more when you can. For Espejo, the best home is one that "fits the way we live today" - not the catalogue, and not the way we lived ten years ago.