Micro-apartments are common in historically dense cities like Paris and Barcelona, but architect Valentina Maini wasn’t interested in typical small space solutions like lofted sleeping quarters or murphy beds. She wanted her 25 square meter home (269 square feet) to look a bit more conventional, but to stack functions.

She hired a carpenter to create a dining table that slides over a matching bench to create more room for guests (she’s had 20 over for wine and cheese). She didn’t stop there. The bench also slides to reveal a full-sized bathtub: her micro-spa.

Valentina filled her need for leg-less chairs using traditional zen tatami chairs that can be placed above her bathtub/bench for eating or reading or removed for bath hour (or used to create a viewing lounge outside her balcony window).

Not interested in the daily work involved in a transforming bed, Valentina simply raised her mattress a few extra feet and set to work creating a closet below.

Recycling three large cabinets from her former work place (her tiny pad is now also her home office), she created sliding drawers for clothing that tuck within sliding drawers for the cabinets that all tuck neatly beneath her sleeping quarters (though if she’d had 20 centimeters more in height she would have created a hanging closet within the cabinets).

The same bamboo that covers the under-the-bed closet unifies the entire apartment. It makes up the bench that encases the under-the-table bathtub. It also frames the table and covers the floor. Completing the apartment is a tiny bathroom with “wet bath” or all-in-one shower/toilet/sink space with drain in floor.