Apartment Living

24 Rooms 344 Square Feet

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I covered this Box of Tricks back in January of 2009 but it has been getting a lot of attention lately and a movie has been put together on YouTube so I thought I would share this briefly again. There is a recent article in Man Overboard about this and … Read more

The Tiny Houses of HabeRae

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Like many other cities, my hometown of Reno, Nev. has seen more and more people leave the suburbs to make their home in a more condensed urban environment to save on housing and gas costs. Several buildings in the downtown Reno corridor have been redeveloped to include housing for city living. Kelly Rae and Pam Haberman of HabeRae Investments Inc. are creating tiny, beautiful urban infill houses while keeping the history of many of these buildings alive.

2 More on Watt Farmhouse

Kelly and Pam have been redeveloping properties since 1998 and are most well known for their 8 on Center project, but their most recent projects are getting some attention for their tiny size, aesthetics and green design. They have won local awards for historic preservation, environmental design and community improvement.

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How to Arrange a Teeny, Tiny Apartment

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Tiny apartments, especially tiny studio apartments, present a set of challenges to the dweller. Storage is one challenge: With the exception of the handful of lucky folks who score rent-controlled apartments and stay for years, it’s not worthwhile for most renters to buy built-in storage units for their apartments. Creating a separation between the living space and bedroom space is the other major challenge. I live in a studio apartment, and I’ve learned how to stay organized and to maximize my space. I’ll tell you what works for me, and a few other tips that I picked up from Linda Merrill, a fabulous and pragmatic interior designer who I work with.

How to Maximize Space in a Studio Apartment

  • Multi-tasking furniture is your best friend: Instead of trying to squeeze a couch, a guest bed, and a linen closet into my apartment, I bought a daybed with a storage space built in under the mattress. I store my sheets, towels, and (oddly) scrap paper in the hidden compartment under the mattress.

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Micro-lofts – The Shrinking Condo

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Tara and Herb both sent me two related articles about some cool lofts under development in Vancouver B.C. Canada. These micro-lofts are about 270 square feet, the size of two parking spaces.

General manager Jon Stovell says the micro-lofts will have pretty much everything essential for living, including a bathroom, kitchen, workspace and big loft-style windows that provide natural ventilation and bright views of the street.

“They have a fold-down wall bed, and when that wall bed is up, it has a fold-down table. We integrated a workbench with a built-in flat screen TV so that that does not take any room and created a glassy washroom enclosure that functions as a single area — shower, and toilet and sink all in one area.

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Small, Cool House Contest

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Thanks Diane for alerting me to this contest going on over at Apartment Therapy. The deadline is April 13 which is coming up soon. If you have a tiny or small home you would like to enter please go over to Apartment Therapy read the rules and get your home … Read more

Tiny Garage Conversion

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This tiny garage conversion by Martin John Brown of Portland, Oregon attracted my attention because of the wonderful styling and details in such a small space. Check out that great purple color! With architect John Perkins, Martin converted a detached garage into a beautiful 400-square foot house for his mother-in-law … Read more

Katie’s Kitchen Remodel

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Katie in Berlin, Germany recently wrote me to let me know about their tiny kitchen remodel. I am going to let Katie tell you their story. We live in a 480 square foot apartment in Berlin.  Our kitchen in Berlin, Germany left a lot to be desired when we first … Read more

The Spite House

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A Tiny, Beloved Home That Was Built for Spite Fred emailed me this story from the New York Times written by Steve Baily. Below are short quotes from the article, to read the full article go to the New Your Times website. Photo above: Circa 1924. “Ford Coupe at ‘little house’ … Read more

Box of Tricks

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24 Rooms Tucked Into One Christian and Shelly both sent me an email this morning in regards to a New York Times article about a modern and cool and high tech and very expensive tiny home in Hong Kong, that has some neat ideas we can apply to tiny space living. … Read more