How to Arrange a Teeny, Tiny Apartment

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

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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Katie’s Kitchen Remodel

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

Box of Tricks

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