Tag Archives: tiny apartment

Create your own micro-apartment right in our own home town

Posted on March 25, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

Micro-apartments are finally coming into their own.

Of course, the idea is not just to move into a tiny space–we’ve all done that at one time or another. Futon sleeping in a studio apartment–been there! Along with the milk-bottle-case bookshelves and the wine-bottle candle holders. But we’re grown-ups now and we want some style. Small style.

But let’s just say that you want to live in a very expensive part of town (this is Vancouver–every part is expensive). Or you spend a lot of time out and about and you just can’t see why you need to pay top dollar for space that sits empty for most of the day. Then get the smallest apartment in the nicest neighbourhood and create your very own micro-apartment.

The idea is to get the very most out of the least amount of space. And according to Life Edited, it’s doable.

In their guide to 8 tips for making your own micro apartment,tip 1 is

Pick a good address. We think small spaces work best when you use your city or town as your living room.

This is a no-brainer. But it doesn’t necessarily mean moving to the pricier areas like Kitsilano, Kerrisdale, Gastown or Yaletown. Cambie Street has lots of great shops and restaurants. And Commercial Drive has always been a pretty happening place. A few years ago, Main Street was not a particularly great area — but now it’s very hot.

Pick a good size:

about 250-400 sq ft for singles; 300-600 for couples; 500 + for families

And shape:

In general, square and rectangular spaces are ideal.

Then furnish it — thoughtfully. As in tip 4:

Get a Murphy Bed. It’s the single easiest way of creating space without sacrificing function. A queen size bed is about 35 sq ft.–i.e. 10% of a 350 sq ft space; a 10% used exclusively while unconscious.

They advise that while opting for a really gorgeous unit like the Swing Bed is a great solution.

It’s also 10 grand. American dollars. But relax, they also point out that you can build your own for around $275.

Lots of great ideas at the site.

And remember the folks who always encouraged us to live in small spaces, IKEA

Inspired to create your own little space yet? Remember — you can live large in a small space. Right in your own home town.

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Posted in Cities, Housing, Laneway House, Life, Small House and tagged Decor, Small Style, style, tiny apartment, Vancouver. Bookmark the permalink.

600 square feet — 2 bedrooms — two boys

Posted on March 21, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

Judy Ross lives in Manhattan with two young sons. And her place looks great. Just 600 square feet she has managed to fit in so much storage that her home looks tidy and spacious even while filling the place with lovely artwork and objets.

How did she do it? She ran her apartment like a ship.

Check out her story on Apartment Therapy and be inspired to create your very own small space. PS. It’s a rental apartment.

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Posted in Decorating, Small House and tagged Decor, Neighbourhoods, New York, Small Style, tiny apartment. Bookmark the permalink.

The bird’s eye view of extremely tiny homes

Posted on March 20, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

OK, I agree that small is relative.

But take a look at these homes.

They’re so small you can’t take a picture except from above.

And these folks aren’t living that way to make a point about sustainability.

The photographs were commissioned by the Society for Community Organization, as a means of drawing attention to the housing crisis in the Hong Kong, a city with rents that average 35% higher than New York City and housing prices that average a staggering $1,300 a square foot.

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Posted in Cities, Housing, Small House and tagged Neighbourhoods, tiny apartment. Bookmark the permalink.

Living in 300 square feet

Posted on March 9, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

I’m always inspired by someone who can live in a little space — and live well.

Mary Lee has planned her studio apartment to get maxium style in minimum space, using bright neutrals and mirrored surfaces to keep everything bright.

And this studio apartment is really a studio — she works there, too!

Check out the home tour at Apartment Therapy, find inspiration for your home. I found it in the brightness, and what Mary Lee says about keeping her belongings to a minimum, too.

Buy things that have a purpose in your life. If it is not functional or doesn’t evoke a valuable emotion, like inspiration or nostalgia, then it’s not necessary. Don’t clutter your space with stuff, supply it with purpose. Don’t think of it so much as decorating but more of curating a collection over time that best tells the story of you.

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Posted in Decorating, Small House and tagged Decor, tiny apartment. Bookmark the permalink.

Small space in the Big Apple

Posted on March 2, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

Thanks to Style at Home, we can see how New York-based Canadian designer Brendan Kwinter-Schwartz re-made pilot Kerry Dempsey’s 680 square foot Manhattan loft into a sleek but comfortable home.

What’s not to love?

Especially those saucer pendant lights and the cowhide-as-area rug on hardwood. Armless slipper chairs are versatile yet take up less visual space.

But don’t plan on installing those light-as-air stairs unless you want to become BFFs with members of the board of variance. As far as I know, in Vancouver you are not allowed spaces between stairs large enough for a baby’s head to fit through (about 4″ or 10cm).

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Posted in Cities, Decorating, Small House and tagged Decor, New York, tiny apartment. Bookmark the permalink.

Where will you put everything?

Posted on February 1, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

When I show people the plans for our place (which I am apt to do at the drop of the proverbial hat) one of the first things they ask is “Where will your stuff go?” And I say “Mostly the Salvation Army.” Because, of course, we have to get rid of SO MUCH.

We have already begin this winnowing process, and it’s like getting rid of a huge weight ounce by ounce as things disappear from our cupboards and our closets. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but this is more than a change of address, it’s a change of lifestyle for us. Buy fewer, better things. Throw stuff out. Keep just what you need, not what you think you might need next year, or what you needed two or three years ago. Come on, I know I’m not the only person who hangs onto winter coats long after they should have been passed on to some deserving soul at the IODE shop.

How many of us have closets for the clothes we wear now, and closets stuffed with clothes we used to wear and might again if we can lose 15 pounds or if shoulder pads come back?

But we will still need to put things away– or more accurately we need to HIDE things away. Dishes, books, cat food. And that means built-ins.

Built-ins are the go-to choice for small-home decorating.

Super built-in apartment, with storage under the bed loft and in the stairs. That other room you can glimpse down the hall is the kitchen — completely built in, of course.

Storage under a built-in bed. Good idea for a very small bedroom. We’ll have storage under our bed, who could ignore that great storage area? But we won’t have room to pull out drawers on the side (bed fits snugly with just a foot of space on either side), so we’ll have a lift-up hydrolic arrangement that will give us access to the space beneath.

Here’s a nice wall of built-ins from Apartment Therapy. See that blank space between the windows with just the small green cut-out? That entire panel flips down and rests on the little green cabinet you see on the right to make a large dining table.

Have you seen any great built-ins? What do you think? Keep them the same colour as the walls, or make them stand out?

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Posted in Decorating, Laneway House and tagged Lane Home, Lane house, Laneway House, style, tiny apartment. Bookmark the permalink.

Big cities, smaller apartments

Posted on January 31, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

Big cities want to attract citizens — people who live right downtown, not just commute from the suburbs to work. One of the reasons Vancouver is such a vibrant city is because people live in the downtown core. At any time of the day or night you’ll find people going to restaurants, coffee shops, bars, concerts, sporting events, but also walking their dogs, dashing out for grocery shopping, visiting their neighbours. I know lots of large cities where the downtown area becomes a science-fiction dystopian landscape at night, the only cars the occasional police car or delivery van.

According to this Houzz article, Mayor Bloomberg is trying to find ways to bring people back into the city to live. And right now, that means getting more apartments into smaller areas.

The city states that there are 1.8 million residents who are singles and couples, but only 1 million studio and one-bedroom apartments in all five boroughs.

He called for a design competition, and a couple of weeks ago he announced a winner. An exhibition of the entries will be held at the Museum of the City of New York until this September.

Making Room: Discover New Models for Tiny NYC Apartments

If you are in the area look it up.

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Posted in Cities and tagged Lane Home, Lane house, Laneway House, tiny apartment, tiny house, Vancouver. Bookmark the permalink.

An affordable apartment in New York — can it be true?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by ladywholivesdownthelane

From Houzz (see, I told you to subscribe) comes the story of what New York City is doing to create affordable living.

Making Room: Discover New Models for Tiny NYC Apartments

New York’s problem was not the same as Vancouver’s. On the surface it’s just too few places to live. But New York needs more spaces for singles and couples, not necessarily families.

In July 2012 New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Developmentlaunched an adAPT NYC competition to develop a building with microunits on a city-owned lot in Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood. The competition was spurred by the changing demographics of the city, which now has 1.8 million one- and two-person households (comprising more than 20 percent of its 8.4 million residents) but only 1 million one-bedroom and studio apartments. Furthermore, the current zoning code restricts the size of apartments and their density (number of units per lot), making it impossible to build small units for singles and couples.

Today, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the winner of the competition at the launch of the Museum of the City of New York’s Making Room exhibition, which also explores small apartments in the city through design. A team made up of Monadnock Development, the Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation and nArchitects won with their My Micro NY entry. Here are details of the winning design.

Sizes start at 250 square feet, with an innovative design that makes it seem like much more.