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Takeaways When looking for a color palette, glean inspiration from what’s right outside your windows. Even in a tiny entry you can make a good impression. Kaplan recommends using a slim open console table to free up visual space. In a small space or an open space, continue similar motifs, colors and textures from room to room to create an easy, cohesive feel. Plan for how you like to spend time together, the way this couple planned for the swivel chairs by the windows. A neutral color palette provides a relaxing base for a bedroom. Color can come in via art and accessories such as throw pillows.
Behind the peninsula is a dining area. Kaplan had a custom table for the space made by Charleston Forge. The chairs are upholstered in a red color that ties in with the brick buildings outside the windows. The light fixture provides a wonderful complement to the windows. The boat artwork nods to the proximity to the Potomac River and brings in colors from the home’s palette.
Before the remodel, the kitchen had been closed off from the rest of the apartment and didn’t receive any natural light. Kaplan knocked down two walls to open it up to the entry and family room. The new palette incorporates the warm white color on the walls, cabinets with an espresso finish and white quartz countertops with a marble-like pattern. “I love quartz because it’s so durable and it’s easy to clean up coffee or red wine, which can stain other surfaces,” Kaplan says. She chose the cylindrical pendants for their simple geometry. And to add a taste of California she added a wine fridge to the peninsula for the couple’s favorite West Coast wines. “Opening up the kitchen helped us get a great circulation and flow,” Kaplan says. “Circulation is important in a different way today than it used to be. A lot of older spaces were made for more formal entertaining that’s strictly in the living room, while today people like to entertain more casually where people mill about.” The kitchen peninsula and dining table can accommodate eight people, and it’s easy for guests to move between the kitchen, dining area and living room.
One challenge in this space was addressing the large column in the corner. “We painted it a dark color with a matte finish so that it would appear to recede,” Kaplan says. She repeated the charcoal hue on an accent wall across the room. The light fixture, sculpture and two swivel chairs throw some curves into the geometric mix. The swivel chairs are where the couple sit and catch up with each other after work.
Here, a singular and familiar architectural element, a sliding slatted wood screen, defines the function of the apartment at any given time. The position of this screen — there are only two — determines either a private room for sleeping or lounging or a public room for cooking and socializing. All the programmed spaces — bathroom, kitchen, closet, sleeping alcove — are clearly arranged into a single integrated core, yielding a living room comparable in scale to that found in a regular one-bedroom apartment. This solution for thinking and living small is elegant, surprising and ambitious.
Jury notes: With a growing appetite for microdomestic space in the residential market, this tiny renovated apartment is a timely reminder that the division and articulation of territory in the home is essential, no matter the scale. In this instance, the clear delineation between the functions of rooms and the public and private character of rooms is supported by the miniaturization of known spatial devices and practices. Though its moves look simple, this subtle and sophisticated rethinking of an existing 258-square-foot (24-square-meter) apartment is an essay in comfort, luxury and unexpected spatial depth.
Boost backyard storage with a shed. Garden tools last longer and stay in better condition when they’re protected from the elements. If you don’t have enough room in the garage (or don’t have a garage), consider adding a small storage shed or weatherproof container to keep your tools neat and tidy. You can purchase an off-the-shelf shed kit from a home improvement store. Or hire an architect to design a custom shed that blends beautifully with your home and landscape. Even a tiny shed can hold a surprising amount — outfit yours inside with wall hooks or a pegboard for hanging tools, and shelves for loose items such as bags of soil. Storage space already all set up? Use your time this weekend to organize it.
Bar counter. As soon as you walk through the door, poured concrete countertops and vintage industrial stools clue you in to the overall style. Note the black window frames, the metal chair bases and the support for the countertop, which wraps the wall from the kitchen into the family room. The open shelves in both rooms are teak and bring in a bit of modern farmhouse style.
his antique carriage house had great bones under a 1990s renovation. To suit its architecture while giving it a current look, mother-daughter interior design team Brooke and Elise Garden chose a vintage industrial look with midcentury modern and modern farmhouse touches. The result is clean-lined and inviting and looks as though it evolved over time.
One of the first things the couple wanted to do after moving in was add more storage and counter space to the open kitchen. “I really wanted to create some separation as well,” Weilmuenster says. “Adding a kitchen island seemed like the best bet, so we decided to design our space around our hypothetical island.” Weilmuenster built her own custom island using two small Billy bookcases from Ikea and two boards from Home Depot, each 1 inch thick, 11 inches wide and 8 feet long, to create the top.
Pack in a pullout chopping station. Some days you need a bit more counter space than others, and when you do need to chop some vegetables, a little dedicated chopping station can be super helpful. A clever pullout chopping station, complete with a chopping-block top, can be integrated into a set of drawers so you have it handy when needed and tucked away when not.
15. Take on a tray. Sometimes all you need to make a kitchen feel decluttered and a bit more open is a simple tray. Gathering items like a knife rack, a spoon bin, a mortar and pestle and a kitchen timer all on a tray or cutting board visually tricks our brain into seeing them as organized. It’s a quick trick that can make a big difference to your sense of visual organization.
NBB Design Email Save 3 14. Undercabinet shelves. This kitchen uses a small niche area created by a change in depth of the wall to create a little storage zone for spices. A shallow shelf under a stretch of upper cabinets can be a great spot to stash small items like spice jars, pepper mills or tea boxes. This works especially well if you use the shortened space below to store other items rather than using that spot for prep (so none of these items are really in your way).
10. Open up a pass-through. One very effective way to make your kitchen feel bigger is to open up a partition wall to create a pass-through space. If you build a counter around the opening, even extending it a bit to the other side, you can cheat out the functional size of your kitchen a little bit by borrowing some space from the adjacent room.
. Build a central storage unit. This is another example of a hardworking dividing wall creating clearly marked zones and breaking up an open-plan room. By placing the storage wall right in the center of the space, the large room becomes two connected but individual areas. And by building in lots of storage, the dividing wall works hard for its keep, allowing everyday items to be stashed out of sight and keeping the large room clutter-free.
Suk Design Group LLP Email Save 11. Pleasing Proportions Most suburbanites would consider a 16-by-20-foot outdoor space to be quite compact, but in Manhattan it practically makes a homeowner a land baron. The proportions of the planting beds, trees and pedestal table are just right for the space, making it feel more expansive.
Smart Separation This studio apartment in Moscow has a clever, efficient layout. A dividing wall separates the sleeping area from the rest of the space and serves both sides as handy shelving. Nods to midcentury modern design add streamlined style and playful touches to the compact abode. Notable detail: The three-dimensional artwork plays nicely off the gridded room divider.
You can also look to a cart-style island on wheels to give yourself some flexibility. It can be moved nearer the counter when doing a lot of prep, and pushed away when it’s time to do an unusual task such as moving a large turkey into the oven. Plus, the more open and lighter appearance will make the kitchen feel roomier, even if it is a bit tight.
Between the Island and the Counter For ease of use in the kitchen, the island surface should be within relatively easy reach and not too far from the fridge, stove or sink. However, it should also not be so close to the main counters that you don’t feel like you can turn around without bumping into something. A distance of 36 to 42 inches between the island and the main counters works well for a kitchen with a single cook; 48 inches will be better for a kitchen that will see two home chefs working in tandem.
Between the Sofa and the Coffee Table In a living room, there are multiple distances to consider relative to your sofa, so it easily can become a tricky web of math. Here are a few sofa distance essentials to keep in mind. Distance from sofa to coffee table: 16 to 18 inches Distance from sofa to opposite sofa or chairs: 7 to 9 feet max (to allow for ease of conversation) Width of pathway through room: 36 inches Distance from TV to sofa: width of TV times 2.75
:before This wall between the living room and kitchen had a few odd shelves, which weren’t something the client found particularly useful.
An entertainment center, complete with mini fridge, now fills the wall. Now, the owner can offer drinks to guests and clients when they walk in and he doesn’t even need to leave the room. This feature, while not first part of the design, was a bonus idea the client loved, Dowell says.
The craft room-study: Because her client loves to sew, the designer turned this third bedroom into a multipurpose craft space, study and library. She designed beautiful built-ins to conceal her client’s electronic equipment, such as a printer, as well as her sewing machine. Outlets installed along the baseboards let the client easily plug in the sewing machine and pull it over to the table. A narrow walnut counter allowed the upper built-ins to be set back, creating depth, and brass hardware plays beautifully off the green paint.
Living room: The apartment is open concept; the kitchen is between the dining room and living room (shown here). This cabinet is across the apartment from the dining room’s curio cabinet and provides another spot to display favorite collections. “These darker pieces anchored the rooms with warm wood,” the designer says.
The dining table and chairs were also the homeowner’s, but Dalrymple freshened them up by re-covering the chair seats in a Peter Fasano fabric. The new rug grounds the room in a more contemporary charcoal-and-ivory pattern and is durable and stain resistant. Here you catch a glimpse of the kitchen, one area that was not touched in the design. “It already had beautiful countertops and white cabinets and was just right as is,” Dalrymple says.
Eberlein Design Consultants Ltd. Save Email For Eberlein, properly dressing a window always starts by assessing the function required: In this south-facing bedroom, she tried to maximize light by using sheers under a beautiful green blackout-lined silk that matches the Sherwin-Williams Leapfrog covering the bookcases and built-ins. On top of that is a traditional valance in a Scalamandré brocatelle fabric. The company was about to discontinue the print, so Eberlein bought up a lot of yardage and used it throughout the room. The wall behind the bed is covered in a green silk wallpaper from Gracie. The beams are original to the building.
The master bedroom had only a tiny closet, so the designer pulled the wall in and added built-in closets. The ceiling is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Candle Light, a subdued pink that picks up on the lavender color in the Scalamandré fabric on the window seat and drapes. “It gives some character to the ceiling and reflects the tones in the room,” Eberlein says.
Eberlein Design Consultants Ltd. Save Email The kitchen, to a great extent, was the reason the couple bought the apartment. It’s “mammoth for New York,” Eberlein says. But the space was in need of a renovation. The kitchen was stripped of all original finishes. “The window was there, but that’s about it.” Just like in the living room, Eberlein added a plush window seat, building the banquette around the corner so the owners could sit and cozy up with cookbooks and plan menus as they often do. Undoubtedly, the centerpiece of the room is the gorgeous periwinkle La Canche range, which complements the white oak cabinetry. The floor is made of two different colored corks, a light color to go with the cabinetry with a dark inlay. The cork material is cost-effective, very soft underfoot, surprisingly durable and stain-resistant, Eberlein says. The clients collected the two colorful light fixtures in Italy years ago, and the fixture in the center of the room matches the one in the foyer.
The settee is not up all the way against the window wall because the couple loves to sit on the window seats and read. The clients already owned some nice Oriental rugs, so Eberlein took some color cues from them. But overall the home’s palette was about mixing things up. Eberlein suggests there’s “no reason to have things look the same. Part of the beauty of having multiple spaces is you can have multiple personalities. Exuberance is important,” she says.
The living room has two points of entry coming off the foyer and the library, so the options for furniture arrangement was also constrained. The doorway to the library is set back enough to allow for an elaborate treatment around the limestone mantel. Eberlein had compound vertical pilasters added to emphasize the ceiling height, give the corner some rhythm and create the impression of thick, enveloping walls. Bordering the mantel are two wing chairs from Wood & Hogan that came with the couple from their old apartment. Their unusual shape helps them pass for antiques, but their real value is in their height: Both husband and wife are very tall and appreciate the generous back support of these cherished fireside chairs.
Since the room often doubles as a bedroom, Eberlein made sure to layer in Roman shades with blackout lining at the window. Coordinating the shades with the wallpaper makes the room open up a bit, while the window seat below connects the windows in a graceful way and makes them appear larger. For a cocktail table, instead of a big one that would take up a lot of floor space, they pulled in a ship captain’s chart chest from an antiques store in the Hamptons.
The homeowners love to entertain, so Eberlein transformed a former closet in the library into a stylish bar nook. It’s an “interesting exercise in how to capture space nobody thinks you have,” Eberlein says. The bar top flips down when it’s not needed, and what appears to be cabinetry actually hides the air handling system and mechanical equipment.
Above the antique console table is one of many portraits of the family’s ancestors. “It’s hard for people with gorgeous paintings like that,” Eberlein says. “You want to use all of them, but if you overdo it, the effect can be a little backward-looking, too much about history and not enough
The library is a relatively small space at only 11 by 14 feet. “If you saw it unfurnished, you’d think ‘Gosh, you can’t fit much in here,’” Eberlein says. But with strategic thinking, she found a way. “The worst thing you can do is treat it timidly with under-scaled furniture. Small rooms really need a robust, gutsy approach.” Two of the corners were unusable because of the doors leading into the space, leaving one dominant wall where the sofa had to go. And the sofa is a big one, deep and comfy with room for six people, and with a single long cushion that can double as a bed when needed. On one side of the sofa is a multi-tiered table, but the other side could handle only a tiny table, so Eberlein hung paintings to counterbalance the asymmetry.
Lindsay topped the planting area for the magnolia with a top-dressing of chunky river stones, taking yet another opportunity to add textural contrast to the courtyard. Working texture into the design with the building and hardscape materials ensures that the courtyard will have year-round interest, even when plants are more bare.
Up the privacy. Make a balcony feel more secluded by taking steps to shield views of neighbors with screens, outdoor fabric, potted shrubs or vines to grow on the balcony railings. Weaving a strip of outdoor fabric through the metal bars of an apartment-block balcony is a cheap and effective solution for bumping up the privacy. With the addition of a pair of outdoor love seats and soft pillows, the now-secluded space feels much more appealing than the balconies left bare.
Bookcase. A large, open shelving unit makes a natural divider for a bedroom area in a studio. In this photo, a colorful, eclectic mix of books and collectibles is artfully arranged on the shelves. The arrangement catches the eye so well that you might barely notice the bed located on the other side, neatly tucked into a private, cozy corner. You can find many available options like this online; this one is from Ikea
Install a Solid Divider It may not be possible for you to actually build a wall to create a bedroom in your studio apartment, but you can sure mimic the function of one. Faux wall. Here, a wall of wooden slats sections off a private area for the bed, separating it from the adjacent living quarters. As this photo shows, the faux wall also makes a great backdrop for a console table.
In this Manhattan apartment, also shown in the previous photo, you can see how it works. The attractive bookcase adds storage and divides the sleeping and living spaces. But it’s open on both sides so it still allows for light and visibility.
42. Pop of firecracker red in Massachusetts. This custom cabinet is one of Lucy Fagella and Terri Kerner’s favorite kitchen storage units. “I designed it, and my cabinetmaker friend, Jamie, built it,” Fagella says. “I wanted something to hold my collection of mugs, some mine, some trades with friends. The shelves are shallow to just hold the depth of one mug.” Under the mugs is deeper cabinet space for other kitchen items. The glass doors are from the home’s old enclosed front porch; Kerner refurbished and painted them.
Bonnie McCarthy Save Email 37. Rug-like floor tile in Long Beach. While in the process of renovating her family’s kitchen in California, Kim Claridy was smitten with the black and white handmade ceramic tile she found at a showroom, and thought it would look great on the wall as a backsplash. The family’s designer advised them to reconsider the application, and they instead used the graphic tile to create a design element on the floor. “Now if I get sick of it, I can just throw a rug over it,” Claridy says. Read more about this remodeled Spanish-style home Robert Burns Save Email 38. Extra counter space in Portland. Dave Eckert designed and built a rolling island that can be pulled out for entertaining and as an extra kitchen workspace. It also neatly tucks away under the countertop. Read more about this Oregon
Custom industrial-style towel rack. It can be challenging to find a convenient place to hang dish towels. Amanda Price made her own using pipes and hardware just beneath the sink on an otherwise decorative drawer front.
Mirror: The leaning floor mirror was another DIY project. Lore repurposed the mirrored sliding closet doors from the living room by adding molding.
Problems: The compact bathroom included dated fixtures, floor tiles and very small vanity.
Uh-oh” moment: “When I was measuring the backsplash area and creating a template for the mirror cutout, I was a little too precise with my measurements,” Lore says. “When the mirror finally arrived, the fit was so tight that we couldn’t get it to fit in the space. Because it had multiple edge cutouts, it was a very weak piece and very susceptible to breaking. We had to remove the stove to free up 3 millimeters of space for it to finally fit. It was a painstaking, scary hour.”
After Solutions: The kitchen was a gut remodel. New glossy cabinets from Ikea were installed along with new stainless steel appliances. A new peninsula with a waterfall quartz countertop created additional seating and a convenient work and eating space. Lights were installed under the island. “I wanted to maximize counter and cabinet space. I decided to install a two-burner induction cooktop instead of a larger four-burner [one]. I also chose to avoid installing an oven and instead went with a convection microwave,” Lore says. “This freed up space and still allows me to bake, broil or cook food
Problems: The compact kitchen featured dated linoleum flooring and appliances. “The kitchen was untouched since 1964. Most of the appliances didn’t even work. The cabinets were steel and had a fake wood sticker finish on them. Very strange,” Lore says. Shown on the left side of this picture is the sliding closet where the Murphy bed is installed. The two glass doors were repurposed as full-length, leaning mirrors in the living room and walk-in closet.
“I removed all of the shelving and replaced the sliding glass doors with custom bifold doors. The closet that I converted was in pretty rough shape after I removed the built-in cabinets. After a lot of drywall work, I added the wall sculpture as well as a false ceiling with built-in lighting.” This helped clean up the area and make it look less like a closet when the bed is down. Lore looked at a few different Murphy bed options and wanted the least gap between the wall and bed frame. The Murphy bed fits into the width of the closet.
Solutions: The space originally felt pretty cramped and dark, and Lore achieved his goal of making everything feel open and light. “The 8-foot ceilings are pretty low, so I wanted to do as much as I could to add height to the space. I picked low-profile furniture and tried to use tall items that drew the eye up, such as floor-to-ceiling drapes and tall plants,” Lore says. “I also used lighter colors and lots of mirrors to try and make the space feel larger.” A gold bar cart in the corner was disassembled and painted silver
The homeowner removed the popcorn ceiling and replaced it with a smooth painted finish. The ceilings are 8 feet high, and Lore wanted to keep the space feeling uncluttered, light and open. He removed the dirty carpeting and replaced it with new cork floors. The walls received a fresh coat of white paint, and he installed new lighting in the living room under a newly built soffit. He renovated the kitchen and bathroom with new tile, cabinets, lighting and flooring. The interior doors were replaced with custom 8-foot-high doors. The remodel took five months.
The first thing you think of in contemporary kitchens is clean lines and not a lot of adornment or overly decorative features,” says Ginger Curtis of Urbanology Designs, in Fort Worth, Texas. Color schemes can vary, but classic choices include white, cream, tan, beige, gray and black, and sometimes a mix of these colors. Palettes tend toward “slightly more monochromatic designs,” Curtis adds, while patterns tend to be more minimal or uniform. For more insight, read our guide to contemporary style.
8. Create visual impact. In a micro space, a generously sized decorative piece can help distract from the size of the room. Look at the large chandelier and the vibrant picture next to the bed: The eye has so much to look at that it barely registers the room’s small dimensions.
like open shelf cabinet on left side
Create evening ambiance. Extend the hours of enjoyment of your rooftop terrace by installing outdoor landscape lighting or simply hanging a few crisscrossing strands of cafe lights. This city roof terrace in Chicago makes use of a combination of lights on the birch trees to provide soft washes of light and downcast spotlights beneath the cedar pergola to illuminate the seating areas.
Go vertical. Take advantage of the walls bordering a rooftop terrace to provide support for vines or offer a backdrop for outdoor wall art. This London rooftop makes use of a brick wall for mounting an Asian-style wood screen and a set of carved wooden doors, as well as a wire trellis for a rambling confederate jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides; USDA Zone 8) vine. The vertical features add depth to the terrace without taking up any floor space.
Bring a bit of wildness. Welcome native birds, bees and butterflies to your rooftop by hanging a feeder, adding a water source and choosing plants that provide food or nest-building materials. In contrast to the concrete landscape of the city, one could imagine this Chicago rooftop would look like an oasis to our feathered friends and beneficial insects. The rooftop includes a fresh water source and deep plantings of pollinator and seed-eater favorites, including black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia sp.), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, zones 3 to 9), ‘Autumn Joy’ stonecrop (Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, zones 3 to 10), lavender and salvia.
Solo Escape A postage-stamp-size balcony doesn’t have to be a setback — think of it as an opportunity to create a getaway perfectly sized for one. A curvy lounge chair, a few potted plants and a string of colorful lanterns transform this small space into a nook you’ll look forward to escaping to.
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