Architectural Digest always features formal, luxurious homes from sprawling estates to spacious penthouses. But some of the ideas presented in these posh homes can translate to even small apartments:
- Desk behind the sofa Paired with a bench, this desk against the back of the couch invites sliding right in for a little work or reading. It could even double for dining.
- Daybed in the living room Any of us who have lived in a studio can appreciate this: A daybed is a great way to meld your sleeping area into one-room-living.
- Matching cabinets and walls Paint walls and kitchen cabinetry in all one color. This is a great way to incorporate a kitchen that's part of the main living space and allows use of a bold color without drawing too much attention to the kitchen.
- Deep monochrome color A dark, all-one-color scheme can feel lush and relaxing. Forget trying to make the room seem bigger and embrace the coziness. Of course, it doesn't hurt of the room has a killer view of the Eiffel Tower!
- Skinny coffee table A narrow coffee table does the job of providing a little horizontal surface in the center of the living area without taking up a big footprint.
Images: Scott Frances, Billy Cunningham, Marina Faust via Architectural Digest's Manhattan Apartments and Chic Paris Apartments
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Comments (13)
The desk behind the sofa is great - until you realize where the cords are going and the fact apartments aren't normally huge (mine is 11 ft by 14 ft). So taking away the space for the desk, chair, and a little room to pull the chair out to sit down you're making the space even smaller.
I am a fan of the last suggestion. I have a very narrow coffee table (12 inches wide) but longer (4 ft). It was made by a family member a long time ago (1941) so I don't have any suggestions to get one just like it.
Love the coziness of the 4th photo! And yes, that view is pretty incredible!
And even though I don't love the 3rd photo, I do like the idea of matching the cabinets to the wall color. Smart!
love the 'deep monotone colour'... it's like a "hotel right at home"! great place to sleep in. sucks that you have to arrive at work every mon - fri punctually at 8am =p=)
The desk behind the couch is BRILLIANT for my small place. We recently had to eliminate our den, with the only desk in the flat to "make way for toddler." AND we have some dead space behind our couch. I can't wait to go home and move some furniture.
That's a daybed in picture 2????? Doesn't look like any I've ever seen!!!
Love the desk behind the sofa idea, especially because the one featured here is so casual and multi-purpose. Might be the answer to my current debacle! Thanks!
And you could always run the cord beneath the sofa and under a rug, plugging it into an outlet on a side wall. No?
I solved the desk behind couch with limited space problem by going with a console table as my desk and a backed stool instead of a traditional office chair. My work involves very little paperwork, so the relative lack of surface area works fine for me--as long as there's room for my laptop I'm good. A small table underneath the console houses my printer and current files. The best part? I can pop my laptop on to the seat of the stool and the office disappears. A lamp on either end of the table/desk adds an immediate chic look from the other side. It's doable!
Photo #2 trips me out.
While photo #2 is certainly an idea for my apt, it's probably one I'm not likely to implement any time soon. :)
Does anyone knows the name of the armchair in photo 5? I mean the silvery one.
Thanks.
That bed is something else! Wow!!!
I LOVE the whole table behind the desk setup, but one thing in the photo staging is a pet peeve: you can't sit on the bench, it's covered in books. And if you could sit there, the part of the table you could actually reach has all the vases in the way. Books don't belong, in MY humble (librarian's) opinion, lying around on seating -- they belong on shelves or maybe on tables within easy reach to pick up and read. Tables should be as functional as possible -- just moving the vases to the half of the table closest to the sofa would help. THEN it would be a perfect place to write a note, work on a laptop (which you wouldn't have to STORE there in plain sight if you didn't want to), have a snack, or whatever.
I've loved the "desk behind the sofa" idea since I saw it in the Cosby Show when I was a kid