Initially, Peter and Molly used the larger area for their bed, a comfy chair and storage. Through the open archway, they used the smaller area by the amazing window as an office area, along with bookshelves, another comfy chair, and occasional dining.
The first step of turning the space into a family apartment was adding a door in the archway. This was not so straightforward, since the archway itself is somewhat irregularly shaped. Peter measured the opening and made a design for four doors that could slide across the opening. Their building's super constructed the doors and installed the sliding tracks at the top of the archway. Now the inner room can still get all the light from the enormous window when the doors are pushed to the side, but sliding the doors across effectively separates the two spaces into distinct rooms.
The larger room is now a living/dining area, with open space for their baby to crawl around. They swapped out their open Cubitec shelving from DWR for a stepped series of Malm dressers from IKEA, which not only made for a sleek and neat storage wall, but also made it safer for the new baby. Benches from Crate & Barrel make for a flexible, low-profile dining area.
The smaller room has become the bedroom, with the bed tucked against the wall where the home office had been. Shelving just below ceiling height provides extra long-term storage out of baby's grasp.
The resulting one-bedroom is light, bright and airy, with walls painted gray against crisp white trim. Nearly all the furnishings are pale neutrals, creating a calm, unified environment.
Resources:
Images: Befores: Peter; Afters: Anna Hoffman
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Nomade Express Slee...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Summer Cocktail Staple: Campari & IPA Spritzer
Quite a transformation - looks more sophisticated now too. The bed seems to be in a strange position though? Or maybe it's just the angle of the photos...
What a nice landlord and super. They certainly understood the value-add to the apartment by adding those doors. Wouldn't happen with any of the landlords I dealt with in Pittsburgh!
Would be nice to see a picture on the other side of the doors, to see how they hang.
it looks like all they did was ditch the books and the open storage.
I love the after! Can you tell me what color grey paint you used?? I like it!
Saucefiend, the bed might be shoved over for the eventual crib. Unless they're cosleepers, I guess?
i wish i had a landlord like that
i like to wake with the sun and would enjoy a sunny window near my bed. their new layout looks lovely to me!
Clever. Good luck!
Such an amazing landlord and super. Brings a tear to my eye. T.T
I never understand why studio dwellers always put their bed by the windows/light source and put their living space in the darker/area farther from the windows. I understand the proximity to the kitchen thing, but rules are made to be broken.
I really like a sunny bedroom, next best thing to napping outside. Great job. :)
Thanks everyone for the nice comments - a few responses. On light -- we actually have some nice windows in the living area -- on the side opposite that of the dining table. So we're well surrounded! On the super -- yes he is great, and was very helpful. On the paint: I forget the colors that we chose, sorry.
Where can you recommend affordable customize sliding doors in New York?
@rainywoods: One reason beds in studios may tend to end up near the windows is not that the residents want to have the bed near the windows, but that they want to have the bed away from the front door. Every studio I've lived in, you enter in the darker, windowless part of the studio, and the windows are further away.
If you want to have your bed be a little more private, it ends up closer to the window.
It also just feels a little nicer, (to me, anyway) to enter into the living room part of the studio instead of the bedroom part. More like living in a real home instead of a dorm room.
Very cool idea with the different heights of the ikea dressers. That's one to keep in mind.
I had assumed they put the sleeping space over there for baby-naps. And so the entry would be in the main living space, as Xarcady suggests.
I also love the grey. Great shade against the white in the small area.
Any door can be made into a sliding door, usually for a lot cheaper and cooler than buying them. For some reason places like to jack up the prices ridiculously on sliding doors. Just order the sliding door hardware and get some repurposed old wooden doors or even painted plywood for a modern minimalist look. I saw a cool remodel where someone had gotten a bunch of old mismatched wooden doors and painted them all the same color and used them as sliding doors between I think a kitchen and a dining room.
For cheapish but good quality closet doors, Truporte has some good ones. I used the white ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeka/5069528395/in/set-72157622758323999/
They also make an espresso one with windows in it that's really swanky looking.
that is not the alpine case study bed.