As a youngster, I begged my parents to get an RV. I was pretty sure that having a car you could sleep and watch TV in would make us the coolest family on the block. As an adult, I am totally taken with this beautiful little trailer. It's further evidence that living in a (really really) small space doesn't mean sacrificing style. After the jump, 5 principles for decorating in small spaces, inspired by this little caravan.
This beautiful little trailer, built by Caravanolic and decorated by Viceversa, can offer many tips for decorating a small space:
1. Stick to just one color palette. If you can stand in the middle of your apartment and see everything in your apartment, then it's wise to stick to a single color concept - anything else may be overwhelming. In the trailer, a palette of black and white with blue and green accents is bright and soothing.
2. Make your furniture multi-task. Here, a desk pulls out to become a dining table; when guests leave, the additional leaf can be pushed back under the desk for extra space. Look for furniture that will work hard for you - a side chair that folds out into a guest bed, or a coffee table that lifts up into a desk.
3. Use vertical space as well as horizontal space. When designing a space, it's easy to get caught up in just planning layouts. Don't forget that your apartment is three dimensional - use every inch of wall space you can. Here, knives and utensils hang from a wall in the kitchen, cabinets above the desk provide additional storage space, and a wall-hung vanity mirror helps limit clutter in the bathroom.
4. Arrange more public uses closest to the door. Long ago in architecture school, I learned about something called the "hierarchy of privacy". It's the idea that, as you move from the entrance to a dwelling though a series of rooms, the most private rooms are in the very back. But how do you accomplish this if you only have one room? Even in a small space, there are distinct 'zones' for doing different things. Here, there's the kitchen, the dining/study area, and the bed, which is the last thing you reach as you move through the space. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but in the past I've discovered that it can makes small spaces seem more comfortable and harmonious.
5. Don't be afraid to have fun. Keeping things simple will help a small space seem uncluttered, but a house is not a home unless you fill it with things you love. I love how the ubiquitous Cole & Sons 'Woods' wallpaper adds a bit of visual interest, and the vertical stripes in the teeny tiny bathroom give you something to look at while you're taking care of business.
Images: Viceversa via Bryn Alexandra and ChicDeco.
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Lovely. but is there any design inspiration for an early nineties Dutchmen, which I suddenly have sitting in my backyard? No caravan cuteness, that's for sure. But has cozy potential.
Oh, gosh, I love this so much.
The idea of so much white on a camping trip made me laugh. I think it's absolutely adorable but it would look this nice and bright for about 4 seconds the way that I camp. Maybe I've been camping wrong all these years though...
Jen: I look at a lot of trailer websites and some people with newer campers have done some amazing things by just painting and changing out fabrics. Sounds like you've got yourself a fun project!
Having spent some time in my folk's RVs over the years, I can attest to the fact that I'm not cut out to live (ongoing) in such a small space. I admire anybody who really can.
Getting into a bed that you can only access from the foot, including to make it, which you MUST do in such a limited area, is not so much fun after the first time.
Showering in the toilet stall (with the toilet) isn't groovy either, especially if you forget to dry the seat off before needing to use it.
Etc. OK for emergency housing or for camping, maybe, but I'd rather stay home.
Oh I also have had an RV fetish since I was a kid. Always begging my parents to buy one. When they said we didn't go camping I said I would live in it in the backyard. Love them.
I'm going to block Sherry's description of making the bed so I can keep daydreaming.
Palette. You are paid to write for a design blog. Shouldn't you know the difference between "palate" and "palette?"
Jen- Check out our RV- 1996. It was AWFUL in the beginning and I think we did an OK job with it! http://www.coupleofsports.com/rvprep/
Paint it slate gray instead of white, plop it on an acre of beautiful nature, an outdoor firepit and some climbing roses and I will live there forever. Of course a good looking, organic farmer next door wouldn't hurt.
@sockmuppet: corrected. I hang my head in shame.
would you know where to find those hanging white utensil holders? i have one that i have a plant in and would love to get a few more! thanks.
Where is the coffee pot?
@sockmuppet: You are RUDE.
@ thirstyme --
They're from Ikea, product name ASKER!
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70105659/
@bejeweled, @sockmuppet is NOT rude. Why? Because the people who are paid by AT are supposed to be design _journalists_, i.e. bloggers. As such, I would expect them to use terms and phrases properly as well as spell check, ya know?!! Especially someone who went to university!!
Sockmuppet was rude. My fiance went to an elite private school, his mother insisted on elocution lessons and yes he completed university. I have had none of these privileges yet I am the one correcting him. My fiance just lol and like he says, so what?!
As for the RV, this would be great for overnight guests especially if you can't afford a major home renovation... or a new house. White definitely makes the whole interior bigger. The wallpaper is perfect.
thanks!!
@goletagoleta: not at all! I was thinking the exact same thing! I would have switched the palette - more blues and greens with black and white accents. Hide camping grime and bring the outdoors in a bit more.
Re: Sockpuppet. One can correct someone and still be civilized. (And it was an important correction.) That way one's correction is the subject and not one's attitude.
Re: Sockpuppet. No, Sockpuppet was very rude. The tone and attitude came across much more clearly than any correction of grammar. It was very condescending. I'm sure the author knew the difference. It was simple over cite. An occasional over cite should not be the subject of such impudence.
Excuse me, Sockmuppet. I stand corrected.
O·ver·sight (vs. "over cite"):
unintentional failure to notice or consider; lack of proper attention.
Sockmuppet was indeed rude, simply because he or she felt the need to correct the blogger in public, and yes with an attitude. Paid or not, we all make mistakes. But it would have been just as easy (and more graceful and courteous) to privately alert the blogger by clicking the little "Contact Us" button at the bottom of the page.
I love the wallpaper. It looks great in the white look.
http://coolspacesindonosti.blogspot.com/
Sockmuppet, why did you have to try and turn a perfectly positive conversation into something negative and then go on and on about it?
I have to say, I'm a fan of decorating small spaces and yours looks great!
I'm with sockmuppet. If you get paid to do something, have some pride and do it well.
Tone is impossible to gauge over the internet.
You can't tell if I am being calm (I am), sarcastic, rude, angry or sad about the plight of the human race.
Take into consideration that some of us are visual people who see oversights such as these as glaring distractions from the content.
I have to admit that palate vs. palette bothers me less than oversight vs. overcite (which is not even a word)
Everyone else focused this onto sockmuppet. Polite people would have taken the comment with the best of intentions instead of the worst.
I assume that you are all trying to be polite by supporting the writer, who may be embarrassed, however that has only focused more onto the mistakes made.
I'm the writer. I always appreciate corrections - even though I make the occasional mistake, as you have noticed, I, too, value proper spelling and grammar. It's also appreciated if you keep in mind that AT writers are people too, who work hard to create the content you see on the site.
The upside is that after this, I'm pretty sure I will never confuse 'palate' and 'palette' ever again. :)
Couldn't get the http://www.caravanolic.com/ link to work… however Google comes to the rescue again, I did find this set of additional photos, http://pinterest.com/source/caravanolic.com/
White all over seems rather cold to me.....abit like living in a refrigerator. Other than your sooo.....white theme, I like what you've done with the space. The bar style dining table is very nice and quite suitable for a narrow enclosure, and the hanging utensil holders are great - I'm off to IKEA tomorrow!
I wish sockmuppet hadn't been so rude, but I am glad that the writer will never forget the spelling again.
We live in a little house in the barn - 2 rooms. Unfortunately since we have to have the kitchen by the woodstove, the door opens into the bedroom area. But there are a couple of tall cabinets that keep the bed from being easily seen. And maybe later, we can put a curtain from the ceiling to completely block the view of the bed and dresser and night tables. I would like to make a complete entry area there. We only moved out here a month ago and it takes time to finish everything.
We have a schoolbus that we will be working on this summer to make into a home too. My hubby has lifetime rights to live here, but I don't, so the bus may become my own little house someday.
Seems to me that posting after Mitch gracefully acknowledged the criticism is what is rude.
People call the bloggers out all the time on AT.
It wasn't until I noticed how many designers have woodies for typography that I got it.
So Mitch, just for you, a story.
I wrote a front page piece for a small chain of suburban papers on the fad of modest clothing, using a fashion show as the news peg.
Now, I'd rather walk on molten glass than seriously cover a fashion show, so I spun the modesty angle.
My headline submitted with the article used "discreet."
The page designer changed it to "discrete."
After my less than civil phone call he would never forget about the homophones.
My lesson was to be nice to designers, even when they blow your above the fold headline.
As for the topic at hand of RV design, this looks like a great urban getaway/ travel the highways space.
One item in RVs I'd love to see adopted across the board is the one pint toilet.
A friend has them in his home and they are great. Low profile, and ultra low water use. Lift the lever up to add water for debris, or simply let the liquids go in a tiny flush.
As I'm deciding on workspaces a mobile body therapy office is a definite possibility, and this RV gives me inspiration.
Good feature, Mitch.