apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I guess my apartment is more of an alcovey studio or a jr. 1 bedroom, because I don't really do all those things in one room. My kitchen is a separate area with space for a dining table and there's a tiny entryway and then I have a living/bedroom combo. I have a pillar/column thing right smack in the center of the room, which limits furniture arrangements, but is a great dividing line. On one side it's the living room and on the other it's the bedroom. I'm thinking of putting some curtains on tracks to give even more of a feeling of separation.

I like the second picture - a nice canopy or some mesh curtains around it would completely define it. Most studios around here have the alcove EastVillageAmy talks about for a bedroom.

I'm lucky enough to have incredibly high ceilings in my studio (or soon to be studio. I move in on Feb 1st)

My dad and I have built the frame for a loft bed and once I move in I'll install and drywall it. The bed is 8ft off of the ground and I bought IKEA's Stockholm ladder to get me up and down it. It sits right up against the closet which is 8.5 feet up so I can use the top of the closet as a night stand area. Underneath my bed will be my desk. I love this solution for two reasons: it separates my bed from the rest of my living area and it also give me the much needed space that would have been lost if the bed had been on the floor.

Go Up if you can with a loft bed
see:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/reo/983764761.html

p.s. It's also for rent now, contact me if interested

"Go Up if you can with a loft bed"

Sorry - Unless you actually live in a loft with 12' ceilings - Loft beds scream "College-Dorm"

You're better off with a wallbed, or a bed in an alcove.

I lived in a 250sf studio for two years. Luckily, the kitchen was separate from the living room / bedroom, and i had a walk-in closet. I squeezed in a queen bed, and expedit bookcase, a loveseat, a coffee table, a tv table, and another table for my plants. A lot of stuff, but it worked because it was all well organized.

I found that I needed and benefited from separation from bed & living, and I used the expedit bookcase sideways to act as a divider between the bed and everything else. Of course, I've always been the kind of person who doesn't understand large bedrooms. I've only ever wanted space fro a bed, some lamps and a nightstand. The great thing about the expedit is that you can use both sides. the side facing the living area had books. three-fourths of the side facing the bed was covered in a fabric panel, but a row at the head of the bed was left open and acted as a nightstand. It held a small light, my alarm clock, water glass, etc., etc.

I used two tall bookcases to form a sort of alcove in my studio and put the bed behind them. My full sized bed and two little nightstands fit neatly in the alcove, and I covered the backs of the bookcases with sheets of handmade paper and stood yet another, smaller bookcase against them.

The foot of my bed is in the living room, but my head feels like its in a cozy space, which somehow makes a big difference in how well I sleep!

My 450sf apartment is technically a studio because you can't call the first room where you walk in a living room. Nearly half my apartment is a separate room divided by French doors, and I put my bed on the interior wall so you don't walk in and immediately see BED!, headboard, pillows and all that stuff. My first apartment, the main room was L-shaped and I put the bed right when you walk in the door, you'd see it if not for a pair of stacked modular dressers. In another, extremely small apartment, I got one of those "day beds" usually featured in the teenage girl portion of the catalog - I loved all that storage underneath, to be honest (very small apartment, maybe 200sf?) - but the only place to put my bed was across from the "kitchen" area. I could almost get myself a glass of water or microwave a hot pocket from the minifridge without getting out of bed. Nobody thought it looked like a couch, so I don't recommend it.

murphey beds are amazing. it's like having a bedroom that people can't see.

A Murphy Bed is a great investment if you own your place. They are comfortable real beds and don't use valuable floor space in a studio. There are companies that specialize in that, you can find them on Google.

I've always liked configurations like this:

http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/2008/08/floorplans?slide=2

Turning the bed away from the main space really defines two areas to me.

I have a 382 sqft studio apt and I have arranged it so I have a separate bedroom area. Like someone else said, I've never understood the need to have a big bedroom, just enough space for my bed and a shelf for the book I'm reading.

The front door to my apartment is in the middle, so on one side I have my bed and on the other side is the living room. Behind the door is a 3 ft wide curtain and then a shelf that is about 3 ft high that runs the rest of the length of my bed. There is a "door" space and then a tall book shelf, with books shelved on both side. The shelves a nice because they divide the space without making me feel closed in.

Loft beds don't have to look so college dorm room - they can be disguised. If your studio is small enough, might as well go a little wild and think about creating an "environment" so people aren't sure what they walked into - as long as it's welcoming. At 200 sq. ft. I wasn't about to pretend I was living like a "normal" person.

My solution was to venetian plaster the walls dark blue, paint the posts of the IKEA Fjelldell(ish) bed the same, then cover the bed part in a dark blue silk. Under the bed I created a "lair" as everyone called it (and loved lolling around on) out of a slipcovered futon (kept flat) and lots of silk pillows. If it was too cold to eat outside, we threw big trays down in the middle and had a picnic of sorts. A tiny space slept 4 in a pinch, people rarely realized my bed was a bed, and baskets under the whole apparatus stored extra bedding and out of season clothes.

Another thing that helped to "disguise" it was the bookshelf I ran around the top of the room.

P.S. The bonus was the bed feeling like a giant crib - it was the best place to sleep ever.

I put my bed in the (large) walk-in closet, put clothes in an armoire, and it seemed to work okay. If I hadn't been able to do that, I like the low bed behind the sofa.

My 380 sq ft apt. is 9' x 40' (a spaghetti box rather than a shoe box). So while the dimensions are a challenge, it made it much easier to create separate spaces. The entrance is near one end, and the kitchen is at the opposite end (divided from the rest of the space by a bathroom) So the bedroom is in the middle, and I put and Ikea Kvartel track system with hanging panels to divide the bedroom from the living area. It doesn't give a ton of privacy (people still have to walk by the bed to get to the bath or kitchen). But I like that it creates a demarcation.

I don't try to disguise the bed and I don't use it for seating. For a long time, the 12 x 16 main room in my apartment felt like a big bedroom, but then I finally figured out the zoning thing. I used to think it was impossible in a room that small, but I was wrong. Bed on one half, seating area on the other. The seating area -- a shortish couch, rug, coffee table, media console -- feels like a separate room, without using screens or curtains or any other type of divider.

Right now I'm sleeping on a sofa bed, but I'm planning on trading it for a murphy bed - soon.

I would love an apartment therapy gallery showing photos of studio apartments- perhaps categorized by size- to give ideas on this issue! I'm considering downgrading to a studio but I just don't know if it will work.

I just moved in to a beautiful studio that's a little under 500 square feet. I am also going for the sunken bed blocked by a couch thing. In the past I lived in a place a little smaller, somewhere between 400-450 sq. ft., with a built in loft bed. I loved it. Not only did it move the bed out of the living space, but it kept the living space seperate from the bed. It was nice to leave a mess on the floor and not be bothered by it from bed. I've also lived in studios with a pull out couch for a bed, it's a good solution but I find that after a few months I stop putting the couch back and just leave it as a bed.

I needed storage in my 305 sq ft studio, so I had a carpenter build me a 4' high platform with doors on the long edge. There's a specially fitted space which hides my chest of drawers and a stepstool. I slid two finished boards (Danger Man attached handles to them) under the mattress to pull out as needed for nightstands. We hung rods from the ceiling and pull drapes shut to create a cozy, sexy enclave in bed or to glam up the living space. We tried traditional drapes, but were surprised to find that luxe toast-colored chenille throws looked and felt nicer, and they glow a little by candlelight.

Since I've purged a lot of the stuff in my 'storage unit', I'm thinking of having the bed cut down so that it's available for seating.

My studio's about 400 sq ft. About a third of the space is taken up by my full sized kitchen, which is why I rented the place. ;)

I have my full-sized bed against the same wall the front door is on, a table at the foot that serves as my landing strip. I'm trying to find a good bench to put there instead or a coffee table with an opening. Something that can hold some dirty laundry, but also can keep my keys on it.

An expedit separates my living space, from my sleeping space. I think because my bed is next to the kind of lobby-space I have, it helps move guests past my sleep area faster. Flows into the dining space and living room. Kitchen and bathroom being on the wall opposite the bed and front door.

Mniche, love your idea about fabric covering the back of the expedit. I do have a bunch of random things on the back of it I'd like to not have everyone see. I was thinking of buying the drawers for it, but fabric is a better idea!

Silli,

this may be what you're looking for:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/house-tours/house-tour-roundup-the-smallest-homes-041195

it's one of my favorite bookmarks

My 88" leather sofa (one half of a sectional) is very very comfortable and, as i live alone, having the straight 37" high back of it to cuddle up to, means I sleep on it more comfortably than on any bed. My end tables and coffee table are all cubes/trunks that serve as seats as well as tables and have storage inside them. On a "bad" day, making my bed means pushing pillows/pj's (if I bothered to change from day clothes) etc to one end and covering it all with my supersoft down lap blanket which then makes a (BIG) pillow at that end. On a good day, I put it all into one storage cube/seat/table!