apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

what a charming apartment! i would have loved to see another photo of the kitchen, it looks so cute!

this is a great example of HOW to take photos of your place...the light is great!

well done!

What an awesome studio! I'm jealous.

Lots of yellow kitchens in this contest... I wonder if wende is crunching spreadsheets on this?

Love this. Well done.

I adore the bedroom "nook" or whatever you call it, especially that its painted dark red!!!

Wowser!

great colours

i love your alcove .. its so cute. is that a sofa bed? I have a similarly built studio but I turned my alcove into a pseudo-storage area where i keep my laundry hamper and bookshelves.

beautiful space. where's the rug from?? so great!

Ash, I was there when you first moved in. And i think people need to know how flecking amazing you did with the space you had. PEOPLE! THE BED IS IN A QUASI CLOSET! HELLO! TOTALLY BRILL!

Insta-finalist for me babe.

PS-Now i need you to come help me out at my place.

love the color on the walls. My place is of a similar color palet and i've been looking for a good color for the walls. What's the brand and name of the one you used?

couch and rug? where from? couch is to die for

that's it, i'm now officially done with this robin's egg blue color or whatever it's called. but your home is lovely and i'm so proud of you for making such a small space work. *high five*

That rug! I must have it, where is it from?

Excellent use of both color and space - I love everything about this little apartment.

What a lovely apt.!

I'm in love with the blue; I don't care how many of us use it, it is a great color to live in. The alcove bed is charming, and i'm digging those chairs!

Amazing!

Great apartment and I love your color combinations. I'm curious about the rug...what is it? (looks like there's writing or something?)

Ditto on the great sofa!

THE RUG. I must have it. Please please please say where you got it.

Also - great space and lovely color choices!

Loved the place, it´s really beautiful, though I would feel a little bit claustrophobic sleeping in a place where the bed is... Loved the rug also :) Congratulations!

This place is totally cute. In my opinion, having a studio apartment forces you to have more imagination and creativity than having a giant house. A studio forces you to make the space look bigger and everything in it has to have form, function and be attractive all at the same time. Nice job.

The bed area looks so cozy!

Uhm, yeah, can I move in already? Doing it up for the east side sista! This is a gal who has it together :)

Please tell us the name of the blue paint. It's so pretty!

Hi everyone, Ashley here. Thanks for the comments, I really put a lot of thought & energy into making such a small space pleasant to live in (I didn't want to sleep in my living room either, but couldn't afford more on my own in LA). On to your questions:

1. The paint is Ralph Lauren, "Aged Mint." I looked at a lot of other blues in this family (been a devotee of all shades of turquoise/teal/seafoam since before it got trendy) and this one had just the right muted tone to make it not too overwhelming.

2. The couches were purchased by my grandmother in the mid '60s. I was quick to claim them when she moved! Unfortunately, nothing else she owned was quite as cool :)

3. The rug is from overstock.com, but they aren't carrying it anymore. I'll check and see if there's a label with the manufacturer, though. It was sold as a children's rug because of the numbers in the blocks, but the numbers follow a strange pattern no one can figure out -- it's quite a conversation piece.

Lovely! Like most everyone else here I love your rug.

wowwww that couch!!! I love your grandmother!

I wonder if wende is crunching spreadsheets on this?

My start on spreadsheets hadn't dealt with matching colors to rooms, but I need to go back and start over, as my method of counting colors picked up some biases and was overstating the importance of orange. Plus, I hadn't counted iconic stuff, and the number of "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters, cow rugs, Eames chairs, and other AT faves now justifies doing so.

Love the place. My only comment has nothing to do with color — your coffee table is waaaay too big. You need something lower to the ground and more airy.

Is that water I see outside your kitchen door?

I agree that the coffee table is a bit dense, but I got overexcited and bought a set of tables before getting the couches out of storage. Plus, with a studio having all those drawers is a plus, and I love that I can stow my laptop on the lower shelf. Something airier probably wouldn't be able to serve the same purpose.

It's not water outside, just the roof next door...

I'm not sure if you can submit an entry to the Smallest, Coolest contest if/when you win the Fall Colors contest, but I very much like the way you have made a studio apartment feel so large without also appearing too sparse. It looks so large, in fact, that after viewing the photos for the first time I asked myself, "Didn't the gloss say she lives in a studio...?" You also have an excellent eye for color coordination, and I consider this to be the best use of color--i.e. the best entry--I've seen this year, without question.

I am confused about the bed/closet, however. Did you add that off-center column into the doorway or were there two, different sized doors for the closet?

A good enough entry that I finally decided to register after a year or two of lurking and post a comment. Well done, Ashley.

I've been planning to push the head of my bed into the double closet in my bedroom, and eureka! you've already done it, Ashley. How did you solve the problems of (a) what to do with the two big closet doors and (b) the loss of closet room in a small home? I can't wait for your answers!

I haven't read elsewhere about Wende's spreadsheets. Sounds very interesting. Where can I catch up?

OMG THAT RUG!!! Your apartment is what i want to have when I am a grown up (when i own a house). The colours are amazing. How did you pick my 3 favourite colours! Lol.

Also I am pretty sure out the kitchen door you can see a grey slate or tile rooftop.

I want to see more!

where is that couch from??? i love it! does anyone know?

nevermind... i just read through the whole thread. :)

You aren't by chance using a japanese futon mattress on your bed, are you? (It looks like you might be.) If so, where did you get it? We've never been able to find one.

~Q