apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I agree that you absolutely need to get rid of stuff and a new (or new-used) couch would be great. My first thought was that you have too many bulky items for such a small space. Try selling stuff on craig'slist or ebay and put the money in a furniture fund to replace the bigger things. If you can't sell it, give stuff to Goodwill.

Try asking yourself if you really need everything. It looks like there are lots of smaller things you could do without. You have a pretty small table, so I'm assuming you don't use it for dinner parties. Maybe you could find a small square one and put it in the corner with two smaller chairs. You could probably use a slimmer coffee table too. Try to find some good quality used stuff to better fit your current home and sell the stuff that no longer fits.

I'd place the furniture like this:

file:///Users/freelance/Desktop/apt.jpg

Defnitely downsize a bit....If you are very attached to any of your stuff consider temporarily lending to family members or friends who might have space (and inclination) to mind for a while

I currently have the bed behind the china cabinet, where you enter the living room.

Definitely move the bed. Right now, it sounds as if you have it by the entrance to the kitchen, which means that it (and the china cabinet) are blocking off the kitchen/entry and choking off a lot of natural light.

The bed needs to be in the opposite corner, next to the bathroom and dressing area.

1. Remove/takedown all picture/wall hanging/decorative items into a closet until you get the layout settled...

2. Like FuzzyEgg's suggestion. Move Bed. Put couch along wall where bed currently is. You could do the same arrangement with the china cabinet with the bed in the new location.

3. Move dining area along the windows closer to the couch location (directly in front of the kitchen/entry opening.

4. Move desk further towards the dressing/closet.

Effectively create two spaces...right side of layout is living space. Left side of layout is personal/bed space. I would also get a large rug for the living space - I think it will help demarcate the zones and cozy it up.

Good luck!

Perhaps your husband could set up his music space in the dressing room (granted I don't know if we are talking flute or trap drums). Then there would a door to close when he is practicing and you are engaged in other interests.

Your stuff is too big and too stuffy for your new place. I'd open a new chapter in your life. Clear out those old dining chairs and that humongous couch. Everything looks like it's in good shape, so get what you can from Craigslist. Go on a family trip to IKEA to get some stuff to serve as a bridge into a new style. You'll be surprised at how economical it can be.

There have been a number of features on AT on using fabric around a bed to create privacy. It can be done in any number of ways. The back wall on the main room next to the bathroom may have enough depth into the room to make into an alcove. A carpenter could install a long hanging horizontal rod parallel to that wall, and you could hang several thicknesses of gauzy curtains to create privacy for your bed area. How you would want to handle the ends of the space would be up to you. One end could be defined by the wall between the main room and the bathroom, and another hanging rod could be hung on the other end, giving you a tent - like structure. Or you could measure carefully and install a solid bookcase on the end closest to the kitchen, closing off the curtained area. That would help make it look built-in.

Don't overlook the possiblity of using sliding doors or screens, or "found art" (as was just featured in an AT post) to create some drama and privacy. I personally like fabric, because light flows through it sufficiently enough that the space never seems claustrophobic from within, nor seems blocky and awkward from without. A sense of roominess is preserved.

Once you've got your bed screened off, the floor plan will be much more self-evident. My personal taste would be to put a small round table in the right-hand corner closest to the windows, for eating, and for use as a home office. In the remainder of the space, I would put a seating area that relied on a collection of comfortable chairs with small tables nearby rather than a large sofa. Floor pillows might be made available to expand the seating accommodations, if necessary. This could work for music-related activities. Finally, I would splurge on a light-weight television and put it on a glass bar cart. That way, your guests could watch television looking towards the windows as long as the window treatments shielded the light. If you wanted the TV closer to the bed, it could be wheeled there, or if you wanted to watch morning shows while drinking your coffee, it could be wheeled to the table. If it's installed to take advantage of cable, make sure that you have enough cable to allow repositioning.

One last thing on the wall decor. Everything needs to come down and be cleaned. Then it's time to get tough. Less is more. Storage of pictures doesn't take up a lot of space, and you have a big closet. Put up about a third or a fourth of what you fancy, and store everything else. You can always rotate your treasures.

Good luck!

Everyone has posted good ideas in my opinion - here would be how I'd set it up: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/evilgirldawn86/Just%20Pictures/ApartmentTherapy.jpg .... I didn't add anything personal like extra lamps (besides ones that came up in my imagination). The best thing I can recommend is either downgrade to a loveseat or a couple chairs. In my plan, you could have a table for four you could pull out if needed, but would only need two chairs most of the time. Hope it helps.

Only flaw to my plan is no music space - so you'd have to force the hubby into the dressing room for practice...or you could use the dining area as your office (especially if you substituted a rectangular table) and let him have the office area as his practice area.

The dressing area does look like a good place to transform into a music room - since it appears that's the area with the most extra space.

Definitely swap the bed and put the dining table and living room area closer to the kitchen.

One thing you might consider is getting light colored slip covers for the sofa and maybe even the dining chairs (they're inexpensive at Bed, Bath & Beyond or any other home store). That would help you keep and use what you have but not have it feel so heavy and jumbled.

ChrisGal's layout looks great. Using the china cabinet as a room divider between the bedroom and the living/dining area is perfect. You could even tack some pretty fabric to the back of it to soften the wood wall in the bedroom area and make it feel more cozy.

Also, if it seems like you still have the space once you move things around, you can use the extra dining chairs with arms in the living room area to add to the seating/conversational area there.

Good luck! Small spaces are tricky. But simple changes can make a huge difference.

Just a note on my layout -- I didn't mess with the colors of the furniture. The lightest you can go would probably be best with only a few dark accents.

The drawing is fabulous by Chrisgal, not sure I want to give up that much space to the bed area, I arranged the Cabinet bed area the way I did because I wanted not to interfere with the flow of the room. Your fabulous floor plan takes up over 1/2 the room just for the bed area, any my Tv would not fit. Its just not true to scale. It would work great for a twin bed. 36 inches for best bedside tables 56 inches for the bed and 18 more inches for China cabinet is 10 feet from that corner wall. I have great lighting in the kitchen but just not in the main room. The leather thomasville sofa is where my 21 year old sleeps when she drops in.

tlcfuningkin -- I actually did it on a room planner site. The scale left at least 2.5 feet between the bed and cabinet. I'm working on a new one where I'm making sure there is plenty of space between things. Maybe you should try the site before you make accusations.

You can buy loveseats that fold out to twin or full size beds or you can even invest in a good quality airbed. I redid the design again for you...I literally looked up almost all the furniture I placed - it's all to scale. There are at least 3 feet in walkways - like in the bedroom or between the desk and a dining chair.

I hate to break it to you, but it will be near impossible to fit your current couch in the space along with a queen bed. One or the other has to go. And yes I realize I make the bed area bigger - but unless you want to sleep on a twin bed, it is going to be larger. Now someone on here had a good idea in another thread - you could put two twins in a shape of an L during the day as a sectional couch and push them together at night...with that you'd actually get a king size bed.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v684/evilgirldawn86/Just%20Pictures/?action=view&current=ApartmentTherapy.jpg

The site I use for the floorplanner is here: http://beta.floorplanner.com/.

I did not intend to make any accusations. I really did mean fabulous. But you've really outdone yourself with this second floor plan. I just love, love, love this floor plan and thanks for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am glad you liked it...figured it probably had a better use of the small space. I hope it convinced you at least some to buy a nice loveseat. You could probably craigslist your current one to help pay for the second one...think outside the box though. We got a lot of our furnture secondhand...which also means at least half the price of new.

I was thinking about it later and you could extend the curtain between the bedroom and living room to also cover the office zone if you don't want to be able to see it during the day.

Once you get it redone, just post pictures - I think we're all curious to see.

It would be kinda neat if we had the dimensions of the dressing room - someone might have ideas on what to use the extra space in there for....

The dressing room is 8 feet X 10 feet. I thought about putting my double bed in there.

Sounds like it would be a little cramped - sure you wouldn't rather use the dressing room as an office? You could possibly put a twin bed in there and use it as a guest room for your daughter too.

The

The room is 80 square feet, the bed is 53 inches by 75 inches. This is a win win for me. This will allow me some privacy and also allow me to have a reasonable size Dining Table. This will be my next weekend project when I'm off again. I love to entertain and that usually revolves around good food and good company and sometimes even board games. The recent post on Tiny bedrooms really inspired me.
Especially since my space is larger than theirs.

I guess for me I can't imagine sleeping in that small of a space and then not having much room to get to the closet or bathroom - and there's not really privacy since people will completely have to walk through your bedroom to use the bathroom instead of walking by curtain panels.

This would look wonderful in your apartment - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49843749