apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Well done. I love the use of color and the accent wall is great! Technically this seems to be an efficiency, not a studio. I'd lose my mind in there, but kudos to Laura for making the very best of it. (And on a dime!)

Nice job for such a small space! But I am feeling a litle naseous...I can't imagine living in one room. You are very brave.

so cute...i guess i'll have to stop complaining about my space being too small to bother decorating!

love the glass ball lamps. i purchased very similar ones from target during the global bazaar clearance earlier this year.

jwilli, they have the glass ball lamps at JC Penney too. That's where I ended up getting mine.

Thanks everyone for your comments!

This is where you can get the glass ball lamps. The small one is Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters

And the larger one is from Target.com
Target

Oops. The HTML didn't work. Click my name for the small lamps.

.. and the larger lamp.

Applause! Great job for such a tiny space.

Very cool, the colors are great. It's put together but also with an inviting "real people live here" feeling.

Bravo Laura...job well done!
I love love love the blue accent wall.....What brand is that?
I'll stop bitching about my 1100 sq. house now...

hdtx - it's Dunn Edwards Nocturnal Sea.
Thanks again for the complements :)

WOW! Love your place. The colors and style are awesome. Great job!!

love what you have done with your space! Great choices, very elegant!

Dare I ask, what does a studio this size go for (roughly) in LA? (I'm in NYC, so already know the craziness of housing markets! If you care to share, to satisfy an East Coaster's curiousity!)

thanks for bringing us into your home!

This place is really cute and girly (in a good way). However, there is something strange about the kitchen (Laura had no control over this since it's a rental) which I see all the time in apartments: the disproporationately large kitchen and/or kitchen appliances. Here we have a small one-room studio that obviously only one person (probably also young and single) is going to be living in. So... FOUR BURNERS? Why would one person living in a tiny place need four burners? How often will she have four pans of food cooking at the same time... she's not operating a Denny's! If they had installed only two burners she'd have about 25% counter space in her kitchen. There is obviously no thought given to the logic (or lack of): the way people live today, how often are they cooking a huge multi-course meal for themselves? (answer: never) And if all these burners are for the purpose of cooking for guests, where exactly would they sit and eat this multi-course meal? There is no room for a table in this place. Are four people going to sit on her bed and eat dinner?
I live in New York and I go into friends' tiny apartments that have inappropriately huge refrigerators, tons of kitchen cupboards, like you're cooking for 50 kids in an orphange or something, and then not even enough room for a sofa and a tv. And of course no room for a dining table and chairs... Cook a big meal and then go eat it out in the hall!

Very nice living space ... well done. It's pulled together, organized, edited and attractive.

As I started looking at these pictures, I was both admiring what was done with this apartment and at the same time thinking that I myself no way could do 250 sq ft. But then I started reminiscing about one of the best places I ever lived, an equally tiny efficiency in Ithaca NY, when I was a postdoc at Cornell. I didn't have much stuff way back then, and the place had great light, and a wrap-around window where I had my reading chair, and it just smelled good(!) Now I'm wondering if I still have any photos. Thanks for bringing back the memories! 250 sq ft can be plenty.

"And if all these burners are for the purpose of cooking for guests, where exactly would they sit and eat this multi-course meal?"

Jeff is so funny! I never thought of that. I'm curious now. Laura, do you cook multi-course meals?

But seriously, this is a lovely, sophisticated space. If Laura is able to keep it as neat and organized as it looks in her photo set, then it's probably a really comfortable, cozy place to live. Nice job!

Actually, Laurie Colwin, in "Home Cooking" describes dinner parties she hosted in just such a tiny place. Delightful book.

Pasta, sauce, and a hot veg would take three burners, and I'm sure it's possible to come up with a use for the fourth one (dessert?). One of my gripes about cooking for one or two is that every meal seems to require all four burners and an immense amount of pot-washing.

If the stove is electric (which Laura's isn't), you need four burners in order to move pots from "boil" to "simmer."

This adorable apartment has created a moral dilemma -- I try not to do mass-chain retail furniture shopping, but that coffee table is exactly what I want. Sigh. This is how West Elm makes its money, no doubt... cruelly figuring out what people actually want.

Jeff, what a strange comment re: 4 burners. I live in a small studio apt. and 4 isn't enough sometimes. Why would you assume that a single person only needs 1-2 burners? I'm curious as to your conclusion/assumption.

This apartment is downright fabulous. I too live in a very small space and it is great to see what someone else has done with her/his space.

BTW, four burners, rarely use even two. The remaining are covered and become a place for the utensil holder etc and leave more room on the counter.

Laura, You have done a fine job decorating your space. I live in New York and my apartment is about 300 sq. ft. After looking at your space, i'm thinking about changing the the wall color to make a bigger impact.

Wow.. Just got back from a Christmas weekend trip and came back to all this. Thanks so much!

I too wonder why they put in 4 burners in this tiny rental. Not just 4 burners but 4 burners that are oddly placed really far apart. I'm assuming they just had one left over from something or got it really cheap and didn't think it through. I must compliment the manager though. It was his idea to create the closet. It was originally where the kitchen is (no kitchen was here before). Now the closet is using space above the staircase that goes down to the basement in the hallway. It is a very creative use of space and gives me lots of storage which I could not live without!

I chose the dark teal wall color because it's one of my favorite colors. I took a chance and was hoping that it would draw your eye that way and make the space seem larger. It worked! I generally disagree with the idea of using only light colors in small spaces. If the natural light is good (which it is here) then why not use some dramatic color to give the space some life! It really helps.

Apartments in LA are ridiculously expensive. I lived with a roommate from Craigslist for 6 months and couldn't take it anymore. I decided that I'd give the studio living a try since that was all I could afford on my own. Since I sold almost all my furniture before moving across the country, I didn't have a problem fitting it all in to the studio. For those that asked.. it's $900/ month including utilities and it is less than half a mile from the beach. In Santa Monica, that's pretty good. I'm not home often and I'm a very clean/organized person so it works out just fine for me.

Thanks again and happy holidays!

Laura, do you know what the beige color used on the other walls is called?

I have been searching forever for the right shade of beige paint and have bought so many in trial and error that I've lost count, but yours looks absolutely perfect. *crosses fingers*

I think it's Rustic Taupe (DE 6129) by Dunn Edwards. I'll double check when I get home. It took FOREVER to pick that one. I had about 10 different paint samples taped to the wall and looked at them during all different times of the day. I'm really happy with this one.

Oh yes, if you could please, that would be fantastic! I was recently at Dunn Edwards and I'll head right back in again first thing tomorrow morning if I hear back from you before then.

I've got my walls all primered and ready to go and was about to SETTLE for a color I am not happy with at all until I saw yours!

Laura, do you have two different shades of taupe paint color in here? - it looks like the mirrored closet wall is darker than the other.

I like whatever color is on the wall with the thrift store chair and Target curtains - do you remember what that one is called?

I know you said one of the colors in there might be "Rustic Taupe" but you weren't too sure.

I apologize for being a pest, but I just spent the day painting a whole room w/ a supposed beige that ended up just looking white in the end *scream* so I'm dying to know what you used since I know for sure it looks good.

It's Dunn Edwards Rustic Taupe on all three walls and Nocturnal Sea on the other. The color really changed throughout the day and on different walls depending on the light. I would suggest painting a sample area on each wall if you aren't totally sure before doing the whole thing since these beiges depend so much on the lighting.