Hello AT,
I have just recently moved into a beautiful new apartment with a very interesting bedroom - its is completely round - about 11 feet in diameter!
Thanks! Bryan
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My friends have suggested the stolmen line of storage from ikea for shelving options (for books and the tv and my computer) - but Ikea appears to be out of stock and i was wondering if you could pose this question to the fine readers of AT: have any of you dealt with a room-in-the-round? I am on a budget and in need of shelving that can hopefully take advantage of the architecture surROUNDing me. Are there any other solutions to this besides getting multiple poles to create a geometric shape that will fill into the circular walls, or paying for custom made shelving!?
What would be realy cool to use in your round bedroom is the round bed from IKEA! Check it out at www.IKEA.com
Whatever you do, don't put everything against the wall. Maybe let the focal point (the bed) float in the middle of the room. If your headboard is high enough try putting your desk behind it.
Second thought, I don't think you room is big enough.
you may want to look out of the the window when you're n bed .... so I'd look for the nicest view, place the foot of the bed against the window and create storage space (freestanding wardrobe the width of the bed?) at the head. And work from there....
can you provide a floor layout?
Max, each pole of the Stolmen serves as the vertex of a new angle as you adjust the angle of the shelves to hug the wall as it curves. It appears to be the best option for minimizing lost space (squaring the circle), short of purchasing something tailor-made for this particular room that you would no longer be able to use once you left.
I used to own a Stolmen that served as a closet expander. It doesn't have to attach directly to the wall, like Elfa or comparable systems, and I think that's what makes it such an attractive option when your wall is not flat.
Like Aja noted, I think your room may be too small for you to join everything to the bed, or have a floating focal point. Instead, it would be ideal to find some way of suspending your shelving, desk, etc. away from the wall on a setup like the Stolmen, so that you don't have to fight with the wall or lose much space.
Are there similar shelving systems that don't fasten directly to the wall?
Check out www.rakks.com for their L-bracket system and pole supports. It is similar to the Ikea product.
You could try arranging your furniture perpendicular to the wall (maybe back to back?). I'm not sure how well that would work with such a small room, but you could "square the sides" per se by exposing flat edges on the back of dressers or desks to put other furniture against.
RE: Ikea's round bed--I tried this out in the store and found that the best place to sleep on it was right down the middle (across the diameter, I should say). I'm only 5'2" but if I lay to the side, bits of me kept flopping off the edge. :)
We have a rotunda-like bedroom as well and we did an open IKEA closet system flooring in the middle of the room (granted, our bedroom is not entirely round, and is much longer. We considered the Stolmen line, but instead we used a more industrial shelving line, b/c we liked the galvanized metal look.
This also allowed us to set the bedroom into two zones; sleeping and working. Click on link for a drawing. You room is likely too small to set up in the same way, but maybe if you create your closet as a "divider"...
Try this site http://www.solaleya.com these are round houses and they have a gallery of images that may give you some good ideas.
I grew up with family friends that lived in the Frank Lloyd Wright spaceship style house in Usonia. The house is round, completely. Spiral stairs etc. the beds were all on the exterior walls of the circle, they were all pie shaped with the point of the pie cut off. Maybe you could design your own pie shaped captian's bed? don't be scared of power tools, 2 x 4's or a bit of plywood and some castors!
Regarding the Stolmen... there is a very similar shelving system available from Design Within Reach (which, of course, is barely if at all actually within reach); it's quite a bit more than the Ikea version, but it exists nonetheless.
DWR's wall-mounted system, like Rakks' and ISS Designs', requires a flat wall. The poles fasten directly to the walls; no curve can be accomodated. Stolmen poles fasten only to the ceiling and floor, allowing the shelves to contour to, but never actually touch, the wall.