Went down in the morning; and got back to Penn Station at 12:30am (yes, after midnight). Spent the entire day inside a windowless, heavily airconditioned room sitting up straight and trying to sound as charismatic as, as, as... take your pick, everyone on television seems to have a ton of energy and charisma. The secret - as far as we can tell - is to be working with really nice people, which we were.
Small Space, Big Style, Long Day
There were about eight people in the room doing everything from sound, to lights, to makeup, to chalk boarding, to directing, to getting us coffee and they all had tremendous patience and good humor. They actually made us feel like a star, even when we didn't.
And the homes we saw? Super cool. There is a fellow in NYC who has only five pieces of furniture in his all white apartment with a poured terrazzo floor. There's the odd couple whose apartment is filled with stuffed taxidermy, whose bed is red and whose closet doors are steel. There's quite a few extremely polished and beautiful small pads where the folks have clearly spared no expense, but it looks so worth it. We even saw sneak peaks of Robin Ryan's apartment and Patrick's decluttered marvel. Oh, and the show is apparently topping HGTV's charts, so we might be in for round two.
Ouch! Sit up straight and suck in that gut!
Which brings us to the last little tidbit of info that - if you've read this far - you might be interested in. If HGTV orders more episodes, the producers are going to be desperate for more neat, small apartments to shoot (under 1000 sq/ft), so you might want to start cleaning up the living room. We'll let you know when it happens.
Comments (16)
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I live in Montreal and was wondering if you have any insights into the Montreal apt scene versus that of New York. In many ways the two cities bear comparison, though I guess New York outclasses Montreal (which is saying a lot... I know a few people who consider Montreal their favorite world city!). Any comments would be interesting to me. Thanks!
Small Space, Big Style is such a great show. I just feel better about the world after watching an episode. A perfect example of quality over quantity. My husband, son and I live in a not very large apartment in Chicago, and while we love it, it sometimes feels like we are alone in our lifestyle choice to be carless, home officeless, family roomless, etc.
But then we watch this show and see other folks who are loving their life in smaller spaces. It's a great validation of our choices, as is this website (also one of my favorites...)
Thanks for the update on a wonderful show!
Small Space is a great show but it's about time they taped some new ones. They've been showing the same two or three episodes for months now, as my Tivo can attest.
Maxwell, the short hair, black T and buff look are great on you -- and more importantly, I guess, look great on TV. You always come across on SSBS as so much more compassionate and insightful than that guy from ReadyMade. (I usually cringe at his sarcasm.) Can't wait to see the new episodes! They, along with this site, keep me inspired and moving in that "small space" direction, from my 2000+ sq 2-story (with basement, sunporch and detached garage) 1940s brick home in small town Illinois.
As a response to COTB-- I moved to Montreal for a year after living in New York for four (and I love them both equally!). Montreal apartments (at least for renting) are about a third to a fourth of the cost of New York. On an expensive day. At least in terms of searching for apartments, Montreal is much more relaxed: they don't require your past thirty years of tax stubs, your car payments, your paychecks, etc. etc. New York expects all that as well as huge amounts of cash. This is probably because there is much more vacancy in Montreal. And because there are stricter guidelines for landlords in the renting process. On the other hand, while you do pay much, much, much more in New York, you know that the liquor stores will never go on strike.
I wasn't impressed by montreal after hearing so much about it. I truly don't mean to be a new york city snob, because i am not. I still think Minneapolis is a cool town, but I just didn't think Montreal was all that and you can't compare the two cities in my opinion. It's like comparing new york city to Boston, which i like too, but i think they are just two different places.
I really enjoy the show - congrats!
Peace.. Annie
Awesome show. Gives me a lot of great ideas to implement in our 1200sq ft condo. It actually inspired me to live with less stuff and I've started to throw and give away a lot of things that were just sitting around taking space :)
Also, Martin Amado can be seen whipping up some nice rooms on WSVN
Hi Maxwell, Musa the builder I found on this site did a wonderful job of building a simple sleep loft for my micro-mini crash pad. I'm definitely cleaning up...
Love the show! It's one of my favorites that I must watch, as I have a small space that I recently moved into and am constantly looking for ideas to decorate and organise.
I enjoy the show, but I cringe every time a 1000 sf apartment is called "small." My husband and I live an a 450sf alcove loft studio in NYC. We've been here for 7 years. We know small. So far, SSBS hasn't inspired us. I'm holding out for a new show: No Space, In Need of Style.
Well, I know of at least ONE apartment coming up under 500 sq ft... :)
You look utterly at home (pardon pun) in front of the camera, M.
Was watching the show before I knew you were going to be on it. You did a great job!
Wow... this is a great site... and offers good advise ... I have a very small space in NYC (about 700sf) and am desparate to re-do it.... recently got a cute small china cabinet and plan to re-do my whole place because of it... if a new show comes into NYC, can you tell me how I can apply for it? Thanks and keep up the good work... we small apt people need you!
Jami
Does this show ever deal with small spaces within an apartment.
As in, we have small hallway/storage area (3ft x 7ft) that we want to make into a home office/coat area.
I can do a written or video pitch. Anyone know what production company make the show?
Thanks! Julie at jslotnik@msn.com