apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Mine is in the 1000-1500 category, but I share it with four other people. Still, the house isn't nearly as space-efficient as I'd like it to be.

I clicked the 401 - 549 category, because mine is like 539 or so, but seriously my old apartment was 284, and it worked well enough for me to live there for 5 years.

Wow! My first NYC apartment was 285 square feet. Curtis, maybe we had the same apartment -- Did you live in Hells Kitchen?

My condo is 975 sq. feet, and feels huge! I live by myself (after having spent many years in a 500 sq. ft. apartment) and I swear I haven't been in the spare bedroom in a couple weeks. I like the space that I have but I can't imagine going any larger. Small is cool!

My first home, a fee simple TH was 748 sq. ft, total. My second home was 212 sq ft (i traveled in a motorhome for 4 years.) My house now is 950 sq ft with another 300 sq ft in garage and covered porch.

I liked the smallest the best.

I think my studio is about 215 sq. ft. I kind of like one-room living! Though it might be nice to have room for a sofa AND a bed (and a separate kitchen for that matter) ... haha, some day.

2957 sq. ft. not including the basement (half finished)

Oh God I am a glutton... Our condo is 2850 sq ft. We live on the first floor of a grand Victorian mansion. The house was converted to condos about 20 years ago, and they designated each floor a unit. All in all, the entire house is 6500 sq ft.

Ours is 1500 but that includes the basement which is sort-of finished (we just moved in) but not really live-able yet. We spend all of our time in 750 sq feet. Actually, the same was true when we lived in Ohio in a three-story 1911 house; that was just wayyyy too much room, no matter how cheap it was. Smaller is indeed better!

Our mid-century ranch is a comfy 2,064 sq. ft. And I still can't believe that to some, our house is considered "small."

Insane...

My family of four, plus dog, are living in 500 sq.ft.
We have made wonderful changes to create more space including a loft for our 3 year old...baby in crib underneath.
Next project, a murphy bed. Friends who don't live in the city say, "how do you do it?" and some friends from the city say, "you have so much space!". Features of our home include wonderful light, original wood detail, tin ceilings and the most inspiring...a rent stabilized lease.

Our house is about 1800 square feet and it's more than enough for the two of us. This house is considered a starter home for most people in this area. I'm astounded by that. In my opinion, it is HUGE, but it's worth it because we invite friends over all the time & we like having space for out-of-town guests.

approx. 260, in downtown San Jose. Pseudo-New York style living on a budget.. I love it..

our house is about 1800 sq.ft. That IS a lot. We lived in 1br apt in Brooklyn, it was very spacious, but it had very funky layout and most of the space was wasted. After the baby claimed the BR and made us sleep on the futon in the living room - we bought the house :-)

we have a 1000sf early 60s ranch way down here in bham - me and my wife share it with two chihuahuas.

My place is a 715 sq. ft. one bedroom with a sun room - my previous place was about 1100 sq. ft. but I only used about 600 sq. ft. of it. I like small best.

My boyfriend and I share 720 square feet, and it's perfectly comfy for both of us. If our bike collection keeps growing though, we'll have to find somewhere with a garage... and maybe a yard so I could have a garden. I can't see myself ever living with more than 1500 square feet... who wants to own that much STUFF??

ours is 2200 sq feet, spread between 4 levels. each level is fairly small, so our home doesn't have the feel of being so large, and it takes up much less land because of the design.

still, sometimes it feels too small... even though we don't have a lot of stuff, we have a lot of activities we enjoy doing at home.

My boyfriend and I are renting the main floor of a 900 sqft bungalow with a suite in the basement.
It's 2 bedrooms (one which we've converted into an office/library) with a big open kitchen and an enormous backyard. I have a feeling we're on a double lot.
We used to live in a 750sqft 1bdrm apartment which had enough space (we were gluttonous with our things then), but it was laid out poorly and the combination of our book collection, office space and livingroom became cramped and hard to live with.

We're happy with our almost 1000 sqft. I'm even happier with our 500 sqft space in our yard dedicated to gardening!

1200 sq ft, bungalow-ish/cottage-y thing that was originally 2 camps stitched together into one house in the 20s... we're a family of four, including 2 kids under 6 yrs... plus a 70 lb dog (and there were two of those until recently). Works for us as long as we keep tweaking spaces... and we like tweaking. :)

I always wonder why people want to clean rooms that never get lived in, and scrub more than the bare minimum amount of toilets. I grew up in a house 4 time the size of this one and honestly never felt at home until I landed in my first 8 x 8 ft dorm room!

Small is such a relative thing. Our house is aobut 1500 sq ft, including the finished basement. Sounds like a mansion to some but I have lots of people who look aghast - you raised three kids in that space? (the subtext here is "and they didn't turn into phsyco axe murders?!") When I tell them we did it with one bathroom and no dishwasher, it throws them into a really tizzy. And once they've seen my kitchen - 7'5" by 8' 2" - they really are amazed.

I've a much to larg (~1700 sq f)t townhouse. Never go upstairs. It has become a very large play room for my two cats.

It's for sale - I'm planning to downsize and move nearer to work.

I grew up in 1200 s.f. for a family of 5 with 1 bath (and no dishwasher... and wood heat!) It sure would have been nice to have just a tiny bit more space. There was nowhere to get away from anyone! Now, I thoroughly enjoy every inch of my 2,200 green square feet (still on the small side here in the Midwest). I do have a great appreciation for efficient and artful space planning even though it's not a pressing need for me.

Just moved into a townhouse, approx. 1600 square feet. Previous apartment was one bedroom, a little over 700 sq ft. I thought that was spacious! It's great having the extra room although my master bedroom is looking kinda bare at the moment! This site is great for inspiration as far as new furniture, colors, etc.

Leslie, I want to see a housetour of your apartment! :)

I like small... my 700 sq ft apartment feels kind of big and overscaled (which it is due to very poor cookie cutter layout design).

I am looking to buy a house, but it's absurd how big they are! Realtors keep saying that the smallest homes available in the area are about 2,000 sq ft (Phoenix, AZ)

1155 square feet. Two bedrooms, two baths, dining "room", fireplace, largish living room, one closet converted to my "office". Was tight with two kids, but getting better. Big enough for the cat to run around in and hide.

I think I've got about 400 sq. feet at my current studio. My old one was 293 and I actually miss it quite a bit. The new place, while larger doesn't have the same personality and the layout makes it difficult to divide the space.

I don't really mind the one room living thing but I really wish my kitchen was separate.

my little house is 730 sq. ft, pretty tiny for a stand alone home, but it has two bedrooms, is laid out well and perfectly suited to me. besides, having over 10,000 sq. feet of yard for gardening and an irrigation ditch lining the back make it all worth it.

my condo is 600sf. I live by myself and it seems way too big for 1, especially since i used to share a small place in SF - we each had about 200sf

Tiny studio at 295 sq.ft. But love love love living by myself. (vs. sharing in this crazy rent of a town SF). Like CanadIna , I can only dream of having space for a sofa. I chose instead to have a nice sized desk/dining table.

we just moved back into a 800sf flat after having been in 1600sf house for six months. I have to say while I was happy at first with all the space, we used only 1/3 of it on regular basic and I'm like my smaller but with more character flat far better.

Our flat is 839 sq. ft. It has a 200 sq.ft. dining room adjacent to (via an original 1929 double door) an equally sized living room. Now there is only one bedroom. Our baby son has now claimed it so we are turning the dining room into a kitchen/dining room and making the current kitchen (only about 75 sq.ft.) into a baby room for him.

This is considered too small for 3 people in this area but we love it. Its close to my husbands workplace and there is a sunny backyard.

1800 square feet, which is lovely for our family of four. We have a very open living space that I love while the sleeping spaces are appropriately small.

We have a 1200sf house and I feel like it is huge!

Wow. The house I grew up in was 867 sq. feet, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 5 kids, and 2 parents. I still wonder how we did it.

I live in 836sq feet, and I find it just about right. I have enough space to move around, but I still have a 2nd bedroom that doesn't do anything except storage (and very little of that). Hmm.

I think a lot of the time, it's how the house is laid out that can make or break it. I could live in 550 or less, if it had the right layout.

my one bedroom flat is a little under 400sq ft. me loves it.

Our traditional Nordic farmhouse is about 2000 square feet. More room than we need.

The two of us live in about 900sf. The only problem is that the layout is weird: in addition to cramming three bedrooms into the space, the designer decided to install the hallway at a slant.

So the bedrooms aren't rectangular: each corner is 90 degrees. Because of this, a queen bed only fits in one of the room, and only shoved up against the wall on two "sides" with an unusable skinny corner of space wasted behind the headboard. (I stuck an end table back there.)

I'm a stickler for not having a TV in the living room, so I end up requiring more space for a separate family/TV room. Otherwise, I feel like the rarely-used television will slowly reach out its evil tentacles and engulf my every moment.

(By the way, the sample size here are AT is going to be very skewed from the national norm. We're house shopping right now in Middle America and have so far only seen one house for sale for under 1000sf.)

After living alone in a 700 sq ft one bedroom for 16 years, I've been very happy the last two years living in a 1650 sq ft, two bedroom apartment. It's wonderful to have abundant space and almost never have to worry about whether a piece of furniture will fit.

I rent a 331 sq ft apartment (built in 1887) in Pittsburgh. I must add that I am currently completely remodeling my 144 sq ft kitchen (leaving a 187 sq ft of living space)--exposed a brick wall, working on an 8' reclaimed bowling alley lane peninsula, complete with a 1953 Magic Chef stove--I even replaced the floor joists! Even huge projects are tackle-able at this size, and much less money (everything I've done in the kitchen [including laying cork tiles] has all cost less than $1200). I absolutely love it. Even with no kitchen, I still don't feel cramped. I will never live big again.

I found out yesterday that a friend is building his home-- 11,000 sq ft. 97% bigger than my current space. I feel sad for him.

I thought my apartment was 850 sq ft but i was informed recently that i was wrong and it was 735 sq ft. But it really does feel huge and i love it.

We have 1150 sq feet.

My next door neighbour raised four kids in her house, which is identical to ours (except her basement is finished with an adittional two bedrooms and a bath, something we can't do in ours), while we only have two. I don't know how she did it!

Unfortunately, this is considered "small" in my neighbourhood. Most folks are buying up the houses around here, tearing them down and building larger homes. A full 2 story home looks HUGE on a block with homes only a story and a 1/2--especially when you consider our roofs are "lived -in" while theirs are just plopped on top. Ugly.

My apartment is 240 sq ft. I think the size isnt so small. it has a great layout and i am within walking distance to everything. it's pretty awesome. the single downside is i have no dining table.

550-600 sq ft
2 bedroom 1 bath rented apartment
Alone with 2 pets
My largest apartment ever, mostly cause the cost of living is so cheap in Missouri, even cheaper than in Ohio where I'm from. Plan to buy my first home in 2-3 years probably a bungalow in the 1000-1500 sq feet range.

A Necessary Equal, sweetie, your space is 3% the size of your friend's, his isn't 97% bigger than yours.

2300 s f and loving it after several cramped apartments.

about 1100 square feet for just myself. I feel decadant admitting that I have that much space just for me. Add to that a garage, a garden shed and 5k sq foot garden and I do believe that I'm taking up more than my fair share of space. The last place in which I lived by myself was a 350sq foot studio.

I live in a house that is 1900 sq. feet. I do feel guilty sometimes but it is the smallest floorplan in the subdivision and my husband really really wanted to live here. Our son and I enjoy it here too as well as our 120 pound Akita/Husky mixed dog, lol. My kitchen is the largest room in the house. The builder was smart; he made the bedrooms and bathrooms tiny and put all the square footage in the public areas. Lots of windows, too. Nineteen of them and I love the light! I wouldn't mind living in a smaller home but it doesn't look like anyone else in the family wants that so I think we'll be staying here. It cost more than I like to heat it and cool it and cleaning it is a pain, but I have to admit, I love my big kitchen and I adore my dining room, simple though it is.

When I bought my house the realtor claimed it was 700 sf, but my measurements are showing more like 600 sf. When I finish the basement it will add about 300 sf. I used to live in a 1400 sf house but I find that I use the same amount of space now, as I did then--the same rooms basically. Kitchen, bedroom, living room, library, bathroom. It all comes down to where you spend your time.

@ Pretentious...you're so right! I've a place 3% the size of his future home...thanks for the correction. The bottom line = I love small.

305 square feet of love and joy. My tiny little studio, www.flickr.com/photos/lola_danger, has been redone since these photos I took during the very first #1 Cure, including replacing that lounge with the West Elm Tillary modular sofa as a window seat and installing a ceiling-hung curtain room divider to hide the "bedroom", has me feeling richhhhhh.

I live in a 460 sf (balcony is another 70 sf) in Hell's Kitchen. I I used to think it was really small but when I see the size of studio apts. in the new luxury high rises, my place looks palatial.

I live in a 400-ish sf studio in Oakland. I say 400-ish because the main room is 350-ish and there's a more apartment left after that. It feels really big to me. I love living in a studio.

I have 615 sq ft (as opposed to the Realtor's claim of 700), which is slightly more than twice that of my last apartment, at around 275 sq ft. I am giddy at all this space.

My 450 sq ft fits me perfectly - not too big, not at all small. For the three years before I bought this place I lived very happily in a 290 sq ft 7th-floor walk-up and for a year before that I squished into a bright yellow cube under the roof that was an enormous 107 sq ft all in. Wish I'd taken photos - it was impressively well organized and perfectly comfortable (although it did feel a leetle bit small when my fiery boyfriend decided to come and visit for ten days during a heatwave...)

I've been in my 500 sq ft rental for 25 years. The living space is perfect - I can entertain 20 easily, or have 10 for sit down but the 2 tiny closets could not be tolerated without using my garage for storage.

I live in a studio that's 12' by 17', with a tiny kitchen (4' by 6') and small bath (5' by 6'). It takes some maneuvering...

Two of us, a baby, an energetic dog and a fiesty cat live in an 1100sqft two story townhouse with an 8' x 10' patio. I wish we had an office/project space and a little more storage. Other than that, we're pretty set.

800 for one person; a first floor apartment carved out of a victorian. it's three rooms: a bedroom, a large foyer, and a living/dining room, plus a shotgun kitchen and a tiny bath. it gives me room to do projects and still have a lot of breathing space. i think it's just the right size for me. i like how i can have belongings and not feel claustrophobic. if i had a live-in SO, i'd probably have to get something bigger. i don't really feel like sharing the amount of space i currently have.

to the people who live in 399 SQFT or less...how do you have any room to have home-oriented hobbies other than reading/watching tv? like sewing, or painting furniture, or art or whatever? you need space to both do the task and to store the equipment for it. i'm genuinely curious.

my fiancee and I managed to find an 1800 sq. ft apartment in Chicago... we actually just stumbled upon it and didn't realize the novelty of the size (coming from Oklahoma were space is fairly cheap, 1800 didn't seem large to us at all) until after we signed the lease. but it still doesn't seem that large because the floor plan is older and not very open: 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, dining room, kitchen, living room, two sunrooms, and a storage room all separated.

makes me feel a little out of the club here at Apartment Therapy... now I want a smaller apartment heh. but my studio in Oklahoma was 600 sq ft.