This is so cute and inspiring! It can be frustrating living in a small apartment, but I officially have no excuse for not decorating despite how small my apartment may be!

Ashley
http://rainycitystyle.blogspot.com

Would like to see more of this.

Love the colors!

This looks really familiar - was it in the colors contest, too? Not that it matters, just want to satisfy my curiosity.

Super cool! It takes a lot of courage to paint your walls colors this bright, but it works great here. I love to see a place that's this individual and full of personality -- it looks like someone very creative lives here. I'd love to see more of it.
Am I the only person who would love to know a little about the people who live in these places? How old they are, what they're into, their careers, that kind of thing. It would make their environments more interesting by putting them in some perspective/frame of reference.

This is just chock full of individual pieces that I would love to own. Beautiful to look at when all mixed together, too! Gorgeous!

Oooooooooooooooooooh! I'm from the 'zoo as in Kalamazoo. A lot of great housing stock. Reminds me of houses from my youth.

BrooklynRob, I would like to know more about them, too.

Very cool little place. Those colors do work very well together. But a couple questions: where do you sleep? And what is that wall art above the turntables? Please explain.

I do not like the spider paperweights, however. They have spiders in them. I do not like spiders.

Spiders.

hahah, great presentation of your floorplan :) very colorful place, too!

I agree, I have seen this place before...and I am still not crazy about that yellow color used, but I like red....plus you gotta appreciate the killer collection of LP's and how nicely they are displayed.

I love your use of color! The place has loads of personality without feeling cluttered with knick-knacks... the last picture freaked me out though (I LOVE insects but spiders terrify me).

BrooklynRob, I'd like to know too.

I think this very interesting and colorful, yet I also feel as if the photographs provide little idea of how the space is laid out or how the rooms work together. Pretty cool, though.

nice use of color...something i would want to do, but never could pull off like this....beautiful.

i have to say though, it seems as the entries this year contain lot of micro shots, or shots that don't really showcase how people actually live in these spaces (sleeping, cooking, eating, etc.) before i moved into my current 490 sf abode i scoured the archives of past small cool contests and got tons of inspiration on how to make my place work for me.

design is about function. i want to see more innovative ideas!

Wowie-zowie! Love your colorful place--and nice floorplan presentation (glad the insects are encased, though).

I, too, would like to have gotten a better sense of the layout from the photos. I'd like to see more, especially the kitchen and sleeping areas.

Thanks for sharing your home.

I'll third this: Where do you sleep? Including the furniture in your floorplan would be helpful if you're not willing to show your bed.

this is the first one that has really caught my eye! THUMBS UP!

i count 8 pieces of furniture designed by charles and ray eames. that's a pretty high ratio per square foot.

i wanna know what the piece hanging above the vinyl is. i think it looks really cool.

Regarding photos: My digital camera only seems to have a field of vision of about 45 degrees, so it is rather difficult to maintain a sense of context because the small size space does not permit standing far enough away to show the necessary wide field of vision. When only 5 photos are allowed, this is what you get. This actually isn't a bad overview of the space, what you are missing is another small seating arrangement down from the LCM, the bookshelf to the left (front facing) of the daybed, my closets, and the kitchen. The shot of the stereo shows the u-shape of the whole apartment.
I sleep on the daybed with color coordinating bedroll. It is actually quite comfortable, and it dispenses with the mess of traditional comforters, etc. When the back bolsters are removed, it is basically a twin bed.
I would love to show a close up of the found-art assemblage above the stereo (I made it and I'm pretty proud of it--It Is COOL), and more pictures of everything; I will gladly do so if permitted. If this happens, I'll probably draft someone who has better photographic equipment (and the skills to use it) to take pictures of all the stuff like my crazy little electric green italian bicycle that folds in half that's in the kitchen next to the stove...

Collect vinyl much?

Totally jealous.

Clever way to inject your style into the Floor plan!

i would like to know more about the folks who live in these places too... but at the same time a space like this lets us know about the inhabitant on its own! very unique

also is it me or are all the smallest spaces that are shared heavily populated with eames chairs?

well... if you'd like to show off the cool piece above the stereo i'd love to take a look at it. i am obsessed with both grids and found art. do you have a flickr or anything where the rest of these photos might go?

Yay vinyl!

Perhaps when the contest is over you can talk AT into doing a house tour of your place. Then you can share a lot more photos. I want to see the kitchen and the sleeping area and close-ups of some of the details.

Thanks for sharing. Thumbs up!

Can I come hang out? Love the colors!

You should enter the fall colors contest!

Kalamazoo is a real place?

I love how the color theme goes from room to room. Beautiful!

Way cool, and so happy to see Kalamazoo in the Small Cool contest. Now will someone from Lansing/East Lansing post too, please?

Looks great. Ironically, I just bought a DCM from you a couple of weeks ago. Truly a great space!

Wow! I hope that's working well for you, Mr. Gray!

...and Thanks!

The chair is working very well and the love of my life likes it too so I LOVE it! Now to find a matching chair [glances at the DCM in M. Cole's kitchen]. I tried to describe how cool your home is to her and now you've shared it with the world. Thanks!

Love the way you've used the strong color to segregate and highlight the different spaces. Love the white trim. Love the Eames pieces. Love the piece above the vinyl. Appreciate that the entry photos are artful but agree that I would like to see a floor plan and your sleeping space (unless, of course, we're looking at it but don't know it). Thanks!

"It's less of a challenge than a frustration. By definition, a tiny little apartment can only physically accommodate the rational organization of so much stuff. This has kept some compulsive collecting impulses somewhat under control, however..."

You, M. Cole, are a genius.

Nice colors! Creepy bugs.

your record shelves look like expedits but red - please do share their source?

The record shelves are sections of 1 X 12 boards nailed & screwed together, painted red.

Yeah Kalamazoo!!!