I don't know if I could do the shared bathroom thing! The loft bed is really neat though. This is a very cute space with a lot of potential, but I don't really see the personality shining through yet. Maybe a rug or some art or paint might help that out a bit? Gorgeous cat by the way!

I loved seeing how you were able to use the loft area in your apartment. I have one that I'm not using as I'm waiting on a ladder. I was trying to figure out how your cat gets up there ... I figure that's what those wall shelves/steps are for?

Sorry- I know there's art on the wall. What I meant to say was art (pictures or objects or whatever) on those three empty shelves off the kitchen :)

Great use of space, but it would be better if you could go more charming & less austere.

I think the empty shelves are the cat's way up into the loft. Kitty wouldn't really be able to use the ladder.

This is actually one of my favorites, though I admit it may be due partly to the very thoughtful kitty steps / shelves. I like how spare it is, and really appreciate the selective use of bold colors.

I love it! The lack of clutter and extraneous stuff makes it so peaceful to look at. The loft is adorable, as is the itty-bitty kitchen.

Sugar certainly looks happy! I am impressed with how you have adapted to the limited space

Yes, the shelves are for the cat :)
I remember this apartment on saucydwellings. I adore the simplicity, the floors, the lofted area. As a girl who grew up with five younger brothers, not having my own bathroom would kill me though.

it reminds me of my college dorm. just sayin'...

lack of color (not my space if white's her thing then awesome!) notwithstanding this is the type of space i dream of. clean, simple, and with needs covered in a pleasant way.

This is such a difficult space: tiny, narrow, with an odd ceiling structure ... and a column in the middle. That column is a nightmare.
Love the loft bed and stairs, both human and feline.

Not only small, but SUPER cool.

hats off to ya on this one. i would have a break down. haven't seen a shared bath scenario since '97. it was astounding. the other guy checking it out was from europe (maybe). he was impressed in a good way.

There is a lot to like here but the way there is one desk chair and the sofa facing a TV makes it feel like it's designed for taking in media and not interacting among people.

Eeek! The word that comes to mind is hard-core. I love your sweet kitty, though.

I love this space. The only things that are missing IMO are a small rug under the desk and a big plant next to the credenza (not the window side). Too bad I can't vote twice.

This is definitely a small-cool <I>lifestyle</I> entry. Common bathroom in the hallway?

Kudos for making your life work here or rather finding a space that fits your life efficiently!

Thanks everyone for your nice comments and votes! Yes the empty shelves are cat stairs, though one night she surprised me by climbing up the ladder like a human. I've only seen her do it the one time.
The shared bathrooms aren't bad at all. They're cleaned every day by professional cleaners, and it's only a ten second walk down the hall.
JulieR: I rarely have people over, I tend to meet up with friends in public instead, so I didn't plan out my apartment with socializing in mind.
Elise_B: I actually have plans to put a big plant in that spot, as soon as I find the right one! It's hard to find plants that appeal to me and are non-toxic for my cat (she likes to munch on leaves).

Hello - I was going to report the spam on this list - the GHD hair straighteners one - especially as seeing that the spammer has spammed various areas with the same message but gave up when I saw the lengthy spam reporting form. Can you please simply the system so that there is just one click to notify the editors of spam? The current form is such a palaver that, really, it's preferable not to do anything. Thank you.

Great what you made out of this small place - love it that you kept it simple instead of using a lot of colors which would make it just too crowded and feel narrow. Simple simple simple - very nice and calm.

@hiwelder: so often, "just sayin'" is used for the same purpose as "no offense, but," which is to excuse oneself for being rude while saying something rude. I mean, if you're going to be rude, go all out, man! Heh.

Anna, your place may not be to everyone's taste, but there's something clubhouse/treehouse-esque about it, the teeny kitchen tucked away under the most excellent loft bed. It makes the little girl in me squee, and wish I had a friend with a place like this, so I could visit and live out my old treehouse fantasies for a few days. Spare, but also kind of adorable, and where did you get that bedside pendant? There is, as hiwelder commented, perhaps a shade or two of the dorm, but most dorm rooms suck, and I'd love to have spent my college years in a place like yours.

@martigny: co-sign. A "spam button" would be awesome. I emailed about a particularly bad spate the other day, but it is kind of a hassle, specifying the threads, offending users, etc., so it does seem easier to just scroll on by.

I love your restraint. I would never be able to live without more "stuff".
Also, the cat stairs are a great solution to your loft bed.
Wish you'd posted a picture of the view from the windows.

CAT STAIRS!!! aweosme.

small and very cool. have a thumbs up.

@martigny: I totally agree with you, I've been rapporting those annoying spam comments, but it's such a hassle!! Second vote for a 'spam button'!!!

Shared bathroom ? Total "no way" for me.
And where do you store your clothes ?

Whoah. I have to get up to go to the bathroom about twice every night. Just imagine climbing down that ladder and wandering out into the communal hallway in your birthday suit (or pyjamas, whichever you wear) to go to the bathroom! There is no way this apartment could work for me.

cute

The word that comes to mind for me is "sparse." And those bare tree branches on the walls accentuate the sparseness. That may be the exact aesthetic she's going for, and I know many others appreciate that style as well. To me it would seem cold and depressing, especially on all those cloudy SF days. The space itself is cute as a button - it could be a lot cozier with an area rug and a little furniture rearrangement. I'd put the sofa perpendicular to the wall it's on now and back the desk up behind it. That would free up space for a chair over by the window and perhaps a bookshelf on the wall where the desk is now.

to me this looks like a post-prison apartment. Sure, it's small, but there has been no real effort put into the design. Other than the cat stairs, its not thoughtful. The kitty box is under the food prep area, ewwww.

I'd mount the bike on the wall, move the branch over the sofa, put the desk in the area between the kitchen and the pole (where the small dresser is now), put the smaller dresser in the entry where that mirror is (perhaps mount the mirror over it)...just get things not so lined up in a row...then I'd get a rug and a floor lamp or something to define the living space versus the desk/eating space...oh and I'd get a few little upholstered cubes or something to sprinkle around so you can have guests sit - they could live under the window or one could be a side table to the couch...

oh, and paint the dressers something fun that ties them together and makes them look less accidental and of such disparate styles...

see ikeahackers for ways to hide the litter box in plain sight.

Where does the litterbox stay?

The apartment itself is kind of great for what it is -- although it is very dorm-esque. It could be made so much greater with an attempt at coziness, especially in SF. That doesn't mean you have to move away from a spare aesthetic, just finesse the furniture layout and add some artwork.

For instance, you've got this great city view, but the sofa faces a TV and a blank white wall. Ditto the desk. I agree with the earlier poster about repositioning the sofa and desk so they take advantage of the view and also create living/function areas.

When I first saw the shot of the column and the bottom of the loft space, I thought it would be great to have somebody paint it as a tree trunk and its branches -- not in a hugely green, leafy way -- but a spare way. The branch on the wall could echo that (although perhaps above the window rather than where it is now.)

All of that said -- the cat stairs are genius!

The sofa is almost as long as my apartment is wide, so there's no way to position it perpendicular to the wall, unless it was with the back up against the window. I did actually try that but it made the apartment feel much smaller.
I do have a bookshelf next to the desk now, it's the lighter cabinet.
Yes the sofa faces the TV, but, well...I watch TV and I'm not one of those people who tries to pretend I don't. There's some artwork there above the credenza, I know it doesn't really show in the photos, but I have Ork city prints of San Francisco and Portland on either side of the TV. I chose to not set up my apartment to accommodate friends because, as I said in a comment above, I very rarely have people over and tend to meet friends out in public instead, so it wouldn't really be logical to design my apartment around socializing or have a bunch of extra seating. The rare times that I have more than one person over at a time, the windowsill works as seating as well. It's about 16 inches deep.
The look I was going for was austere simplicity. Living in downtown SF can be really crazy and overwhelming, so when I come home I want everything to be quiet and serene.

Shanalulu: the bedside light is by Tord Boontje.
Jany: My clothes are in the credenza. It's huge, has nine drawers, so there's room for plenty of stuff in there.
Stefaniieee: the litterbox is under the sink.

shared bathrooms in the hallway.
surprised that is even legal in a permanent residence!
halfway house or hostil maybe...but where you LIVE....
no thanks.

LOVE the cat stairs. What a great idea. This is such a super-cool place. I have major respect for someone that can make this work as well as you have.

I love it! This is my dream apartment!

I could never live there. I get claustrophobic just thinking about the architecture of the place, but I really admire what you've done to make it uncluttered and fitting to your lifestyle.

This apartment is so lovely. It's like the pared down, streamlined version of what I wish my life could be. When I see this apartment, I see the passions and priorities of the person who lives there - the city, the bike, the lamps. It has plenty of personal style! And I bet it's super easy to clean!

Do you think this person should go buy hundreds of tchotchkes and collectibles to fill the shelves? Some people don't like having all that clutter around.

The cat stairs are awesome! My kitty would go nuts for those. One idea to make them seem more intentional and less shelf-like is to mount part of a flor tile on top. This would give Sugar some traction too. :)

Anna, love the place! I just wanted to suggest a cat-friendly plant for you since you said you were looking for one. I just got a beautiful plant for my birthday called a Calathea - they come in a few color variations, but the one I have has purple on the back sides of the leaves and I love it! (This is not my plant, but it looks like it: http://tinyurl.com/232dfm7)
I don't have a green thumb, but so far it's been pretty easy maintenance, and my cat has done some nibbling, but not too much destroying. Anyway, one suggestion for you!

Anna you mention that the light next to your bed is by Tord Boontje, but was curious if you purchased it off the website or found a store that carried them?

I have two cats, 11 & 1 year old, who both use the ladder to a Tromso loft bed whenever they feel like it. I actually started putting their food bowl on top of the bookshelf next to it to ensure they get exercise and keep it out of reach of the dog.
Love your space, especially the loft and the beams.

PS I have a full blown vegetable garden in my windowsill and the way I protect the human stuff from the cats is to make sure there's always plenty of catnip and wheatgrass in a separate area for them to snack on.

It's surprising how well it works.

I love this space! I wouldn't choose to live here, but I can appreciate that it would be very calming. If you can keep up with the minimalism (and not bring much home) it would be incredibly easy to keep clean.

I LOVE the cat stairs - such a thoughtful touch.

thesmilequeen: I haven't seen the Tord Boontje light in any stores, I got mine from www.unicahome.com.

Olivia4953: Thanks for the plant suggestion, that looks like a nice one!

I feel like this place is small and cool based entirely on the architecture and design, not so much on what you've done with it, but then again, how much could you do with this teeny tiny space? Kudos to you for making it work. How tall is the ceiling in the kitchen? It looks like you would have to stoop!

I really dig the ceilings and the MDF flooring. If there was a private bath and kitchen, I would love to have a space like this. Way to not be afraid to fit full-sized furniture in there too!

Very cool..........love the exposed brick on either side of the window. You just have to be creative and use the space to it's fullest. Great job!

I think you have made your space very girlie and Sugar is lucky to have you.

~kylie

Now that's minimalism. Kudos.

I really love the simplicity of this place-- I think it really lets its architectural details shine (and hooray for no clutter!). It looks so peaceful, like a clean and beautiful, modern tree house.

Hello again! Now that the contest is long over, I wanted to share a link to many more photos of my apartment, in case anyone would like to see!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noodylicious/sets/72157622879239207/