What is your favorite element of your Small & Cool home? I love the light in my apartment. My apartment is in a row house, so it is long and narrow, and gets sunlight from both ends. In the morning, it is on the porch — I live on the porch in the summer! In the late afternoon, the sun illuminates the living/working area. The panel curtains in the living room cast beautiful patterned shadows on the floors and walls. (The panels are home-made fabric panels on IKEA hardware, mounted to the ceiling). I've also tried to work with the artificial light, on a budget. The "track lighting" in the living room is made of cheap hardware store reflectors and conduit that is mounted on the ceiling with hooks. The dining/library area is lit with clip on reflector laps mounted to the bookshelf and bounced off the ceiling to create a soft warm light.

What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in furnishing your Small Cool home? My biggest challenge is that I'm an artist and I do most of my work from home, so my space needs to double as a living space and artist's studio. So most of my space has to function in multiple ways and be space efficient. One of the small space solutions I'm really proud of is my semi-loft bed that is raised to sit above two 3 drawer IKEA dressers. This frees up the second bedroom to house my photography equipment and art supplies. Another solution is my desk, which functions as a photography shooting table as well as a desk, and also doubles as a conversation piece in the living room. Since I'm on a super-tight budget, my resources include IKEA, Craigslist, and the local 2nd hand store. The cool vanity chair in the living room was a 2nd hand store find that I painted with white enamel and covered in a fun fabric, and it serves as a desk chair, extra seating, and a side table (with a tray). The deluxe scratching post in the living room cost less than $5, since it is made out of scrap 2x4s wrapped with sisal, and it is much more satisfying to my cat than my sofas. I've also been unable to paint or wallpaper, so most of my decoration comes from great pieces of art that I've acquired by trading with artist friends.