Love it!

Cute and well kept, but where's the color? It's all white and beige. The only color is the blue house for the guinea pigs...

the layout and use of space is good. while i agree on the color and may have left the string lights over the windows out in my design it remains a strong example of small space living.

well done :)

As long as whites are used in variated hues, such as they are here, it's very effective.

I think Natalie's use of neutrals and whites are beautiful and works. Not everyone who refrains from using color does it because they are scared of colors :). Sometimes it's a deliberate, well-thought through choice which works for the person actually living there.

Well done Natalie!

This is so calming. And I love that birdcage!
If I lived here, I'd try to do a bit more with the seating in the main room...maybe a love seat or a bigger bench at the end of the bed? Regardless, I would definitely like to cozy up with a bottle of wine in one of those chairs and watch the sky darken in the evening. :)

Soooooooo nice and calming! I bet this is the coziest place to live! Well done!

A superb combination of neutrals combined with light and architecture detail. Very well done - can be very tough in rented space. Your floor plan is excellent - what software did you use? Thanks!

I love the layout and while color is used it has a serene ambiance to it, very relaxing after a hard day at work? Where did you get the house plan software?

The white picket fence for the piggies is ingenious. I need to redo my girls' cage, and though I don't think the fence would work so well for my decor, you've inspired me to think outside the box.

I also like that you didn't cram the space full of furniture — I think you could have fit a sofa — but this way there's lots of room to breathe!

Very serene. I really like this one. And I love the white picket fence.

Quite well-executed, sophisticated and calming -
- Would be even better without the Xmas lights.

Overall, Thumbs up!

I'm loving the whites and ivories. I would have loved to have seen a really luxurious, fluffy all-white bed treatment. The twinkle lights aren't my fave either, but wow - what a view that would be to wake up to!

Living in one room this is nice and calming. I would of like to see the critters area.

Is this around Grand Ave, Lake Merritt? I use to live there its feels familiar.

Love the rug, especially. :)

Could anyone please tell me where I can find slip covers for the chairs pictured?

I have a pair of really comfortable chairs exactly like that, but they are sun bleached and look really ugly.

"Could anyone please tell me where I can find slip covers for the chairs pictured?"

Those are IKEA chairs - so you'd get slipcovers from either IKEA or BEMZ.

askme- looks like Ikea
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99873871

they make slip covers even for discontinued models
http://www.bemz.com/index.php

Spare but not bare. I likes it :-)

what the heck is that white picket fence thing?

Just adorable, thanks for sharing!

I lived in a cream-and-white apt. in San Francisco, this reminds me of it, though yours is better :)
Also, for the christmas lights detractors, they look bad in a photo but are really quite nice in the evenings as lighting, they are very dreamy.

love it - wish you would've included a pic of the guinea pig :)

Beautiful! Love the layered neutrals -- here is looks rich and spacious. My one critique is that I'd move the chairs and what looks like a tv armoire to face the beautiful picture window instead of the bed.

You've done a great job keeping the place airy and open, and I think your guinea pig enclosure is a cool idea/good solution! I like the wicker chairs in the kitchen a lot too.

For me, the bed dominates the room, which is one of those things most of the studio-living entrants struggle with (duh). I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, but I'm also sort of confused by your seating. On the one hand, with the bed dominating the room, it seems like you probably don't entertain a lot, even though you have a set-up for a little two-chair tete-a-tete. If you don't have people over often, I'd have a more comfortable/less formal chair just for me in front of the window. On the other hand, if you are keen to have people over, I'd probably put a more substantial loveseat/settee at the foot of the bed (as someone suggested above) to face the two chairs. It certainly seems you have room for one, and a nice low-backed piece would still allow you to see the windows from your bed.

All that said, if it works for you as is, then it works for you! This is all that matters.

I think this is lovely and the main room feels like a gorgeous big bedroom but it lacks a main living room feel to it. The bed dominates. I love the colour scheme and the dining area is lovely but all in it looks too much like a bedroom for me.

@Coletta -- as she mentioned, the white picket fence houses her 2 guinea pigs.

I love this, though I don't like the xmas lights. It would be nice to have a floor lamp in the corner or something instead. Excellent use of neutrals -- terrific execution.

I like it a lot. I think the restricted palette is what makes this feel so sophisticated and lovely... very pretty place.

not my style, but so well done. now that's what i like!

I love the collection of little doors above the living room windows. It's a such a random collection to have but it works.

Wow. I wish I could pare down to this in my little place.

LOVELY! bravo.

and love the picket fence, and the light chain. i would personally use more colour, but this is beautiful!!!

really beautiful... so much white and beige scares me, only because i have 2 young children. and the energy conservationist in me suggests moving your fridge away from your stove. but its still really pretty! for such a small place, you have more storage than i do in my 2 bedroom house!

Not this again. String lights were in, then the winds changed, and now everyone says "ew!" They and the rest of Natalie's place are charming, IMO, and the neutral palette suits her style. It can seem lackluster, but doesn't here, and I'm sure she knows she could add a "pop" of color if she wished.

When I saw that white picket fence, I just knew you had peegs. How 'bout that! Lovely apartment.

BEAUTIFUL.

ooh. i wanna see the guinea pig <3

Not my style, but its undeniably adorable!

I'm usually a color person, but I find this calm, relaxing and cozy -- makes me want to curl up in a chair and have a glass of wine with you!

hi everyone,

thanks for all the feedback and the votes! i am just so thrilled to be on this wonderful site. to answer some of the questions:

i used the free version of the software at floorplanner.com to do the floor plan.

yes, this is off grand avenue near lake merritt -- good eye!

the chairs and slipcovers are from ikea, as others pointed out; the chairs can be really hard, so i would suggest ditching the seat cushions the chairs come with and getting foam cut to fit instead (it's relatively inexpensive).

i agree that the string lights don't look that great in the picture (lesson learned). i think in real life they look a bit better, though -- they have beaded shades so they look more "done."

it was really interesting to hear what people liked and what people would do differently (especially in terms of furniture arrangement). i wish you could all come over to have a glass of wine and meet the pigs! their names are chloe and olivia, and as it turns out, they are mostly white, so they match the room perfectly :-)

natalie