The readers have spoken and our 2011 Small Cool winner has been decided! After a neck and neck race to the finish, this years grand prize goes to the finalist in the "Tiny" category, Jordan!
Our 2011 U.S. winner, Jordan, lives in this sun-drenched 460 square foot apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When revealing what she loves about her home, she describes a triple threat — a near perfect combination of light (lots of it), location (one stop outside Manhattan) and most importantly, an infusion of a "welcoming and restorative" vibe.
The small home is filled with personal touches that pop the sense of comfort and personality up a level — a vintage portrait over the stove, mismatched lamps and cozy throws in the living room and a great mini collection of classic chairs. (Which is something this entry has in common with our International winner's home.)
Jordan's biggest challenge is one that most small space residents can relate to — a lack of storage. With just one closet she's had to get creative and therefore, most of her home is populated with pieces that have drawers or shelves (even the bed!), which do the job of keeping the clutter under control so she and her guests can focus on enjoying the sunny space.
Check out the complete entry: Jordan's Light, Location & Vibe
Congratulations, Jordan and thank you for sharing your Small, Cool home with us!
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Nomade Express Slee...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
How to Make Buckwheat Soba Noodles from Scratch
Congratulations Jordan! Well deserved.
To me it is the bold use of art work through out the space... Well done, congratulations!
Congrats to Jordan! I prefered Michael's Mini Manhattan Home and Jordan's was my second choice. What I appreciate the most at Jordan's place is the volontary mismatch of the furnitures that I find clever and smart. I love the bedroom location and the whole appartment planification (correct?). Félicitations !
Congratulations!
Does this mean we get a fuller House Tour for Jordan? I kinda want to see her split-up bath, and more of her kitchen. And a couple more angles on her living room.
What the-?! I check AT every day and didn't even see this entry!!!
Congrats, Jordan! Such a lovely apartment :)
Congratulations Jordan! Yours was the only final entry that I had actually added to my favorites.
I too love your collection of midcentury chairs, as well as the open mind you had on the use of your space. I think putting the bedroom in the narrow space was very smart. You've also come up with some smart ideas for your storage without making your tiny space look cluttered.
Bravo....
Oh, I mispoke, I also had the A frame in my favorites....
Congrats to Jordan - lovely place!
And.. is this where I can comment on the whole Small Cool 2011 thing in general?! In either case, here goes:
Boring. And anticlimatic.
The so-called finale, that is, not the entries. It took about 1 second to vote on the final 4 contestants - and we had a whole week to do that. Then what?! The daily reminders basically just served as, well, a reminder that nothing more was going to happen; check in next week for the results. Really, that's boring. I liked the cup system from last year much better - new match-ups every day kept the competition alive.
Another thing; I wonder if the "like" voting system was completely fair - e.g. did entries posted on Fridays get more votes (on average) than entries posted on Mondays? Did entries posted during Easter generally get as many votes as other entries? I'm not so sure about this and therefore I'd like to see more than just the top "liked" entry per category go on to the final round - maybe the top 3?
oh yay! Congrats Jordan! You totally had my vote from day one.
COngratulation Jordan, and now enjoy de price!!
Congratulations Jordan! Nicely done.
This was not my favorite, but congrats! I have to say I liked the new layout of the Small cool contest, clicking through the photos was easy, and in general a great set up. I always look forward to the small cool contest. Someday, my favorite will win!
I live in brooklyn as well.. and i just got to say: WELL DONE!!! I picked you, and of course YOU WON! YAY!!!
Congrats.
I'm disappointed this year's contest didn't have a winner in each category. There were some strong entries(unlike 2010's contest) more people deserved recognition...
Way to go!
First, congrats to Jordan.
But I agree that the contest was not as much fun this year, and certainly not for lack of great spaces! I miss the match ups in each category.
Congratulations Jordan! I can't wait to see the full tour.
I also vote for bringing back the match-ups. Besides being a more exciting contest format, I like that the match-ups give some of the great non-finalists recognition. Jordan would have gotten my vote regardless, but there were so many entries I liked (ALL tiny and teeny-tiny, I thought the bigger spaces were kind of blah this year). It seems a shame to have hundreds of spaces and then only vote on four.
Oh, and I hope we still get a full tour of Michael's space. And Catherine's 1920s studio. And Shelby's. And Sandy's. And...ok, I'll stop.
Congratulation Jordan for presenting a beautiful small apartment.
Congrats!
I really love that the winner actually lives in a small place. So many of the "small" places on here are triple the size of an average UK house!
Congratulations Jordan.
Appartment therapy: a full house tour please!
I like that this place had a weird layout and she really worked it to its max without making expensive improvements. Very inspiring.
Congratulations!
I found AT earlier this year, so I did not participate in previous Small/Cool contests. I though it was a ton of fun to see what people around the world were doing with their small spaces! Although, I think it would be really interesting to know how much people paid in rent. I saw some places in my own city that looked amazing, and I was super curious to see if they were in my price range or not.
Jordan - Your place was lovely. The file cabinet turned coffee table is such a functional and beautiful piece. Great job!
thank you, thank you, folks! it was such a fun experience; amazing fellow entries and as i've written in the comments on my apt, quite humbling to win. i appreciate your kind words.
all the best,
jordan
Hey Jordan, can I have your landlord's contact info? ;)