See How a 900-Square-Foot Layout Looks in a 1-Bedroom Apartment vs. a Single-Family Home
Gawking at the tiny footprints of New York City apartments is the internet joke that never gets old. Personally, I love copping inspiration from small spaces to make the most of the nooks and crannies of my own rented apartment. And I’m often struck by how much people are able to stylishly pack into a space, and how different people use the same spaces. That’s why I’ve made a hobby out of comparing and contrasting the varying layouts of homes with the same square footage.
In this instance, I’m looking at a recently sold single-family home in San Francisco and an off-market one-bedroom apartment in New York’s West Village. Although they’re on opposite coasts and one is a condo while the other is a standalone house, they share a footprint of about 900 square feet.
The New York unit is shaped like a box, with a small area jutting out for the foyer. Having an entryway makes any apartment feel larger — walking into a vestibule rather than straight into the living area gives the sense of abundant space — and this one capitalizes on that luxury with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that provide a ton of open storage.
The foyer is also flanked by a coat closet on one side and a walk-in closet on the other, providing plenty of room to tuck away cleaning supplies and other things that might otherwise make the home feel cluttered.
From the foyer, you enter the joint living and dining room, which takes up more than 300 square feet of the home’s total space. Plenty more built-ins and windows with skyline views help the space feel expansive (and, for the owner in the listing photos, provides more than enough room for towers upon towers of books — my personal dream). Plus, a brick wood-burning fireplace injects the spacious room with a dose of coziness.
Built-ins are the name of the game in the bedroom, too, proving the power of using a few inches of floor space to tap all of the storage potential from your blank walls. The bathroom is relatively small, but uses a pedestal sink to free up some visual space, while the beautifully rustic galley kitchen prioritizes a big sink and swatch of counter space. A window at the end of the galley brings in natural light and makes the whole room feel bigger.
In San Francisco, meanwhile, the 900 square feet (technically two feet shy of the West Village condo’s 902 square feet) is spread across two separate floors of a single-family home. After walking up a few steps to the front door, you enter the living room, which features a mix of white walls and wood paneling.
A small wall with a built-in bench creates a foyer of sorts, and on the other side of that divider is a hall wide enough for a petite home office space. In the second half of the open living area, you’ll find the dining area and, beyond that, the kitchen.
An interior pass-through window connects the sitting area to the modern kitchen while still maintaining separate rooms — and that pass-through doubles as handy barstool seating for two.
The second floor is made up entirely of the two bedrooms. The primary bedroom is about 235 square feet, and is big enough to accommodate a king bed, double dressers, and a reading nook. At about 100 square feet, the second bedroom isn’t tiny, either, and feels larger, thanks to the bright white walls and sunny window.
And of course, one of the perks of owning a home is the immeasurable blessing of having your own outdoor space. This single-family home boasts a large, fenced-in patio that’s perfect for entertaining or installing some raised garden beds. That space might not count as part of the home’s square footage, but it’s a piece of the layout you simply can’t ignore — and a perk most city-dwellers would happily give up a few interior square feet for.
