Small Spaces

Sometimes living small means paying up.

Even if you're dealing with a very small laundry space, there are ways you can fit in all the functionality of a much larger room. All it takes is a little ingenuity.

With a little convincing, a close friend recently converted her tiny front room into a fabulous walk-in closet. Because of all the natural light it was also an ideal spot for a small vanity, but finding one the right size was nearly impossible. As luck would have it, an old side table and a little problem solving went a long way. See the perfectly pretty transformation here!The table was selected because of its diminutive scale, which was absolutely necessary in such a tight space.

This couple wanted to create a space in their Upper West Side apartment dedicated to displaying and enjoying wines. While they didn’t have a lot of kitchen space, they did have this under-the-stairs closet, ripe for transformation.The homeowners were connected with Ecostruct, a Brooklyn-based design/build firm, through TheSweeten, a service that aims to connect New Yorkers with design professionals for renovations of all kinds.

What do you do when you’re living in a small studio apartment, but don’t want people to be able to see your bed immediately upon walking in the door? Apartment Therapy reader Christina was faced with this particular dilemma when designing her friend Ann’s apartment and decided to get creative.

This NYC apartment kitchen got the job done. But there were a few things about it that irked — the L-shaped layout blocked part of the window, and there wasn’t a lot of storage space. The appliances were outdated, and the laminate cabinets had seen better days. Plus, the whole room just felt, well… little. What to do?Can you believe it’s the same room? Architect Nalina Moses removed the sink cabinet that was blocking access to the lower part of the window.

In a small space, just a few changes can make a big difference. The owner of this Brooklyn Heights studio knew she wanted to update her kitchen (and add a dishwasher!), so she turned to designer Sarah Zames, owner of Brooklyn design firm General Assembly. Under Sarah’s guidance, a few small updates came together to make a big impact. Check out the finished product…Ta-da!

You may have seen the kitchen in this West Village apartment, which got a modern update courtesy of designer Carly Yates. One of the apartment’s bathrooms also got a much-needed facelift. Check out the transformation after the jump.This bathroom renovation is all about the details. Lots of clever choices keep the room spacious, modern, and very functional. From Carly: The large and light feeling of the bathroom was achieved by wall mounted fixtures that allow the tile to flow underneath.

When Billy and Sally bought this 775 square foot apartment in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, it had a few of the less-than-charming features common to many NYC area flats — badly worn floors; a tiny, cramped kitchen, awkwardly separated from the rest of the space. With the power vested in them as new homeowners, they decided to do something about it, embarking on an inspiring renovation that shows just how much living you can do in a small space.

Some parents worry that their baby’s closet is too small, but what if all you have for a nursery IS a closet? Kari has been inspired by all the small nurseries we’ve shown in the past and wanted to share her own small space baby project: her closet turned nursery.  Kari writes: We are about to have a daughter and wanted to stay in our one-bedroom apartment, so we converted our walk-in closet into a nursery. Our space was 43′ x 77′.

Yesterday we saw the reveal of Wash U freshman Laken’s spruced up new digs. Today, Laken is showing us how she created the custom bed canopy shown above. If you like the look, you can make one for yourself! Materials Large 24″ diameter embroidery hoop Two curtain panels (we used one package of IKEA Vivan, for $9.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference — and this simple but innovative small-space solution is the perfect proof of that. West Village homeowner Franz loved his small studio apartment, but not the lack of storage space. So he came up with a plan to add storage, without sacrificing any floor space, and found a contractor to help him make his plans a reality. You can see a layout of the studio here. So, not a lot to work with. Franz’ idea?

In small rooms it just makes sense to “go up” and optimize your vertical space. Faced with the challenge of making better use of a tiny bedroom (7′ x 12′) in Manhattan, architect Benjamin Marcus conceived a lofted bed structure with stairs and desk and storage below. Benjamin tells us more about this project: The room has two points of entry on opposite long walls, making it a very tight space.

“Myrtle” is Capri’s 1964 Travco Motorhome, which she drives all over the country while on vacation. Over the years she’s also put a fair amount of work into this labor of love, slowly returning Myrtle to its Beatles-era glory. See what it looks like today! From Capri: Myrtle is 27 feet long and is powered by a 318 poly engine. She is equipped with a full bathroom, kitchen, couch, bench, closet, ample storage, rear double bed and two entrance doors.

Washington Heights homeowners Pepper and Marshall were thinking about combining the two bathrooms in their two-bedroom co-op into a single, much larger, bathroom. But they changed their tune when they realized how much the combination would hurt their home’s resale value — and how much additional money and time they would spend moving all that plumbing around.

Although they originally thought about combining the two baths into a single much larger one, budget considerations prevailed, and they decided instead to keep the bathrooms separate and make the most of each. Here you see ‘before’ pictures of bathroom #2 — if you missed the first one, you can witness its transformation here.

This is Marissa’s old bathroom. It’s certainly not the worst ‘before’ we’ve seen here on Apartment Therapy — but beneath its bland, dingy-80s exterior lurked a nasty surprise. The previous owner of Marissa’s co-op spent a lot of time away from home, and didn’t realize that leaks were causing extensive water damage. On top of that, the random dropped ceilings were making this tiny space even more claustrophobic. It was time for a change.

Ok, so here’s a fun one. I know you guys love seeing transformations that involve entire rooms, and especially entire apartments, and this ‘before’ was particularly bleak. It’s not the worst we’ve ever seen, but it is a perfect example of the kind of soul-deadening blandness that afflicts NYC postwar apartments. In addition, the homeowners, who had just moved from a two-bedroom, were expecting a new addition.

Homeowners Shannon and Scott loved their home, except for one problem: their two-story house didn’t have a bathroom on the first floor. This was particularly annoying and inconvenient for Shannon — at home during the day with their young daughter, she found herself constantly running up and down the stairs. So Scott and Shannon turned to architect Andrew Mikhael, who identified a spot where they could add a bathroom, without adding to the home’s foundation at all.

At 50+ years old, this vintage bathroom was starting to show its age. The sink and tub were pitted and dented, and since replacing them would mean subbing in new tiles that didn’t match the old, vintage ones, the homeowners decided to go for a full remodel — and bring this aging bathroom into the modern era. Between them, these two homeowners knew quite a bit about interior design.

After living in their apartment for twelve years, Carrie and Jack felt that the time had come to overhaul their bathroom. They’d tried little, inexpensive fixes over the years, like a new medicine cabinet and new lighting, but nothing made their bathroom feel any less cramped and, with grout stained by years of use and tiles replaced haphazardly over the years, just plain dirty-looking.

Heather’s Upper West Side apartment had a problem common to a lot of New York apartments, big and small — an outdated floorplan with small, chopped-up rooms. In particular, the galley kitchen was cut off from the rest of the apartment, not a great fit for the way people live now.