Joseph’s Bright 300-Square-Foot Studio

Name: Joseph
Location: Grand Lake — Oakland, California

We live in the beautiful Grand Lake district in Oakland, California, across the street from the iconic Grand Lake Theater. Our studio apartment is about 300 square feet with a lofted sleeping area and we have lived here for about two years. Our neighborhood is full of great shops, restaurants and bars, and an amazing farmer’s market on Saturdays. I also happen to work on the same block, which makes going home for lunch very easy!

I’m not exactly sure how to describe the style of our home. We are not furniture snobs and we just like what we like – not a single style in particular. We sort of accumulated things over time and everything just seems to work together. Our apartment is mostly neutral tones along with some reds and pinks, as well as a lot of green from the plants. We like that our place is comfortable and inviting, and everyone who comes to visit says it is the perfect combination of us. I am a landscape designer so I love having plants in our home, and my partner is an artist and custom framer so we have a lot of framed art on our walls. A lot of the art in our home was done by our friends, so it really makes me happy to see it up on our walls.

My favorite thing about our studio is the tall ceilings and large windows. The windows let in an incredible amount of natural light. The windows also open out towards the street, letting in a great breeze on warm days. In the morning, we get direct sun that reaches all the way to the other side of the apartment. This makes it so that I can grow a ton of different plants in here. I am really proud of a Pothos vine I got a few years ago that only had a few leaves, and now has grown over 20′ long and climbs up our sleeping loft railing. One of my favorite pieces of furniture is a huge Usu (Mortar) from Japan that my partner’s aunt gave us. It is made from a single piece of wood and is traditionally used to pound cooked white rice into a very sticky mass in order to produce mochi. In our home, we use it as a planter holder for our Pothos vine.

I also love our dining table – which was a very simple pine table that we stained and finished. They go really well with a pair of black Windsor Arm Chairs (I think that’s what they’re called) I found at the used furniture store down the block.

Thanks, Joseph!

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