Inside a 720-Square-Foot Los Angeles Studio Apartment

This Small Studio Uses “Soft Zoning” to Feel like Multiple Rooms

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About this tour

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Home Type

Studio Apartment

Location

Los Angeles, California

Style

Bedrooms

Square feet

720

Sq ft

720

Living in a studio apartment means all your living activities — from sleeping, to working, to relaxing, and even entertaining — have to happen in one open space. The biggest challenge in this 720-square-foot studio apartment in Los Angeles for Ola, who’s been renting the space for two years, had to do with the layout.

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Credit: Leela Cyd

What’s the oldest thing in your home? Either my couch or my lacquered bar cabinet, but I have a feeling my couch might be older.

“My biggest challenge was making my space have ‘rooms,’” Ola begins. While some renters incorporate physical barriers, Ola went in a softer direction. Instead of physical walls or dividers, she uses rugs and furniture to create separation between the different areas. It’s a layout strategy sometimes called “soft zoning.”

Credit: Leela Cyd

One vital element to her soft-zone approach is a particularly great couch find. “My couch is my favorite piece of furniture in my place,” she admits. “I got it secondhand from Facebook Marketplace. I tend to buy couches secondhand and get them reupholstered, but it was the first time I saw a vintage couch and wanted to keep the fabric. It’s really loud during the day with the natural light, but in the evening, it’s muted and very cozy.”

Credit: Leela Cyd

As a product designer and a home, travel, and design content creator on YouTube and TikTok, Ola works from home and needed the right workspace, but initially struggled with desk placement.

Credit: Leela Cyd

"I have this white wall in my living room, and so many people have asked me to put a painting or art on the wall (I share my home online, so it invites a lot of opinions)," Ola writes. "I ended up deciding to leave it bare because I have a lot going on in my place. Every corner you turn, there’s something to look at, and it’s nice to have a bare wall to give my eyes some rest. Also, I use the wall as a screen to watch TV on my projector at night."

“I didn’t want it in my bedroom, so I landed with putting my office in my living room. I tucked it into a corner, so it doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s a part of the living room,” she writes.

Credit: Leela Cyd

Ola’s studio apartment is located in a former office building built in 1912 that was converted into residential units in the early 2000s, and the building’s historic character plays a big role in her home’s style.

Credit: Leela Cyd

“The bones of my place were so nice that if I dressed it up with trash bags, it would still look good,” Ola jokes. “I love the dark mahogany wood frames that let in a lot of natural light, the red brick walls, the honey blond wood floors, and the blue kitchen cabinets that contrast the warm tones of my space.”