There are SO MANY more TAA tips and tricks to talk about (*cough*Visitmysite!*cough, cough*), but today I’ll leave you with some storage n’ sourcin’. First up, here are some ways to cram even more storage into your teensy home.

If you’re short on floorspace, you’re usually left with no choice but to climb the walls. This can be tricky for a renter of a TAA — you can’t put a bunch of holes in the wall without putting a hole in your security deposit. Still, a screw here or there never hurt anyone. (That’s what she said.) Just fill the holes with toothpaste later, no one will know.

If you’re a bad little boy or girl, you have to go stand in the corner. If you’re a good TAA-dweller, you use your corner for even more storage. These glass shelves are from The Container Store.

A few months ago I posted about using hanging wire fruit baskets in your bathroom to make up for a lack of sink countertop space; this basket is from Target.

IKEA Hacker reader Angela came up with a clever solution to not having any room for a nightstand: mount a basket and a cup holder on the wall.

Back at floor level, there are a ton of options for furniture that can pull double duty.

Ottomans are one of the most popular pieces to provide storage space. I’ve chosen the ones above because they look damn good while they’re at it. From left: The P’Kolino Ottoman from Clever Tomato, the Round Water Hyacinth Stool from Supermarket, the Dwell Storage Bench from Target, and the Canary Nail Button Storage Ottoman from Target.

Even your dining table can hold a few odds n’ ends for you. This one from Velocity not only has a square drawer that’ll hold your fast food ketchup packet cache, but the leaves drop down and out of the way.

Don’t be afraid to completely disregard the original purpose of a piece of furniture. Try a piano bench instead of a traditional bench or stool anywhere in your home, even if your musical talents are limited only to Rock Band on Easy Mode. The bench is the perfect size. It’s not too long like a bench, and it has a bit more room than a barstool. They traditionally have storage under the seat, and I’ve found that they’re usually pretty affordable. The one above is from Wal-Mart (I know!).

Now on to a few specific storage scenarios, whether you’re a budding cat lady or Cat Stevens…

If your home is owned by a cat kind enough to let you live there, check out the Out of Sight litter box. It’s not the smallest litter box I’ve ever seen, but consider this: it completely hides the box and supplies, and it keeps kitty from tracking little rocks (or worse) all over your floor. If you have to share all 300 square feet of your home with a litter box, it’s worth the extra space to keep everything tidy and out of sight.

If your garage band is more of a tiny-apartment band (sure hope the neighbors don’t complain!), try the Guitar Hanger to store your axes in the closet.

Before I go, I’d like to leave you with a few resources for small-space inspiration, tips, and products.

I’d have to be cuckoo-bananas not to mention Apartment Therapy’s annual “Smallest, Coolest” contest. Every year they take submissions from people with fabulous and teeny-weeny apartments and pit them against each other in a battle royale for the best in each division and for the overall grand prize. Hm, maybe 2010 can be my year?

Also be sure to check out targeted sites like Small Furnish, the Microliving community on LiveJournal, The Compact House, and Unclutterer. Flickr is also a great place for inspiration, with groups like Small Apartment Living and Small Spaces – Innovative Solutions.

But honestly, most of my inspiration comes from reading sites like Design*Sponge. There are too many others to list, but my Google Reader is packed full of interior design sites that are for a general audience. But even if you’re living in an apartment smaller than a dorm room, still check them out. You never know when they’ll have a feature on small spaces, or when you’ll see something you love so much you’ll find a way to make it fit your needs.

I hope you’ll come and visit me at Tiny-Ass Apartment as I continue to explore every nook and cranny of the space-challenged.

Thanks!

Simone

Tiny-Ass Apartment

Twitter: TinyAssApt

If you’re a good lil’ TAA-dweller, you did as we discussed in Tuesday’s post and cordoned off a section of your space to serve as your work area. Even though it’s not a fancy office suite with a receptionist and waiting room, you can still be super productive in your own tiny home office. (Just as long as you stay away from Facebook and Twitter!)

Right now I’m in love with the trend of turning closets into home offices. You can always find another way to store your clothes, and hey — how did you earn the money to buy those clothes in the first place? Yeah, a working, productive desk FTW.

CasaSugar has a gallery of 10 closets-turned-offices…

And CNN has a gallery too.

Whether it’s for your desktop computer or laptop, a place to pay your bills or to craft and sew, you need to have a good desk. Just like getting dressed in the morning, sitting down at a desk takes you from “slob mode” to “work mode” mentally. Trying to do real work on your laptop while sitting your couch in front of the TV does not lend itself to GTD. But because of your limited space, it’s important to have a desk that does a lil’ something extra.

Secretary desks are another great way to get away from your work once you’re done. Their defining feature is their hinged door/worktop that allows you to close up shop at the end of the day.

This Graham Smart Technology secretary desk from Pottery Barn is undeniably classic and beautiful. The $799 price tag? Eh… not so much.

For something more playful and modern, PointClickHome found this funky secretary on DesignSpotter. The “Alley” desk, by Swedish designer Isabel Ersa Hallerstedt, is still looking for a producer; I damn well hope someone rises to the task!

Even though the Mayfair Steamer Trunk secretary from Restoration Hardware is worth three months’ rent, I can’t help but love the rich leather and nailhead trim; the interior is so crisp and orderly it looks almost military.

Finally, though not a secretary desk, this Jay Desk and Hutch from West Elm is ingenious; just like other nesting tables, you can pull out the smaller desk underneath to expand your worktop

Your desk is bound to become a magnet for all things electronic, attracting just about everything with a wire, cable, cord, plug, socket, or port. Having a spaghetti-like mess of wires under your desk is not only an eyesore, but it takes up precious room as well. To get your tangles under control, start by labeling each cord (no more praying that you’re not unplugging something essential by accident), bundling cables together and locking them down when you can, wrapping up excess lengths, and hiding it all away.

Cute labels for all of your devices, from Spoon Sisters

Cable Turtles come in just about any size to fit any cable

The WM25 wire stay from Doug Mockett sits on top of your desk and holds those wires that you’re always reaching for

The Cable Box from Blue Lounge is a quick and easy way to neaten up — just pop your existing, messy power strip inside and run the cord through the slot

Once you’re got your office and desk squared away, have a little fun with your accessories. No boring green hanging file folders for you! My faves are definitely See Jane Work and The Container Store. With the right, cute tools, even filing can seem fun. Who says work has to be work?

Unfortunately, your bed will also likely take up the most space of any of your other pieces of furniture, and in a small home you can’t sacrifice that much room without getting a little something back. Today we’ll explore three ways to reclaim some of your bedspace, with hideaway, loft, and storage beds.

Hideaway beds either hide completely, allowing you to reclaim space when you’re not using them, or just hide in plain sight and perform a second function. The granddaddy of all the “now you see it, now you don’t” beds is the Murphy Bed. Amy Azzarito did an great article on them here at Design*Sponge for her “Past and Present” column. You’ll also want to check out this article on Houzz for some more unique Murphy beds.

A current model from the original Murphy Bed Company

A wall bed from The Closet Factory, ’cause you just know if you have a cabin in the woods, you’re going to need space for all your freeloading friends, too.

The DOC bed from Resource Furniture. Do you think it leads the Autobots against the Decepticons in its spare time?

As cool as these hideaway beds look, there’s some question as to how comfortable they might be. We all remember crashing on friends’ futons in college, right? Not so great for the ol’ lumbar support. Let’s look at some beds that stay beds. Mmm, a real mattress!

Without a doubt, one of my favorite methods for reclaiming space in a tiny-ass apartment is to move UP. Loft beds do exactly that; they move your sleeping area up above eye level, allowing you to use the space underneath. Loft beds can be built into the architecture of your place, or be standalone pieces of furniture. You can chose a variety of ways to get up to the bed area (ladders, stairs, or something more unique like a tansu step chest). And what you do with your new-found floorspace is up to you! Two of the most common uses are as home offices or closets, but if you want your own “bat-cave,” well, that’s up to you.

Here’s a standalone piece with a ladder going up to the top and a home office underneath, from Charlie Brown’s Apartment Therapy house tour

Dornob featured this modern-but-cozy built-in

This one, also from Dornob and made by TumideiSpa, has everything: a closet underneath, stairs to the top, and desk space to boot.

If you’re looking for a bed that won’t cause grievous bodily harm if you fall out of it, consider a bed with built-in storage. Many come with drawers or cubbies for you to tuck away anything from clothes and shoes to those “special magazines” you don’t want your mom to find.

I love this HEMNES daybed from IKEA: small, storage space underneath, and can double as a couch during the day.

The baskets on this Stratton bed from Pottery Barn are cute, and can also be modified or swapped out for different ones for a new look.

You can also convert a regular bed into one with more storage using bed risers (like these below from Target), plus sliding baskets and bins (like the DILLING and DEGERNES below from IKEA).

A few storage bed roundups:

Apartment Therapy: Chicago – Built-In Storage Beds

CasaSugar – 10 Beds With Built-In Storage

Tomorrow we’ll get out from under the comfy, cozy covers and get to work! We’ll discuss mini home offices that’ll keep you productive in your TAA.

The numero uno problem with living in a small space is that it feels, well… small. Your bed is steps away from your desk, which is right next to your kitchen, which is butted up against your closet… Packing everything one needs to LIVE THEIR LIFE into one tiny area makes it feel crowded and overwhelming. That’s no way to exist! Your home should be a place of comfort, fun, and productivity.

There’s a great deal to be said about organization (we’ll get to my obsession with drawer dividers and labelmakers later), and the first thing you must do in a tiny-ass apartment is organize the SPACE. Not just the things in it, but the actual square footage of your place. Think about the different areas you’ll need: sleeping, eating, entertaining, and work areas are the most common. Distinct areas that each serve their own purpose not only make your place feel bigger because everything’s not mixed together, but it gives you a personal sense of calm and order. Once you’re done paying your bills at your desk, you can leave it all behind when you walk over to your sofa for some vegging out with your TiVo.

In a studio, you’re not going to have fancy things like “walls” to delineate those areas for you, so you’ve gotta find a way to do it yourself.

The most obvious dividers are the physical kind. There are screen dividers, both ceiling-mounted and those that sit on the floor (check out these shoji screens from Cherry Tree Design, or these woven panels on tracks from Smith + Noble). There are curtain dividers. Then there are those clever dual-purpose dividers like large bookcases; they provide storage while also breaking up the space.

My original TAA. I used the white curtain as a wall between my sleeping head and the front door on the other side; the dark blue curtain could be pulled out to the foot of the bed for privacy if I had someone crashing on my couch. And yes, I still sleep with stuffed animals.

Flickr user lauracattano, who was featured on Apartment Therapy, has a cute sleeping nook and a cute cat.

IKEA’s trusty EXPDIT bookcase as a divider, also featured on Apartment Therapy

Check out these other sources for room dividers:

Apartment Therapy: Chicago – Top Ten Room Dividers

Apartment Therapy: Chicago – Flexible Room Dividers

The Office Stylist – Bamboo Dividers

The Office Stylist – Room Screen Dividers, Tres Tres Chic!

Real Simple – Hide Temporary Chaos With a Room Divider

If your landlord allows you paint, you can use color to divide your space without sacrificing the room that physical dividers take up. Lauren’s Santa Monica railroad-style studio (below), which was an entrant in Apartment Therapy’s “Smallest, Coolest” contest in 2007, uses color to make the distinction between the main living space and the bedroom. There’s only a suggestion of a doorway built into the wall, and Lauren’s also put up some curtains for privacy, but it’s really the turquoise blue of the bedroom that lets us know we’re looking into a wholly separate room.

And finally, if you’re in the master class of Room Division Studies, the mere arrangement of your furniture can break up your living area into separate sections.

Ron Marvin is an interior designer who fit this adorable studio into what was once a hotel suite. Even though the place is only 300 square feet, he still has definite work, sleep, and entertainment areas. Ron’s desk is set off to the side facing the wall, and the bed is on the opposite side, facing out. The sofa, leather cubes, and chair all face the small coffee tables at the center to create a conversation area. Pieces that serve the same purpose are grouped together in separate parts of the room and are not intermixed. The desk isn’t in the middle of the entertainment area, for example. Also, the direction you face when seated (be it on the bed, at the desk, or on the sofa or chairs) further emphasizes the purpose of the sub-section you’re in. When seated at the desk, your eyeline is to the wall, (hopefully) compelling you to concentrate on your work. (Or if you’re like me, compelling you to mess around on Facebook some more.)

For tomorrow’s post, we’re going to get into some more space-saving specifics. We’ll be tackling what will inevitably be the biggest piece of furniture in your whole home: your bed. That’s right — where the magic happens…

My name is Simone, and I’ll be guest blogging for Design*Sponge from here at Tiny-Ass Apartment. A few years ago, I was back on the ol’ apartment hunt. I wanted a space that was all my own, and I couldn’t afford much, so I ended up in a 300ish square foot studio in Hollywood. It wasn’t much bigger than my dorm in college (hey, at least I didn’t have to share the bathroom with the whole floor). Still, I was determined make my apartment a place I’d be happy to come home to, and proud to have guests in. (Oh yes – even with almost no space I still had some awesome “Lost” viewing parties.) I’d been interested in interior design and decor for years, but I quickly realized that most of what’s floating around is aspirational; lots of stuff for people with big spaces and big budgets. If they mentioned small spaces at all, it’d be a one-off post here or there. I needed a place to find design inspiration and products that suited my specific needs, and I knew there were plenty of other people just as broke and cramped as me. Might as well do it myself – and so, Tiny-Ass Apartment was born.

The very first incarnation of my TAA, not long after moving in – I stood on my bed to shoot the couch

I think that small-space living has gained popularity in the past few years, both intentionally and unintentionally. We’re becoming aware of our impact on the planet, and people are striving to minimize those footprints. Living in a small place takes up fewer resources, and makes room for the growing population. Small space living is also a result of the downsizing (ba-dum-dum) of the economy. We just can’t afford those McMansions anymore, let alone all the stuff that we need to buy to fill them up.

Living in a tiny-ass apartment makes “stuff management” even more crucial. I can’t stand clutter, personally, and nothing will shrink your space faster than a lot of crap you don’t need. And so, a few words about editing your belongings.

Some of my favorite examples of well-curated vignettes (that just happen to be in small rooms). Click the pic for the link.

If you’re living in a tiny-ass studio, you’re probably broke. You’re going to be tempted to take home anything you can get for free. It’s like when you were in college and you’d show up to any event where there’d be free food. Sure, you’d save money, but in the end you’re still eating slices of pizza long after you’re full. That’s a good way to earn those Freshman 15, just as accepting every free tchotchke is a good way to end up on “Hoarders.”

My hero, Tim Gunn, says to edit, edit, edit. (And “make it work.” And “carry on.” And “that looks like a pink pterodactyl in a Gay Pride parade.” But his quotes are not always applicable.) You’ve got to look at your things with a critical eye, and ruthlessly get rid of the stuff that doesn’t work.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. I couldn’t agree more with Jamie Drake’s advice: “Take every last loose piece on every surface — photos, vases, candlesticks, books, magazines — whatever is cluttering up your vision and chances are you no longer even see. Put them on a counter in the kitchen, then redeploy in new arrangements.” Jamie suggests using only half of the objects you once used. I also suggest doing some dusting while you’re at it. The top of your bookshelf is getting kind of gnarly.

2. Decide where you’re going to put your vignettes. The center of the dining table, an end table, the coffee table, a bookshelf, and/or your entryway table are common places to create your “little moments.” Even in the smallest of spaces, you still have room to make a place for your eye to linger.

3. Make a conscious decision of whether you’re going symmetrical or not. Remember, symmetrical is more formal and old-school (like the first pic above from Metropolitain Home), asymmetrical is more playful (like the second pic from CasaSugar). If you’re going asymmetrical, arrange your objets d’art in groups of three.

4. Play! Play with scale; have a few tall pieces, a few squat. Play with material; have a few natural pieces, like seashells or branches or a plant, as well as something contrasting, like metal or ceramic. Play with texture, play with color, just play!

For some more reading on paring down your stuff and creating eye-catching vignettes, check out these links:

Apartment Therapy: Los Angeles – Create a Good-Looking Vignette in 6 Steps

Apartment Therapy: Boston – 10 Tips for a Grown-Up Home

Apartment Therapy: DC – How to Create a Visual Vignette

CasaSugar – Show Us Your Vignettes!

CNN – Top Causes of Clutter

Big thanks to Grace for giving me the opportunity to yammer on here at Design*Sponge! I’ll be back tomorrow with tips on organizing your space for those of you not fortunate enough to have fancy things like “bedrooms” or “walls.”

But she loves to pretend and go into role play. Dress up like a king or a cat. This is what she looked like last Halloween.
She also likes to make plans, like trowing a party or packing for a picnic.
So I knew she was going to love this idea.

“A Secret Basket”
It is really easy.
Viola´s grandmother made her this basket, she is a very talented and crafty lady, but you could use any basket. Size or shape.

We bought some rope, screws and a pulley at the local hardwear store. Tied the rope to the basket and attached the pulley to a beem in the ceiling of her room.
You can use the same principal on a regular ceiling or outside in a tree.

Next time Viola is going to have a friend over she is going to prepare the basket with some snacks. And when her little friend is in the mood for a snack Viola will swing the secret basket down in a blink of an eye.
She can not wait.

This is the last guest blog post from me and Isabelle.
It has been fun. Have a nice weekend.
I hope you will come visit us at Dos Family
Hej Då!

CLICK HERE for more image’s of the secret basket after the jump!

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Maybe you know Astrid Lindgren? The creator of great Pippi Långstrump aka. Pippi Longstocking. Junibacken is her world and also the world of other great Swedish childrens book authors. They have built like a mini book world- imagine Disneyworld petite and with great style. It’s a pleasure to bring the kids there. Or they love it! I mostly go nuts with 1 billions kids running around but I do enjoy the craftmanship of the interiors and scenography.

They have a great little giftshop and a restaurant with a cookietable that beats the craziest Willy Wonka imagination (and naturally they sell Pippis pancakes!)

/Isabelle Dos Family

CLICK HERE for more images from Junibacken after the jump!

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So for today’s post I will show you Americans (and other folks to of course) some Swedish grocery, maybe you will find them as interesting as I find yours.

I added some models from an old sewing book to spice up my photos. And I like them so much I think I will keep them in my pantry for that extra spice all week long.

Smaklig spis
/Jenny

CLICK HERE for 5 more images of beautiful Swedish grocery packaging….

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Isabelle’s casa:
-I like to mix.
-To fall in love with the things that surrounds us in our home.
-The imperfection of something old.
-And the perfection of old design.
-Memories that hangs on the walls.
-And children´s stuff scattered around the place.
-Bliss.

CLICK HERE for all 9 images of isabelle’s home after the jump!

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I am Jenny Brandt from the Swedish blog Dos Family.
Thank you Grace for inviting me and my blog partner Isabelle Halling McAllister, for this guest blog opportunity.

Isabelle and I have been blogging together for a year now. I photograph homes for our “Dos Visits” and Isabelle creates, crafts and alternates stuff for her posts.

We are a perfect blog-match.

We both have small daughters and newborn baby boys.

We both love to blog about home decoration and kids-stuff.

We both like colorful and quirky design that has a lot of humor.

We both work from home. Isabelle works as an interior decorator in Stockholm and I am a photographer from Skåne Sweden.

Also we are both crazy about our homes and thought we should start our week here with some photos from our own places.

I live in a house in Skåne, Sweden with Jens, an illustrator , who also works at home. We have one daughter, Viola, 5 years old and Baby Frank, 2 months. Here are some details from my house.

And tomorrow, Isabelle will show you her apartment. See you then!

CLICK HERE for 5 more images of Jenny’s lovely home after the jump!

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