| ABOUT STUDIO APARTMENTS |
 |
 |
|
A young woman named Karen once lived in one of the tiniest studio apartments I have ever seen. I visited her shortly after she moved in, and she said, "Here, let me give you the tour." She then moved her arm outward, as if to present the room we were standing in. I planned to follow her on the rest of this "tour," but she didn't go anywhere. "Well, this is it," she said. The entire apartment was the approximate size of a typical living room, and the only separate, private area (with its own walls and a door) was a bathroom. The living room and bedroom were one connected area, and the kitchen (in this case, actually a "kitchenette") consisted of a few appliances against the left-hand wall. As adorable as this diminutive studio apartment was, I found myself wondering how in the world she would be able to live in the space comfortably. But she did, for more than a year. And the key seemed to be that Karen was quite good at avoiding clutter and defining functional areas, no matter how small each of those areas turned out to be. To begin, Karen added two room-dividing screens to separate her living room and her bedroom. They were simple, Oriental-style screens (made of paper and wood) that she'd picked up for a very reasonable price. She treated the screens as if they were a wall, placing her television set in front of them, with a sofa, small coffee table, and chair positioned directly across from it. Next, she placed a very narrow cutting board cart a few feet away from the appliances and placed a high stool beside it. This created a "barrier" between the living room and the kitchenette and let people know that "the kitchen area begins here." She kept another high stool in the closet, so if she had a dinner guest, she could pull it up to the cutting board as well and create a small table for dining. And since the cutting board was on wheels, she could move it around to find the best location for dining. Lastly, she purchased a few area rugs of varying sizes and colors, but in a similar style, and used them to define spaces. One went in the living room under the coffee table, the other in the bedroom in front of her bed, and a small one in the kitchen under the cutting board (which also kept it from rolling around when the cutting board was in use). There was no way for Karen to hide the fact that her apartment was very, very small. But luckily, she didn't feel the need to hide it. Instead, she simply made it remarkably efficient and charming. Rather than apologize for her lack of space, she reveled in it, and today she says that some of the happiest days of her life were spent there in that pint-size space where I once wondered how she'd ever get along. If you have a studio apartment to decorate, try some of these ideas: Dividers. Buy them or make your own from doors, shutters, even pieces of lattice. You can also separate areas with curtains. Sheers are especially nice, because they allow the light to filter through but give different areas some definition. Color. If possible, use paint to identify specific areas in a studio apartment. (For instance, you could paint one wall in each area a complementing but different color.) Also keep in mind that light colors can help a room seem larger and more open. Furniture. Resist the temptation to have only Lilliputian-sized furniture. Having a few large pieces works just fine in small spaces and may call less attention to the room's size than a collection of smaller pieces would. |
Discuss this item on the forums. (0 posts)