Best ways to increase usable space in a smaller home? (how much, Home Depot)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I live in a 2 bedroom mobile home that is 14 feet wide and 48 feet long. First thing is to use furnishings that fit your home. For example, our living room is very small so we only have one love seat and one recliner. Our master bedroom is around 11 feet by 12 feet. We have a queen size bed with two small night stands and one small four drawer dresser. The spare bedroom is 8 feet by 8 feet. In it is one small 4 drawer dresser, one night stand, and one twin bed. Our bathroom is a little less than 5 feet wide and a little more than 6 feet long. We have a plastic four drawer cabinet next to the toilet, a 3 shelf stand that stands on the floor and is attached to the wall behind the toilet. The kitchen is large enough for a small two chair table but we choose to put a microwave cart in the place of the table and use folding TV trays to eat in the living room. This frees up the kitchen, which is open to the living room, to make this combined living area feel more open and airy. The overall impact is that visitors tell us it feels like the inside of our home seems bigger than it appears on the outside. We also go through our personal items and decide what to keep, what to donate, what to throw away, and what to put in storage. Things we need at a moment's notice goes in an under bed storage container. Personal items with a family or important event connection goes into climate controlled storage. If you're only going to be there for 5 years, I'd be concerned with putting large holes in the wall to mount a TV. We put our living room TV on an entertainment center that's about 3 to 4 feet tall. All our electronics are hidden inside along with DVDs, cables, surge protectors, etc. Once you install a wall mounting bracket, you're committed to that being the one and only location for your TV and the future buyers' TV. In the bedrooms, we have our TVs on our dressers. We thought about mounting them on the wall, but we wouldn't have the freedom to turn the TV towards the head of the bed.
We live in a small one bedroom apartment so we are very familiar with these challenges.
I would say focus on two things: smart storage solutions and minimalism. (In terms of stuff, that is.)
Though my apartment is <700 square feet, I have a decently sized bedroom. I bought a nicer looking captain's bed so I only had to have one dresser and two nightstands. My room feels very big. Now I'm working on my own custom closet ideas, mostly because since my building is old, there isn't much out there that will fit. So I'm designing something that will fit the small space. I have other closets in the apartment that are useless with the way they are set-up now so I am working on those too.
I do everything and anything to make the space itself bigger. Buy smart furniture and arrange it accordingly. Add lighting and mirrors. Keep a nice, open flow as you walk through the house. Use corners, go vertical---whatever it is that allows you to use space so that it doesn't FEEL small.
We live in a small one bedroom apartment so we are very familiar with these challenges.
I would say focus on two things: smart storage solutions and minimalism. (In terms of stuff, that is.)
Though my apartment is <700 square feet, I have a decently sized bedroom. I bought a nicer looking captain's bed so I only had to have one dresser and two nightstands. My room feels very big. Now I'm working on my own custom closet ideas, mostly because since my building is old, there isn't much out there that will fit. So I'm designing something that will fit the small space. I have other closets in the apartment that are useless with the way they are set-up now so I am working on those too.
I do everything and anything to make the space itself bigger. Buy smart furniture and arrange it accordingly. Add lighting and mirrors. Keep a nice, open flow as you walk through the house. Use corners, go vertical---whatever it is that allows you to use space so that it doesn't FEEL small.
Your apartment sounds about the size of my second apartment. My first apartment was an efficiency that was 11 feet by 14 feet with a bathroom that was 5 feet by 6 feet. The plus was that it had an 11 feet long wall closet. I used a daybed as a sofa, a small patio table with 2 chairs as my dining room, and cooking was done in either an electric skillet, toaster oven, or microwave. I fixed up that apartment so well that the owner asked if she could show off my apartment. I later learned she insinuated to prospective renters of other apartments that she would be making all the apartments look like mine. After they moved in they asked how long it took for me to get her to fix up my apartment. They were shocked when I told them I did all this myself. My work included scraping peeling paint, painting walls, installing roll down shade, installing curtain rods and drapes, clean and repair the window AC, install knobs on the drawers and cabinet doors, used fabric and velcro to make a skirt for the open sink in the bathroom, install a cover over the bare ceiling light, and cleaned the bathroom to discover that the greyish shower floor was actually a light gold and the frosted shower door was actually clear. When I left, she was "kind enough" to let me out of my lease early. I let my neighbors know I was moving out and they wanted my apartment. None of them took the apartment. Because of the improvements I made, she jacked up the rent for that apartment. Went by there nearly 10 years later and my once beautiful apartment is horrible.
I have a smallish two car garage, but when I move one car out,
I have a complete work space where I can make any type of furniture.
All my work benches are the fold up kind.
All the stuff I have to store is above the cars.
I can even lift one car above the ground and work underneath it !
All because I use stuff that either *disappears in the floor*,
or hangs on the wall, or is stored above the cars and can be pulled down to work level.
We like watching TV in bed right before we go to sleep.
Please do not ask why ???
But, today, compared to old TVs, the new TV units are super light !
Ours is stored against the original ceiling and comes down for viewing at the proper angle.
It *disappears* into a *false* ceiling ...
Again I agree with your initial statement,
because the word *Murphy* does not sound appealing !
I actually *stole* this from the designer, and built it for one of our grandkids. http://tinyhousetalk.com/wp-content/...uper-rooms.jpg
His room strangely does not have built in closets, so the bottom part functions as his closet(s).
He is 6 year old now, so the desk part is now a *space station* ...
If they will still live there when he goes to school some more, then I will convert it to a study area.
The whole thing was made *in* my garage (one car out in the weather),
then completely disassembled and re-assembled in his room.
Lurk around at IKEA and find out how they make it easy to assemble !
Our bed is a full size bed, but is the Japanese style one.
Only one mattress (NO Box and Spring) and it sits on a set of slats.
This makes it light, and thus is easy to lift up and make it *disappear* into the wall !
Get rid of tons of stuff. Yes, you can do it and you won't miss it. Don't bring anything to the new house that you haven't actively used in the past year. That should take care of a lot of your problem.
Build extra shelves everywhere you can. Install wall hooks as well - in closets, on doors, etc.
You could also get a bed with a built in dresser drawers. While this eliminates the ability to store things under the bed, it also eliminates the need for another piece of furniture in a tight bedroom. Downside is they're heavy and once they're in place, you can't move them easily. Advantage is the floor or carpet underneath will not need dusting or vacuuming like with a traditional bed frame. Our room is just too small to move the bed to vacuum underneath. When we're ready to move, I'll vacuum the whole home after all our furniture is out.
I don't know what your kitchen looks like but if you can, have the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. Also, having some shelf racks like these add room to any shelf in your house:
Under the bed is a good place to store items that isn't used a lot-out of season clothing, extra blankets/sheets, etc.
I don't know how handy you are, but my husband made me a ton of storage from hidden spaces in the house. He took approximately 12 inches from the side of a closet and made bookcases in the living room, did a window seat under the front windows. In the bedroom, he actually added an extra shelving storage area by breaking through to the bathroom storage closet. It was very deep and unusable. Do you have stairs going up? If so, add shelves or a small closet under the stairs.
Go to Ikea. They often have a demo small house setup.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And springs, and motors.
