Gosh, I love looking through interior design books focused on "the small home." Their definitions of a small home and mine are often wildly divergent. (That room can hold way more furniture! It is so not small!)
Eeeeee me too! I adore small home stuff. Did you see that link I posted about the transforming furniture (http://www.resourcefurniture.com/space-savers/queen-space-saving-beds)?
Tav and I and the cat and dog (and until recently a badass betta fish) live in 650sqft including too-narrow-to-furnish hallway.
The only "small home" suggestions remotely useful to us are about 10% of the ones in the actual physical IKEA showrooms for "Live in 10 square metres!" The other 90% of the features are "omg claustrophobia no, I'll go without that supposedly-essential item, thanks," or so not our style, or fail my relatively simple accessibility requirements (Fibro/CFS/IBS/dysautonomia-related low-blood-pressure-on-standing do not permit me to sleep in a loft bed two feet from the ceiling and seven feet from the floor so I can have a couch and desk under the bed), or all of the above -- but at least they don't make me think "there's no way that would fit in our place."
The ones in the IKEA catalogue/website usually aren't as good, I suspect because professional photography/lighting equipment doesn't fit so they're seriously faking it with two walls and flooring in a giant warehouse.
My main tip is stacking: shelves and cupboards that go all the way to the ceiling, along with a 3-step stepstool that folds extra-thin and can be hidden in the inch or two of space in the corner beside the extra-tall storage when not in use. Most of the main IKEA bookshelf lines come with height extender add-ons, but also Expedit-series 2-cube-wide shelves fit quite nicely on top of Malm-series dressers, and short+narrow Billy bookcases are just right to sit on top of sturdy non-wheeled legal-width filing cabinets (though if anyone reading this chooses to live dangerously and not use the anti-liability attach-to-wall thinger, urgh, and don't blame me.)
I'm happy to live in the future with the development of flat-panel TVs and monitors. Gateleg tables (http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/20104718) are pretty awesome, too.
When I first moved up to the DFW area, my apartment was a little under 500 square feet, and it was messy and packed because I am a packrat, but it was livable enough for me (and would have been fantastic, had I been able to organize and cull stuff!). We went up to a 2500 square foot house with the rental, and down to a 2000 square foot house now, and I look at these books and magazines and discover that anything under 3500 square feet means "small" to them! WTF?! At least some of the ones focusing on urban chic have tiny apartments.
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The architect we had working on remodel plans seemed unclear on the concept, too, and he was even recommended as a small-house-remodel guy.
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The only "small home" suggestions remotely useful to us are about 10% of the ones in the actual physical IKEA showrooms for "Live in 10 square metres!" The other 90% of the features are "omg claustrophobia no, I'll go without that supposedly-essential item, thanks," or so not our style, or fail my relatively simple accessibility requirements (Fibro/CFS/IBS/dysautonomia-related low-blood-pressure-on-standing do not permit me to sleep in a loft bed two feet from the ceiling and seven feet from the floor so I can have a couch and desk under the bed), or all of the above -- but at least they don't make me think "there's no way that would fit in our place."
The ones in the IKEA catalogue/website usually aren't as good, I suspect because professional photography/lighting equipment doesn't fit so they're seriously faking it with two walls and flooring in a giant warehouse.
My main tip is stacking: shelves and cupboards that go all the way to the ceiling, along with a 3-step stepstool that folds extra-thin and can be hidden in the inch or two of space in the corner beside the extra-tall storage when not in use. Most of the main IKEA bookshelf lines come with height extender add-ons, but also Expedit-series 2-cube-wide shelves fit quite nicely on top of Malm-series dressers, and short+narrow Billy bookcases are just right to sit on top of sturdy non-wheeled legal-width filing cabinets (though if anyone reading this chooses to live dangerously and not use the anti-liability attach-to-wall thinger, urgh, and don't blame me.)
I'm happy to live in the future with the development of flat-panel TVs and monitors. Gateleg tables (http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/20104718) are pretty awesome, too.
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When I first moved up to the DFW area, my apartment was a little under 500 square feet, and it was messy and packed because I am a packrat, but it was livable enough for me (and would have been fantastic, had I been able to organize and cull stuff!). We went up to a 2500 square foot house with the rental, and down to a 2000 square foot house now, and I look at these books and magazines and discover that anything under 3500 square feet means "small" to them! WTF?! At least some of the ones focusing on urban chic have tiny apartments.