The Smallest, Coolest Apartment
May 22, 2005 4:14 PM   Subscribe

 
What a great post! I long for the days when I could get by with 450 square feet of space (or less).
posted by jperkins at 4:33 PM on May 22, 2005


. . .450 square feet of space (or less).

Dorm room? :)
posted by mlis at 4:38 PM on May 22, 2005


Great link - thanks!
posted by tomplus2 at 4:56 PM on May 22, 2005


Impressive, I admired each and every kitchen. These must be owned units; not much creativity space available for a rental, unfortunately. I am confused with whether condo = owned, and apartment = rented. Condo and apartment are apparently interchangeable.
posted by quam at 5:21 PM on May 22, 2005


quam, Good ol' Al Lowe cleared up the distinction for me many years ago, in the age-checking questions for Leisure Suit Larry 3:

A "condominium" is

a. a prophylactic for midgets.
b. a small supermarket.
c. an apartment you can purchase.
d. the smallest size.

posted by gurple at 5:27 PM on May 22, 2005 [1 favorite]


Condos blocks have umpteen unit owners. Apartment blocks have a single owner.

Condo units may have the owner living in them, or they may be leased to a renter; there are usually limits as to how many units may be rented at one time.

Apartment units are leased to a renter.

One might be willing to do a significant bit of renovation work on a rented condo, if one can negotiate terms with the owner; perhaps the owner will pay for materials and the renter will supply labour.

It's doubtful one would be able to negotiate easily with an apartment block owner, especially as most of them will be managed by a professional management company that isn't in any position to negotiate such things. You could probably get away with painting the walls. You're not likely to get away with knocking out a wall.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:31 PM on May 22, 2005


Terrific post! Always on the lookout for ideas to improve my apartment.
posted by Chimp at 5:33 PM on May 22, 2005


186 square feet + indoor hammock = Hilary wins.
posted by brain_drain at 5:33 PM on May 22, 2005


Some of these apartments were rentals. One of the finalists (the "Golden Handcuffs" guy) was for sure- the term only applies to rentals. I was amazed with what people can do while still abiding by the terms of their lease!

I am an ApartmentTherapy addict and was SO into this contest, especially since I have a very small apartment (350-400 sq ft).
posted by elisabeth r at 5:40 PM on May 22, 2005


The rest of the site is great as well! Great resource, thanks again.
posted by tomplus2 at 5:42 PM on May 22, 2005


I wish they posted the sale/rental prices too..

Myself, I am looking for a gabled attic apt, or abandoned subway station, any leads? Or other misanthropic escapes..

Round 2 simply must be "Apartment Therapy: Tokyo"
posted by Jack Karaoke at 5:55 PM on May 22, 2005


186 sq feet is just obscene... I've seen closets larger than that.
posted by nathan_teske at 6:03 PM on May 22, 2005


Two odd things about this.. The apartments are so clean! And how do they get such nice photos at such impossibly tight angles?
posted by Nelson at 6:05 PM on May 22, 2005


Neat post! Another (slightly) odd thing: only one woman among the finalists.
posted by of strange foe at 6:40 PM on May 22, 2005


so is it weird that I'm jealous of a 450sq ft apartment?

my current apartment in Tokyo is about 100sq ft or less, though nowhere near as cool as these.
posted by dead_ at 7:10 PM on May 22, 2005


only one woman among the finalists.

Women don't need to make their place stylish enough to get them laid.
posted by NickDouglas at 7:17 PM on May 22, 2005


Eh, 450sq ft for a 1 person (or 1 couple) Manhattan apartment sounds pretty big to me...
posted by NormieP at 7:39 PM on May 22, 2005


I'm with brain_drain - anyone who has an indoor hammock in 186 square feet apartment has style.
posted by Staggering Jack at 8:03 PM on May 22, 2005


PenPen has a lock on this contest...

(I apologize for this very bad and very geeky pun...)
posted by nanojath at 8:11 PM on May 22, 2005


Jesus. I live in a home with only my wife, and we have more than 2100 square feet. And around here, that's considered small for a family. In fact, the previous, single male owner moved to a larger home... [blink]

Our condo was 900 square feet. That wasn't bad for the first ten years.

I've never lived in an apartment I would put a nickle's worth of effort into improving. They were all old shitholes, though clean, well-maintained shitholes lacking infestations and ragingly insane/unsafe tenants.

Guess I can count myself very lucky in that department.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:15 PM on May 22, 2005


Myself, I am looking for a gabled attic apt, or abandoned subway station, any leads?

6 closed firehouses to choose from.
posted by mlis at 8:42 PM on May 22, 2005


186 sq feet is just obscene... I've seen closets larger than that. - nathan_teske

yeah...I can't even imagine living in some place that small. Even 450 sf sounds like the walls would be way too close together.
posted by dejah420 at 9:34 PM on May 22, 2005


The apartments are so clean!

Some before pictures show the state of the apartment before the makeovers (or at least they did for Patrick's apartment, which had a dramatic improvement).
posted by PY at 9:44 PM on May 22, 2005


Very cool post, jenleigh - thanks. I can see I need to look at my 1,000 sqf differently - lots of good ideas here.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:12 PM on May 22, 2005


jenleigh, I've killed most of an evening checking out the contest and the site -- as someone who's looking to downsize from a large home, it's a useful resource. Thanks very, very much.
posted by melissa may at 10:34 PM on May 22, 2005


this rules. thanks!
posted by ackeber at 11:28 PM on May 22, 2005


186 sq feet is just obscene...

Ok, this might sound like the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch, but 186 square feet? She must rattle around in it.

I mean, without even getting into the whole 'homelessness' problem - -

why, when I was in college, one of my roommates happily took the 7 x 7 "bedroom". (He had access to shared bath, kitchen, and common space, but still, he lived in less than 50 square feet to call his own....)

And I know a guy who's been living in a Honda Civic for the last three years. Call it 40 square feet. Which might sound awful, except that he's not really roughing it: for example, he has satellite tv service. (And WiFi.) In his car.

I guess I should tell him about this contest.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 11:52 PM on May 22, 2005


One really important consideration everyone seems to be overlooking is volume. I live in a <500sq.ft place, but much of it is only 6'4" tall (I'm 6'2"). If you have ten feet of height a lot of doors start opening.
posted by Chuckles at 12:19 AM on May 23, 2005


There are no floorplans, which is a real shame.
posted by jonathanbell at 1:43 AM on May 23, 2005


That was great. Thanks JenLeigh.
posted by peacay at 1:53 AM on May 23, 2005


errr jenleigh I mean.
posted by peacay at 1:54 AM on May 23, 2005


The 600 square foot (ish) loft my wife and I had in Seoul was sweet indeed. They're doing some amazing and cool things with 'officetels' in Seoul these days, breaking the cookie cutter 'apart' model that has crept over the landscape in the last 20 years.

The renovated 630 square feet (ish) apartment we have now is a lot older and not nearly as efficient in its use of space, but it is at least a two-bedroomer, which means I can use one as an office, and it looks out over parkland, which is gloriously unusual here.

(I say 'ish' because floorspace is measured in 'pyeong' here in Korea, one of which is about 3.3 square metres.)

Also, apartmenttherapy is indeed good. Part of my daily round. If you like it, you might also like MocoLoco and Land+Living.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:23 AM on May 23, 2005


The apartments are so clean!

That's the tradeoff. Not a lot of space for crap lying around. I, for one, applaud them on picking up their shit. /neat freak

And how do they get such nice photos at such impossibly tight angles?

Wiiiiiide angle lenses.

Notice, by the way, the abundance of flat-screen televisions. Definately a necessity. My vote goes to the Handcuffs apartment. The hammock place had no style.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:59 AM on May 23, 2005


from sq feet to sq metres multiply by 0.0929... Uh. Ok, these guys have oceans of space, I used to live in a 129.2 square feet apartment with everything, except toilet and shower which was shared with other tenants down the hall. ;)
Chuckles is right, volume is the key and deep windows do a lot for a space too. With high ceilings the trick is to use the walls, and the room had a clever built in old cabinet above the entrance, which made the tiny entrance feel like an actual 'hall' of a "real-sized" apartment, complete with coathangers for guests. I still can't believe how much crap I managed to fit in there, a bed which masqueraded as a sofa by day, TV and my turntable and record collection on one wall, a drawing table to work on, computer at the end of the bed, chairs and coffeetable for guests and so on. All clothes and sheets were under the bed.

That said, some of the apartments are very nicely done on a small space.
posted by dabitch at 3:26 AM on May 23, 2005


curbed.com did something similar. Check it out. It's pretty good.
posted by RightsaidFRED at 4:17 AM on May 23, 2005


Bizarrely enough we (myself and partner) are upgrading from a 400 sq ft studio in new jersey, to about 800 sq ft in manhattan as, among other things, the 400 sq ft didn't do great things for our relationship. In that regard, I do wonder about the personalities that live in these cupboards, if many of them are couples, if they just remain stationary when they get home from work, or maybe just power themselves down till the next morning, or live in bars and other peoples flats. I think that I'd really need a good view to live in anywhere smaller than where I am now, plus I work from home for a fair percentage of my time, and girlfriend needs space to work, too.

Thanks jenleigh for the link, if for no other reason than the fact that gf consumes more craiglist apartment listings than a single man does porn, and I'll have soooo much good karma from showing her the site.
posted by blindsam at 5:29 AM on May 23, 2005


This is a great link. Just when I think my apartment is starting to look good these folks just blow me away.

I "lived" in a <400 sq. ft. studio with my girlfriend here in Chicago for about 13 months before we moved to a one bedroom. Looking back I'm not sure how we did it. Our whole apartment was basically a bed. For one person though it would have been great...

One thing that saved us a lot of space was not having a television - we use an old projector mounted across the room on the wall. It projects a huge image, perfect for movies. My computer runs the video, dvd's and doubles as an MP3 stereo/jukebox - no piles of CDs laying around.
posted by wfrgms at 5:40 AM on May 23, 2005


also, the bitching in the commentaries is great - its like the worst of apartment-make-over tv
posted by blindsam at 5:48 AM on May 23, 2005


My current apartment is less than 200 square feet. The lack of space doesn't bother me at all; the lack of differentiation does (everything in one room). Of course, I moved here from a 24-foot sailboat, so it seemed absolutely luxurious to me at the time.

I did spend a brief interlude in a ~600-700 square foot apartment with an ex, after we decided that the tiny studio I'm in now didn't quite cut it for her, myself, and her two cats. It was a nice place but I would have preferred it be smaller; I felt lost in that kind of space.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 5:49 AM on May 23, 2005


I live in a shared house in Tokyo and my room is about 7 mats. 1 tatami mat is about 3 feet by 6 feet. All of my places in Japan have been quite small.

If you want to learn to live with less space, come to Japan. It's an art form over here.
posted by zardoz at 6:30 AM on May 23, 2005


A lot of it is finding the right space. I had a 450sq foot apartment that was long an thin, and had great light. It was a great apartment, and it didn't cost a lot to decorate it. I've felt cramped in larger, less beautiful places.

I grew up in suburbia, where the smaller homes were 2500 square feet. I say were, because almost all the houses have been mansionized. I really can't figure out what people do with all the extra-space-- do the families not like each other? Wouldn't it be easier to fix up the rooms you have?
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 6:46 AM on May 23, 2005


For three years in Manila, I lived in this room (self-link), a 100 square foot (if that) L-shaped box which I usually had to share with a roommate. The "desk" and "shelves" were built right into the wall, and with the bunk bed, left little space for anything else. There was no decor. When I moved into my current 400 square foot studio, I literally dropped to the carpet and cried.
posted by brownpau at 6:48 AM on May 23, 2005


Great post. I love Apartment Therapy. Their links page is definitely worth checking out. (That's where I first found out about Design Sponge and Funfurde.)

My favorite entry in this contest was disqualified because the owners moved.

And if you want to see an apartment disguised as an iPod ad, check here.
posted by Sully6 at 8:32 AM on May 23, 2005


I'm actually really unimpressed with this. According to the rules they allow professionally decorated apartments and have no budget limits. I could do a ton with a tiny space if I had a lot of money and/or a professional to do it for me.

I'd be far more impressed with cool looking tiny apartments decorated by the people who live in them and had to work on a tiny budget, like everyone I know.
posted by Kellydamnit at 8:47 AM on May 23, 2005


Anybody notice that the majority of apartments featured Macintosh desktops and Powerbooks? It would seem Apple truly is the platform of choice for fashion conscious yuppies. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
posted by haasim at 9:05 AM on May 23, 2005


the majority of apartments featured Macintosh desktops and Powerbooks?

they've blown all their cash on Powerbook, iPods and upgrades so they're stuck living in shoeboxes
posted by matteo at 9:25 AM on May 23, 2005


Kellydamnit - the Hilary apartment was self-decorated on a low budget. It isn't as flash as some of the others, but still very nice. And definitely the smallest.

I've noticed that single dorm rooms in North America actually tend to run around 100 sq feet, but it's a world of difference to have outside common rooms, kitchens, dining halls, etc. Organisation of space is also paramount. My 6" by 10" (with a wardrobe cutting into it) room last year was actually much more functional in terms of space than my current 10" by 12" room, because of the shape and the nature of the furnishings.
posted by jb at 10:47 AM on May 23, 2005


How do you big city fellers live in such tiny little shoeboxes? No wonder you're so goldurn grumpy all the time.
posted by keswick at 11:53 AM on May 23, 2005


I would totally live here. It's one of the few apartments in the contest that actually looks as if people live in it on a daily basis-- a couple who has been here for eight years, in fact. But it's lovingly decorated, and has no professional sheen to it.

That said, I'd live there alone. If I had to share it with someone, homicide would be the likely result.
posted by jokeefe at 11:57 AM on May 23, 2005


the Hilary apartment was self-decorated on a low budget. It isn't as flash as some of the others, but still very nice. And definitely the smallest.

There's one other apartment just slighty larger-- 196 sq ft.-- and shared by a couple, to boot. The kitchen looks like it's been put together with doll furniture.

Yes, I spent my entire evening last night on this site.
posted by jokeefe at 12:05 PM on May 23, 2005


But where do they put the litter boxes?
posted by jennyb at 12:27 PM on May 23, 2005


But where do they put the oscilloscope?
posted by Chuckles at 2:38 PM on May 23, 2005 [1 favorite]


Ha! I had real trouble finding a place for my oscilloscope in my studio. Those things just don't sit easy on a kitchen counter.
posted by breath at 6:16 PM on May 23, 2005


Part of the problem is the oscilloscope you choose. Foolishly, I was attracted to the coolness, and inexpensive 200MHz bandwidth and retro charm of a Tektronix 7704. Considering the size of my apartment, I should have splurged on a TDS-210 instead.
:)
posted by Chuckles at 6:47 PM on May 23, 2005


There's one other apartment just slightly larger-- 196 sq ft.-- and shared by a couple, to boot.

Oh. My. God! I shudder to think about it.
posted by dejah420 at 11:58 AM on May 27, 2005


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