Saturday, January 9, 2010
Me and My Tiny-Ass Apartment
About two years ago, I had to make the lemons/lemonade conversion. I was starting over in many aspects of my life, and one of them was finding a new place to live. I decided I wasn't going to resign myself to living in a crappy apartment with an annoying (and potentially psychotic) roommate dredged up from Craigslist. I was going to live BY MYSELF in a FABULOUS apartment, goddammit. And I did.
The problem was, living by myself meant paying all of the rent by myself, which limited my options. Most one-bedrooms in Los Angeles were out of my price range, so I went studio hunting. It could be discouraging -- $1100 for a place so small the main room could only fit a twin bed, a fridge, and a stove? Not being comfortable sleeping with my head next to an oven, I took a pass. I mean, I like breakfast in bed, but I don't want to make breakfast while in bed! Finally, I found a studio in Hollywood (technically the Hollywood Hills, thankyouverymuch) that was a decent size and price, and settled in.
I stayed for a year and a half before upgrading to a one-bedroom within the same building. I had come to love my tiny-ass studio, but I missed entertaining large groups of friends, and I hated parking on the street -- and the new place came with its own parking spot. But even though I now live in a moderately-sized place, I learned a few tricks to make living in a small space efficient and comfortable. Hopefully I can pass that along, while keeping mind that if you're living in a small space, you're probably on a small budget. (I still am!) And, since we small-space denizens are more likely to be renters, I'm paying special attention to tips and fixes that won't make you lose your security deposit. So here's to living in a tiny-ass but still fabulous apartment, goddammit!
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I am starting from the beginning. I've lived in a TAA before and I'm living in a sort of dorm like building with shared bathrooms now (bleh - looking for places to live from another country is never good) but yay I am moving into a 2 (wow) bedroom place in a couple of months. It is still a TAA and I have no furniture right now so i am starting from scratch. I found your blog through design sponge and I am looking forward to reading all your posts to get ideas and to get excited about the prospect of starting anew and living like the adult i have actually been for the last 10 years even though i may not have had an abode that reflected that fact. This time i will, I tell you. Not that you may actually be interested....but you are the sage of all things TAA and I will sit at the feet of the master - or something like that - or whatever that song says, "we're all in this together..." or in yodaesque terms, Verbose I am.
ReplyDeleteWow! Just clicked trough a whole year of posts! Very awesome ideas and inspirations here!
ReplyDeleteI'm moving from a 2BDR to a studio. Ditching the roommate thing! Did I just call my roommate a "thing"?? Well... Although my kitchen is closed off with beautiful french doors, I'm still left with one TAA. I have no walls. all my walls either have: window, fireplace or doors. (By the way those are also the "pluses" of the place)
It makes really hard to place furniture in the middle of the room.
I didn't move in yet. But I have most of the furniture laid out. Everything has double function. From table to desk, to console, from bench to coffee table to extra sleeping, and so on...
I will try to post some pics on my blog of the empty space. Maybe I could get some ideas from around the web??
Thanks for all the posts.
Good night!