IF I was going to move into a studio loft apartment with my family, I think I would at least need something, anything to differentiate my space from kid space. Maybe that space would be a corner for a grownup bedroom or a built in reading nook or even a biggish closet with the doors taken off that’s just big enough to hold a desk. But whatever it was, there would be curtain room dividers. Nice heavy, drapey ones that you couldn’t see through. DIY drop cloth curtains, perhaps. If you think hospital curtains when you think curtain room dividers, don’t! Curtain room dividers for the studio apartment family, even the single gal or guy, can look pretty darn good!

Super small spaces can benefit from a couple of curtains

Even if all that's blocked off is the bed...

You could SO DIY this one

What else is great about curtain room dividers in small spaces? In addition to looking good, they provide you with another degree of flexibility when it comes to how you utilize the available space. And they’re a lot less expensive than bookshelves and standing room dividers. Installation can be super easy, too, and there’s the fact that there are a bunch of different ways to hang a curtain in a rented space that won’t make it so you lose your deposit.

While a curtain room divider may not be as good as a wall when it comes to putting yourself in time out so you don’t FedEx your kids to Dubai, they’re still better than nothing!

Will my daughter and my future children feel a strong attachment to our house and our town, our beach and our neighbors, looking back fondly once they’ve moved away?

Out with the old?

I don’t even know if their memories will be accurate. As with all things, I can imagine that there’s a tendency to view the past through rose colored glasses, so a house that was falling apart becomes charming and an apartment that was cold and drafty becomes full of character and quirks. I can already feel myself doing just that with the apartment in Brooklyn that was in a hub of gang activity and surrounded by who knows what else. The finish on the floor was flaking off and would give me splinters. There were critters. But the view from my windows and the fire escape was amazing and there was a shop nearby that made the most amazing fresh doughnuts and another shop that sold fried chicken sandwiches on sweet buns for a buck. It was hell and it was heavenly, both, and I’d never want to go back to it.

Tell me about some of the homes of your past… do any of them still tug at your heartstrings and make you feel wistful?

Images: Gary’s Loft

Thinking about it, I realize that I could probably put in a clawfoot tub if I was willing to gut the big linen closet that’s next to my shower. But that was the one thing my apartment bathroom was lacking: storage. We kept the towels in a chest in the bedroom and the bulk toilet paper in a cabinet in the kitchen. First aid we kept in the… oh, who am I kidding, we were in our early 20s, there was no first aid kit.

Am I wrong in thinking that sometimes giving up a little style is all right when the return is a lot of added utility? What sacrifices have you made in your home?

Images: Marie Claire Maison; Country Living; Houzz; Melanie Acevado Photography; Drummonds

Built-Ins, Built-Ins, Built-Ins
Obviously you can bring a ton of furniture into a small house or apartment, but you can maximize the space you have with built-ins like cabinets and cupboards and window benches and bookcases. These don’t have to be as deep as standalone furniture so you’re not encroaching too much on the airspace of the room, and you end up with a place for everything and everything in its place. Have I mentioned that clutter is a major no-no for those of us who live in small houses and apartments?

Divide With Doors
In my house, the kitchen and the living room are open to each other in two ways: a big interior window sort of thing in the wall and the wide doorless doorway between the two rooms. The idea is that a small kitchen and a small living room will feel larger if they’re attached, but instead it ends up feeling like one cramped room because there’s no usage division. Installing a set of French doors in the doorway between the two rooms helps the mind see two separate spaces that are useful and sizable.

Let In the Light
While not a solution for the renter, the homeowner can install more or larger windows that let in light, air, and a view of the wider world that will make a small space feel more ample. Bumped out windows can do a lot to enlarge an awkward space, as can very tall windows.

Make Rooms Do Double Duty
The reality is that if you don’t have a lot of space, you don’t have the luxury of having a room just for X and another just for Y. That means that whenever possible, a room should have more than one purpose. You can put a pretty writing desk in your living room, for example. Your home office can double as your crafting room. A landing can play host to a chest of linens. Bookcases in the dining room. And so on.

What are your favorite tips for making a small house or apartment feel bigger?

Ah, home winterization tips. They work great for people like me – I have the freedom to damage my home because I own some percentage of it. But what about renters in chilly flats in cities and suburbs? As someone who once upon a time lived in an apartment with wall cracks so large that frigid air blew in along with huge old windows (fun in summer, hellish in winter), I sympathize. What good are home winterization tips like “Install energy efficient windows” and “Add extra insulation to your attic”? Because, yeah, your landlord is just going to looooove that.

With that in mind, here are some tips for winterizing an apartment so you can stay warm without losing your security deposit:

1. Caulk (with rope caulk) around all of the windows and seal them with plastic… BUT if you have painted sills, don’t use the tape that sometimes comes in the kits because at winter’s end it will peel you paint off. Use masking tape instead. You’ll probably have to re-tape at least once during the season.

2. Install fire-retardant foam insulation pads inside of outlet covers and switch plates. Sure, the word “install” can be scary for renters, but your landlord will never know it’s there and especially in old apartments with a lot of outside walls, it can make a world of difference. Weather stripping on drafty doors and windows is another installable option that won’t make your landlord’s eyes bulge out.

3. Put up some insulating thermal curtains. Wherever you get plenty of sun, open them and let in all that nice warm light. At night, shut them up tight, preferably over some insulating blinds. Some people will close the blinds and put up shrink plastic over the windows, but that can make for a long, dismal winter. Another option: Put a layer of dark fleece between your curtains and the window. Fleece is awesome.

4. Draft dodgers and door sweeps help you keep outside air where it belongs and allow you to heat some rooms and not others without too much heat loss. Draft dodgers are even an easy DIY project for the novice seamstress – here’s one tutorial that’s super simple. And here’s some snakey inspiration (note to parents: kids will play with these, so maybe make one or two extra).

5. Walls can bleed a lot of cold, especially in old buildings with insulation that was installed a hundred or more years ago or maybe even no insulation at all. Some people swear by tapestries, while others make the most of their wall space by putting up lots of tall bookshelves on every available wall and filling them with books.

6. The easiest ideas for winterizing an apartment: Turn down the heat for the whole apartment and use a space heater in the room you’re in most. Or spend lots of time baking, which is what I do, though you run the risk of becoming the posterchild for wintertime weight gain (like I do). Drink lots of hot tea. Dress like our ancestors did during those seemingly endless winters. Take a hot shower before bed and invest in a thick down comforter.

Do the lovely and hopefully toasty warm apartment dwellers out there have any other tips to share?

Image via

How can I acknowledge Valentine’s Day and not have at least one room with the appropriate red and white love theme? Especially considering my not-too-recent post about love pillows! I’d say this bedroom is feminine but that a guy wouldn’t balk at the idea of sleeping in it.

“Too cute” is how I’d describe this kitchen, and not in a bad way. I happen to love that color of green, particularly when it’s combined with that color of pink. And the shabby chic table? Somebody pinch me! I will say that I’m not sure I’m a fan of that half canister thing hanging on the wall, but nothing’s perfect.

Blue as feminine? Hell yeah! I adore the blue sideboard, and how about that hutch that isn’t really a hutch? You’ll notice that it’s not deeper than required to display the plates, which I find truly fascinating. A trompe l’oeil hutch?

Simple, pretty, and all tucked into the corner of a studio apartment! It may not be the most comfortable way to configure a bedroom, but if you’re short on space, why not?

There had to be some pink because I am me. And here it is. No frills, though, and I love how toned down and casual it is. It’s rumpled, like it could look formal, but oh God, it’s ten a.m. and I didn’t go to bed until dawn so why are you ringing my doorbell?

And finally, another craft room, this one wallpapered in some gorgeous purple confection. Maybe that’s too much purple for you… then again, maybe not. It certainly isn’t too much purple for moi!

(Photos via: Great Interior Design; Ideal Home; Coastal Living; Virgin Media; )

Aren’t they fun? Various areas are done in differing styles so you get a little taste of everything. I sadly don’t know anything about these apartments other than their locale, but more pics can’t be seen here.

Those being the four gigantic clock faces that adorn the tower, which coincidentally is where the most expensive apartment in Brooklyn is located. That’s right, in addition to a whopping 3,000-square-foot main floor and a 2,300-square-foot second floor, you get a 988-square-foot open loft, high ceilings, and amazing views from 14-foot windows that overlook the Brooklyn Bridge and New York Harbor.

Oh, and you get the joy of always knowing the correct time, so long as you’re good with reading clocks backward!

Note that I do not have a free $25 million laying about, but I’ll happily move into the most expensive apartment in Brooklyn if anyone might be so kind as to donate the fundage. Heck, I think those clocks are so cool that I wouldn’t even mind if they went tick-tick-tick, and that’s saying a lot since I’m rather obsessive about ambient noise.

Note, too, that the buyer of the apartment need not worry about the nightmare of having four terribly big clocks each showing a different time. According to Walentas, the four clocks are electronically synchronized to show exactly the same time. That time being, of course, not rich o’clock, but rather poor o’clock.

Zaarath and Christopher Prokop appear to be just that, according to the NY Post. They work a lot, they don’t eat in, and they don’t host guests, which is why they had no qualms about buying a microstudio — possibly Manhattan’s smallest — for $150,000.

The kitchen is used to store the few articles of clothing they keep in the microstudio, with most of their clothes living at various dry cleaners. Oh, and the couple’s two cats eat on the counter. There’s naught in the fridge other than espresso and champagne. A queen bed takes up a third of the microstudio, and the bathroom is the size of a small closet. At a mere 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide, you can bet it feels a little claustrophobic.

“I’m amazed we can fit two people and two cats in there,” Zaarath said. “But it’s harmonious at this point. I have friends who say they could never live with their husbands in a place this small. It’s a good thing we like each other enough to live there.”

The only other resident of the microstudio is the couple’s Roomba, which must scare the bejeezus out of those poor cats every time it’s turned on. On one hand, I applaud Zaarath and Christopher Prokop for making the most of the space they can afford — they’ll apparently be able to pay off the $150,000 in a mere two years. On the other hand, they seem a little self-congratulatory about their knack for small space living.