Gooddog's Profile

That is very clever, and quite an inspiration!

OK, it looks like someone from Hungary who wants to make a serious profit should gather up these "blah" relics of socialism and open an import store over here! I am guessing a lot of people would love the style, I sure do. The "after"? Not so much, too '80's for me, like big hair and shoulder pads.

How did you get the dog and cat to pose for the photo? Great shot!

Love, love this! In my dreams, this is the kind of place I would live in. In reality, I fight hoarder traits, constantly finding little knick-knack treasures in thrift shops. My goal is to downsize this Hong Kong size and simplicity but I'm a long, long way.

I wonder if the same serenity could have been accomplished in another color, maybe monochromatic yellow-greens (my favorite color is my Lime Squeeze Fiesta car). I am well aware how monochromatic hues can imbue space with calmness and expanded spaces. I might have to try to emulate this. . .

Yikes! Maybe you could just find some good accessories in that color. I have a mixing bowl that I love in that color, but it's just a mixing bowl. I don't have to look at it all the time. It goes with some kitchen towels but I don't look at them all the time either.

I love small, couldn't go this tiny, though. When I was looking for a convenient small place to land until I retire in a couple years, I looked at some apodments in Seattle. They are basically enhanced bedrooms renting for $500-$700 a month created out of 3 story townhouses with one community kitchen. Each 90 to 200 square foot room has a bathroom (shower, toilet) and an RV-sized kitchen (sink in a cupboard, a small refrigerator, a microwave). There is an open closet rod/shelf combo for clothes (elfa?). It bothered me that the only sink was the one in the "kitchen" though I later realized I could wash my hands in the shower stall to avoid contamination. Windows are typically over-sized, which is good.

Since there is little or no parking on site, and each house has 8 bedrooms, it has created a huge issue in residential neighborhoods (Seattle has a lot of single family residential neighborhoods on lots from 3,000 to 7,200 square feet; we aren't so built up yet, but it's coming).

Personally, I like the option of extra-small living and I think it fills a great niche that is somewhere between a regular studio close to downtown or trendy young places ($900 to $1,200 per month or more) and sharing a house with all the drama that entails. It allows students and part-time workers some choice about living space.

I do wish the city would allow a non-profit to create some of these locker-style houses with locks so homeless people could have a warm place out of the rain. Even if they are small, it seems to me they would be safer than camping in the "jungle", in doorways and all the public waste matter in alleys and on buildings every night. And it would give people who are looking for a way out some place to clean up, do laundry, and store the few things they own during the day. That turns into another day, another week, another year. . . then we will be in the news, too. I mean for something other than insane public policy.

If you aren't fond of a larger mirror (the good ones are so expensive!) you could create an architectural feature by trimming out a piece of plywood (2x8) and attaching it about 12 inches from a wall painted the same color (or an accent color) and put your ladder behind that.

I hang lighter things like broom, mop, dustpan, etc behind a door on command hooks. My ironing board slides next to the washer/dryer.

Go to any store that sells "As Seen On TV", there is an inexpensive set of supports that you lay out on the part under the cushions that will beef them up and they will feel like new.

Two is better.

Even though you have drawn the furniture to scale, it is still an aerial view in two dimensions. It will look much different when you are actually walking around it, and I think you will find it isn't as big looking in person as when you are looking "down" onto a flat drawing. For one thing, the sectional couch will have a back and arms so it won't look so "big". And you can look for a sectional that has thin or fat arms and back so that is a variable as well.

If the space is small, one tip is to use monochromatic colors for anything that goes next to a wall. I had a small living room in my townhouse with a hunter green wall-to-wall carpeting and stark white walls. It looked so small I kept buying love seats but nothing worked!

I studied color theory, painted the walls a darker hue called mocha rose, to offset the darkness of the rug, then bought a big oversized chenille couch, two big chairs and a table, made a seating area and with all terra cotta other stuff (like the tv stand, plant stands, vases on wall shelves, etc.) against the new wall color, and the space looked huge and everything fit.

hahaha! The article doesn't say Italian prisoners actually live like this! Just that some helped redesign the space size of a typical cell. They did a great job, maybe they have a future waiting for them when they get out! Or maybe a designer did the design work and the prisoners made it to the specifications. My old office was all built-ins built by prisoners. It was pretty nice work, too.

I love the space and I could easily live small like this!