small spaces

it is no secret that i am a fan of small spaces. last year my volunteer efforts included trying to save my neighborhood from the mcmansion (you can read more about that here if you are interested http://www.preserveoldleawood.blogspot.com/. i mean really, how much space do we really need? it takes effort to live in small spaces and i really think the biggest secret of it all is simply staying organized. lately i have seen other blogs talking about small space ideas and my local newspaper recently also wrote an article about small space living. i thought i would share with you today the ideas in my house that allow us to live comfortably in a small space.

my house is approximately 1700 square feet. it is the typical ranch floor plan with living/dining in the front and kitchen/family room in the back. long hallway to three (used to be 4 until we decided that a master bath bigger than a closet was needed) bedrooms and a hall bath. i often refer to it as my double wide trailer. i nixed the dining room, since it really wasn't even large enough for a table, 6 chairs and the buffet. i turned it into our mud room with built in lockers to corral all the daily necessities. so now our 'dining room' is on the back of the house and viewed from the kitchen. i also split my couch and love seat up .... one is in the front living room, the smaller love seat now faces the fireplace off of the kitchen. giving me more of a hearth room feel.

my kitchen is narrow. i really wanted a kitchen island and was thrilled to find this old dresser to use for it. this is not your typical eat at island. but with a stool at one end, snacks are often enjoyed here. back to the dresser.... i love all the storage it has. the center doors open to 3 pull out drawers. the sides and back i wrapped with bead board and trimmed it out. new knobs and it fits my kitchen perfectly. with my dishwasher on one side and the ovens on the other i was in need of something narrow yet functional. a long dresser fit my needs and it is probably one of my favorite pieces.

the back of the island - wrapped with bead board. you can see my loveseat and dining area in the background.

in my master bath a towel rack i made out of old door knobs is so functional.

this is pretty to look at, was a fun, easy project and does its job of keeping towels off the floor.

when we remodeled our master bath we didn't put in any built in cabinets. i had this piece from living overseas that i loved. white towels stack nicely and are convenient. all the small drawers below hold extra soap, etc. i love having furniture pieces in my bathroom instead of built ins.

back to the kitchen.... above my cook top i opted for a mantle instead of a cabinet. this allows for me to display some of my favorite things and frees up the counter space.

i love my armoire. i love that it adds height to the room, hides the t.v. and in the bottom the kids have baskets of toys and games. again, i think being organized is key to living in small spaces. everything has a home and gets put away.

again, multipurpose furniture helps. a bench, turned coffee table, also functions as storage for small cars and blocks. it is easily accessible for the boys and encourage creative play.

our hallway to the bedrooms is our photo gallery. putting photos here helps control the clutter of having tons of small photo frames on every table surface in the rest of the house.

those are just a few ideas i have for living in small spaces. i hope you found them helpful and if you have some small space ideas, please leave a comment with a link to your ideas. i would love to hear more.