nyc apartment bathroom design ideas
michelle james: being in a smallspace really sets you up to weed out the things that arejust there to fill space. i tell people how small it is. i think when they first come in,they think, wow, it really is that small. i'm michelle james, and i'ma product photographer. and this is my 311-square-footapartment in the west village in new york city. so i moved from california.
i had 1,500 square feet thereand just had no time to keep up with it, becausei worked so much. i didn't want to spendevery single weekend cleaning my condo. i wanted the new yorkkind of feel. i didn't want a boxin a high-rise. i grew up in florida, so i'msort of a beach girl. i don't surf, but i lovebeing on the water or being by the beach.
the painting that's on the wallhere is where the color scheme sort of came from-- the plum that kind of makes theoutlines, the green in the shirt has kind of becomethe table. a dress that i had that i hadworn for a christmas card one year, i was like, whyis it in a box? it's a beautiful piece. it needs to be something ican look at every day. by really using paint,i think that helps to
pop some of the moldings. it's nice and open, but i alsohave a living area where i can have guests over,we have seating. there's a couch that becomesa queen size bed. i can also-- i have the table that'son the wall. i can pull it down. it can become a two-to four-person eating/dining area.
so the chairs i found on ebay. i had been looking fora specific chair. and then i basically guttedthem, stripped, sanded, repainted, reupholstered,and they're the new dining room chairs. on the one windowsill, i have atic-tac-toe board of paris. i have a small little garden anda container of sand from my hometown that's a littlepiece of home that i'm able to bring into my small space.
so another thing that i amreally passionate about, obviously, is photography. i collect vintage cameras. and then i also had some spaceabove, where i decided to use it as storage for myshoes, because a girl loves her shoes. so the apartment isnot a studio. i think it's technicallya one-bedroom. but it is 12'x8'.
so based on the size of thespace itself, all that would fit in there is a full bed. i think it would just be bed ifthere were any larger-sized bed in there. we built this outof just plywood. we put drawers underneath soi had space for clothes. and then i have a shoe cube tohelp, again, use some of the vertical space to put somestorage in for that. based on some of the moldingsthat i have in the room
itself, i kind of got the ideathat i believe it was part of the hallway, originally, becausewhen you go outside, it's the exact same molding onthe ceilings, and it's about the size of a hallway, whenyou look out there. so they just put awall and said, we could make this a bedroom. when people come over here, ithink at first they're taken aback by all the color andhow small it really is. but i can clean in 10 minutesand go out and do fun
stuff in the city. i don't have to be aslave to my space. but i also have created anenvironment that i really feel at home in. the comments that i've gottenare like, this apartment represents you and your hobbiesand your loves and the things that you'repassionate about. i feel so good in this spacebecause of the colors, because of just little elements thati really, truly love.
so i'm surrounded by thosethings, and it makes me really feel at peace to bein this space. tracy metro: are you asocial media darling? do you like to hang out onfacebook, twitter, pinterest, or even tumblr? if so, you can check us out atall those places, or of course you can just click subscriberight here to see what we've got going on.