Space Saving

I never finished the tour of my apartment, and many people have been asking me where I keep all my stuff in a one bedroom apartment. So, I thought I would share some tips about making the most of a small space when renting. We have certainly learned a lot on the subject.

I professed my love for IKEA here, so it should be no surprise that our apartment slightly resembles an IKEA catalogue. And though the weeks spent assembling furniture were among the most tedious and relentless days, it's all worth it in the end to have matching furniture that fits perfectly, just the way we planned it.

Tip 1: You can never have too many Billy Bookcases

The Billy Bookcases from IKEA were one of my first discoveries. I had initially gone looking for a good shoe storage solution and knew as soon as I saw these that they were perfect. I have the distinct memory of taking my shoe off my foot and placing it on the display shelf, right in the store. Perfect fit, like Cinderella.

My shoe corner in our bedroom:


Soon after, we discovered the versatility of these book cases. Height extensions, glass doors, half glass doors, corner units, different widths, different finishes, lights, the possibilities are endless. And the depth of these is perfect. They are not bulky. As seen above they are the perfect depth for a shoe.

Clear doors to display my purses:






Height extension unit (perfect for dust bags, and things I don't need to reach regularly):


In our living room (we keep files and things we don't necessarily want to display in the bottom half. Perfect for displaying our books/dvds while adding extra, hidden storage space):


Tip 2: Drawers, drawers, and more drawers

We finally decided to get matching night stands and a real bed frame. A low platform frame and lower night stands can create the illusion of a bigger space. We made sure we had sufficient drawer space in our night stands, and we even have drawers in the bed frame too! (Not shown below, but can be seen here)



We could never sacrifice a TV in our bedroom, so we made sure to find the perfect fit for everything:



Our coffee table in the living room. I photographed it here as well, but could you tell these drawers were on the sides?:


Tip 3: Room Screens to conceal

A big source of stress when moving into a one bedroom- where to put my cat's litter box. I had the idea of a room separating screen to hide this as well as cleaning supplies like our Swiffer and vacuum. We all know that I was not about to sacrifice a closet for these things.

Room screen, from Crate and Barrel:


Nothing is built into the wall, and everything is versatile enough that we can rearrange it and bring it to wherever we might live next.