Strollerderby

My house is 19 feet wide -- seem positively giant by comparison.  Finding furniture is hard.  We buy a lot of our stuff at fleamarkets and "antique" shops.  Stuff built before the 1950s (i.e. before the massive move the suburbs) is much smaller and fits in the smaller/narrower rooms.

Hi. I wrote a book called HOUSE LUST: America's Obsession with our Homes, out in January. One chapter of it explores the fascination with large-home living, but in the chapter I also look at how people manage to live in smaller spaces. Among the characters is a New Yorker who's spent a decade in a 175 s.f. apartment. While the book may interest anyone who's thought about issues of how much space we really need, one resource I'd suggest regardless is www.apartmenttherapy.com. It runs an annual Small Apartment contest which contains both many cool photos of small-space living as well as ideas for making it work. Good luck to you.

My husband and I fit just fine in our 670 sq ft loft, but making space for a baby has been tough.  Adding all the baby furniture and toys we need to our already overfurnished apartment (we like big comfy chairs and entertain a lot) has been like a long game of tetris.  We're keeping the baby's crib and a rocking chair in our room, we've replaced our old dining room table with a much smaller one and placed an Ikea dresser set in the dining area, and found some great storage benches (also Ikea) to add seating and storage in the living area without taking up too much more space.  More importantly, we've taken 3 truckloads of seasonal and occasional use items over to my in-law's garage.

So far, it seems like it's going to work out just fine.  The baby isn't due to arrive for another couple of weeks, though, so we'll have to wait and see how he likes it...  

I went to the local furniture megastore over the weekend and was amazed at how huge everything is.  My husband and I and our infant twins live in an 1100 square foot house - pretty small but not tiny tiny - and I couldn't find dressers that would fit.  I'm looking at ordering online from Ikea.

My 100 year old house, while not tiny, has the same issue due to small room sizes.  I've noticed that Crate and Barrel (a big favorite of mine) carries many smaller sized items and I have had really good luck with their quality.  I think I also saw that Pottery Barn has an "Apartment" line.

We have the same problem. You wouldn't think it possible since we live in a five bed/three bath house. But the living room isn't big. And my 10x10 kitchen, not a lot of storage. So. My solution has been to make the place look larger with light paint, things that go up to the ceiling so that the eye is tricked into thinking there's a high ceiling. And believe it or not, a rug in the living room makes the place look bigger. Of course, the rug was lightish (not white!). And although we're living with a hand me down loveseat, I'm looking at large loveseats. They're longer than traditional love seats, but not as huge as couches. which means you can move things about a bit. And one recliner. That's it. It mostly works. When company comes over, people sit everywhere, including the hallway and the dining chairs.

Pottery Barn actually has furniture for small spaces. So does Crate and Barrel. I, however, lust for the 41 inch deep slip covered extra big love seat at Restoration Hardware. It's just the right length. And it's sooooo cushy! Which is important if all you're going to have is one piece of furniture. Too bad it's a budget buster. I plan to look for knock offs at Penney's.

If you live in LA, SofaULove used to make custom couches.

Last but not least, be real. Don't go for the armless numbers. They "look" less bulky. But good god, if you have kids, you want to curl up against something at the end of the day.

And above all. Slipcovers.

Gee. Can you tell I've been thinking about this a while?!

Right now we live in a 660 sq ft two bedroom. The kids share a room and the layout is very cramped and we hate it. We are moving in a week to a 940 sq ft two bedroom apartment which still feels too small. We just pretty much put everything where it fits and the rest is taken up by kid stuff.

Old place...

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New place...

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There is more info on spite houses at

en.wikipedia.org/.../Spite_house