When shopping for apartments, listings feature numerous dimensions stating how small or large the space is. Obviously, a 1,000-square-foot apartment will be larger than an 800-square-foot apartment. But if both apartments have two bedrooms, it’s hard to distinguish how much larger the 1,000-square-foot apartment is.
So, how big is 1,000 square feet? Learning how to measure for yourself and looking at some comparisons can go a long way in putting 1,000 square feet into perspective.
How to measure 1,000 square feet
To provide guidelines on standardized measurements, the American National Standards Institute oversees standards and conformity assessment activities to keep everyone on the same page. However, not everyone adheres to these standards, so it’s imperative to take your own measurements to confirm an apartment is an advertised size.
To adequately measure an apartment, condo, townhome, rental house, tiny home or other property, start by listing all the different rooms in the unit on a piece of paper. This includes all closets, hallways, utility spaces and so on.
Next, measure each room with a tape measure. Measure both the length and width of the room and then, multiply those two numbers. That’s the square footage of the room, which is noted by the correct space on the list.
If you have a room with an offset that’s not flush with the rest of the room, measure that section separately. For instance, if the kitchen has an eating nook, measure the straight lines of the kitchen, and then measure the straight lines of the eating nook to get each section’s square area.
To keep the math simple, round all measurements to the nearest half foot. For example, if the master bedroom is 12 feet by 8 feet, 7 inches, multiply 12 by 8.5 to get the square footage: 102 square feet.
After measuring all spaces in the unit, add them together for the unit’s total square footage.
Source: Rent. / Buckhead Town Homes and Gardens
What does 1,000 square feet look like?
It’s not easy to picture how much space 1,000 square feet actually is, so consider some comparisons. One example is a regulation tennis court for singles matches. This court measures 2,106 square feet, so a 1,000-square-foot apartment would sit on about one-half of the tennis court. Here are some other comparisons:
The average two-car garage is 400 square feet, so imagine two and a half two-car garages sitting side by side
On an NBA basketball court, the foul line is 19 feet from the baseline behind the basket. The court is 50 feet wide. If you measure the court size from the baseline to the foul line, it is 950 square feet.
The average size of a rectangular in-ground swimming pool is 200 square feet, so imagine five swimming pools side by side
How much can I fit into a 1,000-square-foot apartment?
Although actual layouts may vary, many 1,000-square-foot apartments often have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living area, a dining area and a kitchen. Within those layouts, the rooms may vary, such as a larger living and dining area and smaller bedrooms.
In some cases, the living and dining rooms could be about the same size as the bedrooms. Or, the bedrooms could be larger, with small main living spaces.
It’s likely a king bed will fit comfortably in at least one of the bedrooms. The living area likely will accommodate a sofa, a couple of chairs and two or three side tables. The dining area usually is large enough for a kitchen table and four chairs.
Given these are basic items, a 1,000-square-foot apartment also usually will accommodate accessories, such as bookshelves, TV consoles, dressers and other furnishings.
A 1,000-square-foot apartment generally accommodates a family of four or less.
The benefits of living in 1,000 square feet
When considering a 1,000-square-foot apartment, there are many benefits to choosing an apartment of this size.
You’ll have extra space for storage
In a 1,000-square-foot apartment, you could find yourself with plenty of storage space. For instance, if you plan to use the second bedroom as an office or guest room, you can use that bedroom’s closet for storage.
Plus, you can put furniture in there to use as storage, such as bookcases, chest of drawers and armoires.
You could save on utility costs
Choosing a 1,000-square-foot apartment could help keep utility costs in check. Having a smaller floor area means less work keeping it warm or cool enough, which reduces the cost of your electric bill. Fewer windows could help, as well, since you can keep curtains closed in the winter to keep warm air in and help prevent cold air from escaping during summer.
Use effective interior design to maximize space
Once you start moving into a 1,000-square-foot apartment, the rooms may start to feel smaller. But you can take steps to prevent that from happening with the right home designs.
For instance, decorating with lighter colors can reflect light and make the rooms feel bigger. If the walls are already white or a light color, just add pops of color through accessories like area rugs, throw pillows and artwork.
While you want to maximize the storage space in your apartment, don’t try to cram too many furnishings into the rooms. For example, choose a large sofa, chair and coffee table instead of several chairs, a loveseat and side tables.
Adding baskets also can help keep your apartment decluttered, so you don’t feel like your stuff is overtaking the place. Baskets are great catch-alls for books, magazines, papers and other items in the living room.
They also serve as a good storage spot for towels if you don’t have a lot of cabinets in the bathroom. Throwing toys in your child’s bedroom also can make clean-up quick and easy.
Turn 1,000 square feet into your perfect living space
For many people, 1,000 square feet may seem like a small apartment while, for others, it may seem like more than enough square footage. Regardless of your circumstances, you can make 1,000 square feet your perfect-sized property with the right furnishings and home designs in each of the rooms.
When shopping for apartments, listings feature numerous dimensions stating how small or large the space is. Obviously, a 1,000-square-foot apartment will be larger than an 800-square-foot apartment. But if both apartments have two bedrooms, it’s hard to distinguish how much larger the 1,000-square-foot apartment is.
So, how big is 1,000 square feet? Learning how to measure for yourself and looking at some comparisons can go a long way in putting 1,000 square feet into perspective.
How to measure 1,000 square feet
To provide guidelines on standardized measurements, the American National Standards Institute oversees standards and conformity assessment activities to keep everyone on the same page. However, not everyone adheres to these standards, so it’s imperative to take your own measurements to confirm an apartment is an advertised size.
To adequately measure an apartment, condo, townhome, rental house, tiny home or other property, start by listing all the different rooms in the unit on a piece of paper. This includes all closets, hallways, utility spaces and so on.
Next, measure each room with a tape measure. Measure both the length and width of the room and then, multiply those two numbers. That’s the square footage of the room, which is noted by the correct space on the list.
If you have a room with an offset that’s not flush with the rest of the room, measure that section separately. For instance, if the kitchen has an eating nook, measure the straight lines of the kitchen, and then measure the straight lines of the eating nook to get each section’s square area.
To keep the math simple, round all measurements to the nearest half foot. For example, if the master bedroom is 12 feet by 8 feet, 7 inches, multiply 12 by 8.5 to get the square footage: 102 square feet.
After measuring all spaces in the unit, add them together for the unit’s total square footage.
Source: Rent. / Buckhead Town Homes and Gardens
What does 1,000 square feet look like?
It’s not easy to picture how much space 1,000 square feet actually is, so consider some comparisons. One example is a regulation tennis court for singles matches. This court measures 2,106 square feet, so a 1,000-square-foot apartment would sit on about one-half of the tennis court. Here are some other comparisons:
The average two-car garage is 400 square feet, so imagine two and a half two-car garages sitting side by side
On an NBA basketball court, the foul line is 19 feet from the baseline behind the basket. The court is 50 feet wide. If you measure the court size from the baseline to the foul line, it is 950 square feet.
The average size of a rectangular in-ground swimming pool is 200 square feet, so imagine five swimming pools side by side
How much can I fit into a 1,000-square-foot apartment?
Although actual layouts may vary, many 1,000-square-foot apartments often have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living area, a dining area and a kitchen. Within those layouts, the rooms may vary, such as a larger living and dining area and smaller bedrooms.
In some cases, the living and dining rooms could be about the same size as the bedrooms. Or, the bedrooms could be larger, with small main living spaces.
It’s likely a king bed will fit comfortably in at least one of the bedrooms. The living area likely will accommodate a sofa, a couple of chairs and two or three side tables. The dining area usually is large enough for a kitchen table and four chairs.
Given these are basic items, a 1,000-square-foot apartment also usually will accommodate accessories, such as bookshelves, TV consoles, dressers and other furnishings.
A 1,000-square-foot apartment generally accommodates a family of four or less.
The benefits of living in 1,000 square feet
When considering a 1,000-square-foot apartment, there are many benefits to choosing an apartment of this size.
You’ll have extra space for storage
In a 1,000-square-foot apartment, you could find yourself with plenty of storage space. For instance, if you plan to use the second bedroom as an office or guest room, you can use that bedroom’s closet for storage.
Plus, you can put furniture in there to use as storage, such as bookcases, chest of drawers and armoires.
You could save on utility costs
Choosing a 1,000-square-foot apartment could help keep utility costs in check. Having a smaller floor area means less work keeping it warm or cool enough, which reduces the cost of your electric bill. Fewer windows could help, as well, since you can keep curtains closed in the winter to keep warm air in and help prevent cold air from escaping during summer.
Use effective interior design to maximize space
Once you start moving into a 1,000-square-foot apartment, the rooms may start to feel smaller. But you can take steps to prevent that from happening with the right home designs.
For instance, decorating with lighter colors can reflect light and make the rooms feel bigger. If the walls are already white or a light color, just add pops of color through accessories like area rugs, throw pillows and artwork.
While you want to maximize the storage space in your apartment, don’t try to cram too many furnishings into the rooms. For example, choose a large sofa, chair and coffee table instead of several chairs, a loveseat and side tables.
Adding baskets also can help keep your apartment decluttered, so you don’t feel like your stuff is overtaking the place. Baskets are great catch-alls for books, magazines, papers and other items in the living room.
They also serve as a good storage spot for towels if you don’t have a lot of cabinets in the bathroom. Throwing toys in your child’s bedroom also can make clean-up quick and easy.
Turn 1,000 square feet into your perfect living space
For many people, 1,000 square feet may seem like a small apartment while, for others, it may seem like more than enough square footage. Regardless of your circumstances, you can make 1,000 square feet your perfect-sized property with the right furnishings and home designs in each of the rooms.
Depending on budget and location, you must select an apartment with less square footage than you dreamed. How small is too small? What about a 200-square-feet apartment?
Micro-apartments are becoming more popular as rents go back up in major urban spots like New York City. It might be all you need if you hate clutter and love a minimalist aesthetic. You can make it work as a single person or a couple.
But how big is 200 square feet, really?
How to calculate 200 square feet
When you’re touring the apartment complex, the leasing agent will let you know the square footage of every unit you see. But, what if the community isn’t as formal, you’re looking into a smaller complex or a garage apartment?
Knowing how to measure the square footage of your future home is incredibly helpful. Here’s how to do it.
You’ll need a pencil, paper, your phone’s calculator and a long tape measure (100-foot or more)
Start with the first room in the apartment. Look at the room’s shape — is it a rectangle, triangle, trapezoid or another shape? This will help record the dimensions of the room.
Use the tape measure and measure the width and length of the room in inches, rounding up to the nearest inch (or feet if your tape measure has it). You want whole numbers for this.
If you measured inches, divide each number by 12 to convert it to feet.
Use this square footage calculator to input the width and length of the room in feet. You’ll get the square footage of the room you’re in. Do this in every apartment room and add the square footage together at the end of all rooms.
Can you live in 200 square feet?
You’ve seen the headlines, “Can you believe this person lives in 200 square feet?” How big is 200 square feet, really? For example, a 400-square-feet apartment is about the size of a standard two-car garage. At the same time, a school bus equals a 300-square-feet apartment.
The best way to visualize 200 square feet is to think about a one-car garage with an average-sized car with little room on the sides. It will be a small studio that you’ll have to furnish strategically and keep low on clutter.
This studio floor plan from Nora Apartments in Seattle, WA, is an example of what an apartment close to 200 square feet looks like.
Source: Rent./Nora Apartments
Tips for living in 200 square feet
You don’t have to sacrifice your style or your sanity to live in 200 square feet.
Go monochrome
Paint can take you very far in a small space. A cool bright white from floor to ceiling and cohesive finishes will instantly make the space look bigger. Choose a neutral color palette that you’ll carry from your furniture to your linens and accessories to create a calm space.
Too much color can quickly overwhelm the senses in a 200-square-foot apartment. For example, keep your bedding crisp white with subtle stripes if you need a pattern. It will open up the space and make it look more together.
Have a place for everything
Having a place for everything means no clutter. Decide what you need to display and what doesn’t in each room and put it away.
If you need more small space storage, go vertical with shelves above the couch, the toilet or your desk. It will clear the floor and make the space look bigger. Get clever with your space usage. Use baskets or the inside of your oven for your pots when not in use.
Embrace dual-purpose furniture
Can a desk function as a work spot and your nightstand? How are you using your closet for clothes and homewares?
Have a big suitcase? Use it to store your blankets and bedsheets when not in use. Maximize your space by using the space under your sofa, bed and coffee table to store, display and organize any of your things.
Understand your layout
Understanding a small apartment’s main paths and overall layout will help determine the main spaces to decorate and prioritize. It’s not enjoyable to keep tripping over something because it’s not in the right place.
Identify the paths you take the most to the kitchen, bathroom and bed to mark them off-limits when buying furniture. This will quickly bring a little peace to the chaos and make your apartment look more put-together.
Clean windows
This seems small, but keeping your windows clean will bring more natural light into the space and make it seem brighter. Place a mirror nearby to reflect all that good light to other spots in your small apartment.
Only use thin, light-colored curtains to maximize the light for those windows.
Make your 200-square-foot apartment mighty
It all comes down to your lifestyle — 200 square feet is more than enough for someone with a minimalist personality that doesn’t need too much. Just because you are going minimal, it doesn’t mean you can’t make that apartment a home.
You can make this small apartment beyond cozy while being intentional about what you bring into it. Don’t get too stuck in the “how big is 200 square feet” and more in the potential for you.
A freelance writer based out of the Atlanta area, Alia has penned articles during her decade+ career for such sites as HowStuffWorks, TLC, Animal Planet, Zillow and many more. Her favorite things to write about include fitness, nutrition, travel, healthcare and general lifestyle topics. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Alia’s an avid Dawg, but she also loves reading, sewing, eating all things chocolate and playing sports with her husband, three boys and beloved border collie, Flash.
When you throw a Halloween party (or any party for that matter) in a small apartment, there are a couple of minor challenges. But, where most people see limits, the true party planning expert sees possibilities. Like, Frankenstein-sized possibilities.
Here are some helpful tips on how to throw a Halloween party in an apartment. No doubt you want the guests to get a treat, rather than a rotten egg-like trick.
1. Choose between a chilling or chill theme
There are two main types of Halloween to celebrate, so it’s a good idea to choose your party’s motif before landing the old broomstick on anything else. The first type of Halloween is the kid-friendly sort, filled with décor featuring pumpkins, whimsical fake tombstones and not-so-spooky ghosts.
The other type of Halloween aims to terrify, with realistically gruesome zombies, jump-scares galore and probably more than one Stephen King character on site (Pennywise, we’re looking at you). Whichever route you take, it pays to choose one and see it through. Continuity is key! The cast of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” doesn’t really belong side by side with “The Walking Dead,” you know?
2. Get some ghoulish guests
To that end, make sure to iron out exactly what sort of audience you want. If families are coming, dial down the scary. But, if it’s adults only, feel free to go all out.
Most apartment-based events are also best kept to a limited number of attendees. Although it might be terrifyingly tempting to invite everyone you ever met, there’s only so much space to go around, which could cause the party to crash and burn prematurely. Shoot for around 30 attendees (not everyone will come, so invite a few more than that).
Also, strongly consider including nearby neighbors on the guest list. Otherwise, you might wind up with a flaming bag of poo on your doorstep. No one likes excessive noise without warning or being left out of the fun, for that matter. At the very least, a heads up on the upcoming event, plus saying “you’re welcome to stop by” goes a long way.
3. Set a not-so-dangerous date
Choose the date and time to suit your guest list, as well. Nothing petrifies parents of toddlers quite like a late evening party because that’s when the real monsters might threaten to come out. So, if kids are coming, opt for earlier in the day, and definitely not on actual Halloween night when they’ll be out trolling for candy. Otherwise, adults tend to prefer spooky soirees in the evening hours.
4. Clear the place out
If you’re tight with the next-door neighbors, ask them if you can store some extraneous furniture in their unit during the party. Or, choose a room that you don’t want people going in anyway (like the bedroom) and relocate some bits and pieces in there temporarily. Most parties need only be standing-room only, with maybe a couch or some chairs pushed up against the wall.
5. Set up a haunted micro-house
Lucky enough to have an extra bedroom or office? Transform that space into a miniature haunted “house” of sorts. It doesn’t have to go too over the top, either. Scary music, strobe light and a friend or two jumping out of the closet in zombie gear go a long way toward adding ambiance to an event.
6. Curate a creepy playlist
Nothing sets the tone for a party like a playlist. There are a ton of seasonal songs out there, but don’t feel like you have to limit the playlist to Halloween-specific tunes. Mix those in with other songs that lend the appropriate vibe, be it creepy, mysterious or scary.
Consider tunes from well-known horror flicks, like the theme from “Psycho,” pretty much anything from “The Shining” soundtrack or even classical music often featured in scary movies, such as Bach’s “Toccata & Fugue in D Minor” (you’ll know it when you hear it). Then, branch out into other pop culture favorites, like songs from the “Stranger Things,” “Us” or “Twilight” soundtracks, or even bands that lend themselves ever so slightly to the dark side, such as Marilyn Manson, Metallica, KISS, Black Sabbath and more.
At any point, you can pop in “A Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince for brevity.
7. Decorate safely and sparingly
Nothing says Halloween quite like flickering candles, but for the sake of safety, opt instead for battery-powered candlelight. With a lot of people rubbing elbows in a small space the real deal is far too dangerous.
Also, don’t clutter the space with too many decorations. Focus on high-impact areas, like the front door, the balcony or the previously mentioned haunted house. Otherwise, dim lights, string lights, battery-operated candles and maybe a cobweb or two are plenty. You don’t want anyone tripping over life-sized mummies, or whatever.
8. Choose space-appropriate games
An apartment is not the place to bob for apples. Leave that to the outdoor festivities. Instead, plan some activities to keep guests engaged that aren’t too space-consuming. Halloween costume contests are popular, and really encourage guests to step up their game if you give prizes. A Halloween-themed scavenger hunt, Halloween trivia or even a full-blown murder mystery are all easy to pull off with minimal extra stuff required.
9. Serve foods that won’t scare people away
Throwing a Halloween party in an apartment is not the time to serve sticky ribs or bowls of pumpkin soup, no matter how appropriate they might be for the motif. Such options are simply too messy and uncomfortable to eat standing up. Instead, offer a smattering of finger foods for guests to graze on. That way, utensils and other extra pieces aren’t necessary for people to get their nosh on. This will minimize the upfront cost and the back-end mess, both of which are good things.
Feel free to whip up a themed app or two, like meatballs that look like eyeballs or strawberry ghosts, but don’t feel obligated to get too cutesy. Instead, put a little extra effort into a signature drink or two, like Frankenpunch or Black Magic Jell-O shots. Also, don’t put all of the food and beverages in the exact same spot, unless you enjoy a logjam. Instead, designate a sideboard in the living room for certain apps, a kitchen counter for more and yet another spot for drinks.
10. Make the party literally chilling
A regular party can easily ramp the temperature way up in an apartment, but a party with people wearing costumes, makeup and even masks will really do some damage. Keep your guests from sweating their zombie faces off by cranking up the air conditioning and providing plenty of cold beverages.
Time to eat, drink and be scary
You can have a lot of fun in a small space if you know how to throw a Halloween party in an apartment. So, don’t be a scaredy-cat — start planning a ghostly event today!
A freelance writer based out of the Atlanta area, Alia has penned articles during her decade+ career for such sites as HowStuffWorks, TLC, Animal Planet, Zillow and many more. Her favorite things to write about include fitness, nutrition, travel, healthcare and general lifestyle topics. A graduate of the University of Georgia, Alia’s an avid Dawg, but she also loves reading, sewing, eating all things chocolate and playing sports with her husband, three boys and beloved border collie, Flash.
As the pandemic shut down office life in Los Angeles’ downtown financial district, Claude Cognian tried to keep his gastropub Public School 213 open. But the evacuation of white-collar workers made way for an influx of homeless people and drug users — and more than a few troublemakers striding in the front door.
“It was hard to keep hostesses at the door, because they got scared,” said Cognian, chief executive of the restaurant’s parent company, Grill Concepts Inc.
Three break-ins cost as much as $12,000 each time just to repair the windows, all while the bottom line was cratering in the absence of the office employees who used to gather for lunch and after-work drinks. With sales down 75% from pre-pandemic days, his company closed the downtown gastropub in August and is not planning to return.
“Our bet was that downtown was going to come back, and it hasn’t,” Cognian said.
For decades the Los Angeles financial district was the beating heart of downtown, the corporate muscle that gave the city of sprawl a soaring glass skyline. But the pandemic and the wave of remote work hollowed out its skyscrapers and helped shut many restaurants and businesses that relied on crowds of workers. Though the neighborhood shows signs of recovery, few expect it to return to being the bustling hive of suits and ties that it was.
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To many insiders — the urban planners, real estate developers and business owners with interests in it — the area will recover only if its identity grows more textured than a zone of white-collar office space.
Desirable office addresses were already spreading beyond the financial district before the pandemic, as downtown experienced a renaissance in housing, art and entertainment on blocks previously shunned by investors and residents.
To the south, billions of dollars were spent improving the blocks around Crypto.com Arena with hotels, housing and entertainment venues. Obsolete century-old commercial and industrial buildings to the east were renovated into desirable housing and fashionably unconventional offices. Billions more were spent north on Bunker Hill where the Music Center including Walt Disney Concert Hall and office skyscrapers have been joined by museums, apartments and a high-rise hotel.
The housing boom drew residents to the financial district as well, and that has kept it from turning into a ghost town.
But for the area to truly come back to life, many say it will need to follow the path of Lower Manhattan. The financial capital of New York faced an exodus after 9/11, but city officials and investors staved it off by making it a place of more diverse uses. It is still an office district but is far more lively than it used to be since it also became a residential neighborhood with more shops, restaurants, parks and hotels than it had before the attacks. A performing arts center will open in September.
“Cities evolve. That’s what they do,” said downtown L.A. business representative Nick Griffin. “From natural disasters, wars and pandemics. They evolve with market changes, customer preferences and cultural shifts. Downtown has evolved pretty dramatically over the last 20 years and the next five or so are going to be very interesting.”
Many companies have returned to their offices, but on a limited basis as their employees work some days from home. “For Lease” signs clutter building fronts, tacked over restaurants and bars that once served lively hordes of office workers. Graffiti marks windows.
At Public School 213, the chairs are stacked neatly on tables as if it just closed for the night. Other former restaurants have been gutted by their landlords. Sidewalks are quiet, sometimes eerily so.
Downtown’s centers of gravity have shifted numerous times since its days as a remote Spanish pueblo.
The plaza by Olvera Street near the Los Angeles River was el centro until the late 19th century. When the railroads arrived in the American era, the business elite shifted the commercial district south from the plaza toward 1st Street in the Anglo section of the racially divided city, said Greg Fischer, an expert on the history of downtown who worked on planning matters for former City Councilwoman Jan Perry. Main, Spring, Broadway and Hill streets became the business hub.
In the early 20th century, elite social clubs such as the Jonathan Club, the California Club and the Los Angeles Athletic Club erected new buildings on the west side of downtown where property was relatively cheap. Soon the rooming houses, small apartment buildings and ramshackle Victorian homes there gave way. Richfield and other oil companies headquartered there, the seeds of today’s financial district.
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In “the Jetsons era,” as Fischer described the 1960s, corporate leaders viewed the Spring Street-centered office district as increasingly obsolete and passé and moved to newer buildings in the financial district. Downtown lost a lot of itslifeblood during that time, he said.
“In the years after World War II, downtown was a shopping, office and entertainment area,” Fischer said. “By the 1960s the office component had shifted west, most entertainment went to suburbs and housing just evaporated.”
Among the big businesses with offices in the west were the Richfield, Union, Signal, National and Superior oil companies. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. was headquartered there and Bank of America had a big presence.
The boundaries of the financial district are not officially outlined, but property brokerage CBRE defines it as the office center south of Bunker Hill and 4th Street, flanked on the west by the 110 Freeway and on the east by Hill Street and extending south to 8th Street.
By the 1980s, much of downtown was moribund; buildings that once thrummed with commerce were dilapidated and vacant or underused. There were pockets of vibrancy, notably the Jewelry District and a Latino-centric shopping zone that emerged among aging buildings along Broadway in the Historic Core. The Civic Center around City Hallremained one of the largest concentrations of public administrative buildings in the country, employing thousands of workers.
But the financial district was the shinythriving part of the city, a high-rise office park for lawyers, bankers and accountants who piled into their cars for a mass exodus at the end of each workday.
To many, the neighborhood felt like a corporate fortress, invisibly walled off from the rest of downtown. Business leaders were painfully aware that downtown L.A. lacked the vibrancy of other big cities because it had so few residents, but was stuck in a chicken-and-egg dilemma: People didn’t want to live there because it lacked restaurants, grocery stores and other typical city-life amenities, but merchants didn’t want to set up shop because few lived there.
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The stalemate began to break around 2000 with an ordinance that made it easier to redevelop obsolete office buildings into housing. The relocation of the Lakers, Clippers and Kings pro sports teams to the new downtown arena then known as Staples Center brought thousands of sports and music fans and led a wave of development south of the financial district.
Decades of efforts to add rail service and thousands of apartments and condominiums helped create a more vibrant downtown that was taking on the flavor of other big cities before the pandemic.
“All of a sudden people were walking dogs and pushing baby carriages,” architect Martha Welborne said. “New restaurants came in, even destination restaurants that weren’t just for the people who worked downtown or lived there.”
Fortunately for downtown’s future prospects, its apartment towers remain nearly fully occupied. More than 35,000 units were built after 1999, when so few people lived there that downtown didn’t even have a big-chain grocery store.
Three new hotels have recently opened and a 42-story apartment tower will start leasing later this year. Bottega Louie, one of the region’s top-grossing restaurants before it shut down during the pandemic, reopened in 2021. A few blocks away, legendary Beverly Hills steakhouse Mastro’s also opened a seafood restaurant last year near Crypto.com Arena.
And last week, Metro opened its new Regional Connector, a 1.9-mile underground downtown track adding three stations and linking different lines to make travel more seamless.
Though some business owners have abandoned the financial district, others see an opportunity to get in at an affordable price during what they hope is a temporary economic dip.
Restaurateur Prince Riley recently leased a spot on Grand Avenue that was last home to the Red Herring restaurant. He grabbed it because he liked the location and it was already built-out for upscale dining.
“You can see all the love and care that went into this space,” he said. “They were a casualty of COVID.”
Riley and his wife plan to open their restaurant, named Joyce, in July, featuring a raw bar and Southern-style seafood such as crudo and ceviche. They moved into the apartment building upstairs to be close to it.
The couple like being near Bottega Louie, a popular Whole Foods grocery store and the recently opened Hotel Per La, which took over a lavishly refurbished 1920s building last occupied by another hotel that closed early in the pandemic.
“I can see business picking up,” Riley said. “This is an opportunity from a terrible tragedy like COVID. We wouldn’t have had this otherwise.”
A key factor keeping downtown teetering between recovery and a further downward slide appears to be discomfort with the streets and the sense that they are not as safe as they were before the pandemic.
The blocks close to Metro’s underground 7th Street/Metro Center station, where multiple light and heavy rail train lines meet, are among those that have changed the most since the pandemic as the Metro system struggles to combat rampant drug use and serious crimes such as robbery, rape and aggravated assault on its lines.
Thegrowing number of homeless people on the streets has been an issue in other cities too, said Cognian of Public School 213. His company also closed restaurants in Seattle and San Francisco because customers at their urban locations trickled away as unhoused people commandeered the sidewalks.
“Hopefully, we as a city, as a state, find a solution for the homeless,” he said. “If the homeless situation doesn’t get solved in some fashion that allows tourists, office workers and businesses to operate, it’s just going to bring down the area.”
Real estate broker Derrick Moore of CBRE, who specializes in matching restaurant and shop operators with landlords, said leasing of retail space downtown has improved in recent months, especially compared to the dark days of the 2020pandemic shutdown when downtown fell silent.
“It seems like ancient history,” Moore said, “but it was very devastating to one’s psyche.” And to downtown businesses.
In the wake of the COVID shutdown, downtown overall lost more than 100 food and beverage establishments with a combined footprint of more than 1 million square feet, Moore said.
“That’s restaurants, bars and lounges, juice bars, boutique coffee operators and even national brands,” Moore said. “A good portion of those remain vacant.”
Replacement tenants like Joyce restaurant are starting to come in, he said, with leasing and property showings picking up in the first quarter at a “resoundingly” busier pace than early 2022. Moore has taken potential tenants to the empty Public School space, where across the street the failed Standard Hotel just reopened under new management as the Delphi.
Faced with a challenging market, retail landlords have cut their asking rents as much as 50% from pre-COVID prices, Moore said, and more than doubled the amount they are willing to spend on tenant upgrades such as installing restaurant kitchens and restrooms, and providing periods of free rent.
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The financial district also faces a struggle of changing tastes, with many firms bypassing the gleaming skyscrapers that were the height of prestige in the late 20th century in favor of campus-style offices anda more laid-back vibe.
Even legal firms, long a stalwart in the financial district, are turning elsewhere in some cases. One firm established in February recently opted out of putting its office there.
“When we started to look at space it became very clear to us that locating in the financial district was a very different proposition than it used to be,” said Matt Umhofer, a partner at Umhofer, Mitchell & King. “Downtown has changed dramatically, and we wanted to rethink what it means to be a law firm in Los Angeles and let go of preconceived notions of needing to be in the financial district in order to be relevant.”
The fledgling firm opted instead for an office in Row DTLA, a campus of shops, restaurants and offices created out of century-old warehouses near the Arts District, east of the financial center, even though office rents in the Arts District are often higher than they are in the glitzy skyscrapers.
“The short version is, being in the financial district isn’t as cool as maybe it was in the past,” Umhofer said.
The spotty attendance of office workers has changed the character of business centers across the country, said Mark Grinis, leader of consulting firm EY‘s real estate, hospitality and construction practice.
An analysis by EY found that offices are being used at only 25% to 50% of the level they were before the pandemic.
“In some locations, three-quarters of the people that normally would have gone in, didn’t,” Grinis said. “People are not on the subway, ordering sandwiches at lunch or having a drink after work.”
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Vacant offices and storefronts can hinder recovery, he said, because people shy away from empty spaces.
“Three blocks of vacant houses in a residential neighborhood ultimately becomes a negative,” he said. “An office center is not that different.”
The physical appearance of vacancy becomes more alarming when graffiti, litter and grime follow and create a bad “multiplier effect,” Grinis said.
Stopping the spiral starts with making the streets safe and getting homeless residents into better housing, but there are also public policy decisions that could help landlords convert office buildings to housing if they are no longer competitive on the office leasing market.
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And the market has been brutal. Owners of some of downtown’s office high-rises have faced defaults, foreclosures and rushed sales in the face of falling demand, real estate data provider CoStar said.
The owner of two of the financial district’s premier office towers, 777 Tower and Gas Company Tower, said in February that it defaulted on loans tied to the buildings. Other high-rise owners are in similar straits.
In the face of rising vacancy rates, “those defaults could signal pain to come for the 69-million-square-foot downtown L.A. office market,” CoStar said.
Owners of buildings facing foreclosure sometimes don’t have enough money to build out new tenants’ offices, as is customary, which hinders strapped landlords from recovering financially.
Commercial landlords are getting hit on multiple fronts, said Jessica Lall, managing director of the downtown office of CBRE.
“What we’re seeing is a perfect storm when it comes to the office distress in downtown L.A.,” she said.
Loans on large-scale properties are maturing at a time when interest rates are high, making refinancing a challenge, Lall said. There is widespread uncertainty among tenants about how much space they will need to rent in the future if employees work remotely at least some of the time.
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Those issues are compounded by “the general perception around downtown being unsafe,” she said. “All urban centers are grappling with that issue right now.”
The downtown office vacancy rate — the share of total space that is unleased — climbed to 24% in the first quarter, up from 21.1% a year ago, according to CBRE. More empty space is coming, the brokerage said, pushing estimated availability to a daunting 30% as some companies shrink their offices or move away from downtown.
Law firm Skadden, for example, a large longtime tenant in downtown’s Bunker Hill district, has decided to move its offices to Century City .
The landlord of the U.S. Bank Tower, downtown’s tallest office tower at 72 stories, remains bullish on the market in spite of its troubles and recently spent $60 million to make the building more attractive to tenants by adding hotel-like amenities.
“People need offices,” said Marty Burger, chief executive of Silverstein Properties, which owns the tower. “Not every company in every industry needs an office, but the majority of them do.”
Among the reasons for offices are collaboration and education, he said. “How do you mentor the young folks who are coming up in your industry if the older people aren’t in the office for younger people to learn from? There is a whole ecosystem where you need people in an office now.”
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Companies may end up using their offices fewer days of the week than they used to as remote work and shortened schedules grow in popularity, he acknowledged: “Fridays may never be Fridays again.”
Burger says his optimism about downtown L.A.’s potential for improvement has a foundation in New York, where Silverstein built One World Trade Center on the site of the Twin Towers.
“After 9/11, everyone said that no one would ever live there or work there again,” Burger said.
In 2001, the neighborhood had about 20,000 residents and saw little activity after office hours. Now rebuilt, the neighborhood has about 75,000 residents and a greater mix of office tenants including businesses in tech and advertising in what was mostly a banking center before, Burger said.
“It’s a vibrant 24/7 community,” he said.
Many see this as the best future for L.A.’s financial district.
The city’s tight housing market combined with the downturn in office rentals opens the possibility to convert some office buildings into housing or hotels.
More residents and visitors would make the neighborhood more dynamic and better able to support restaurants, shops and nightlife, said Griffin, executive director of the privately funded Downtown Center Business Improvement District, a nonprofit coalition of more than 2,000 property owners.
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“If we trade some office for residential, that’s a good thing.”
The pandemic’s blow to the office market “is an opportunity that none of us ever imagined happening,” Welborne said, “transforming office buildings into residential buildings and reimagining our entire downtown.”
From soaking in a hot bath to indulging in self-care treatments like face masks and beauty routines, our bathrooms are like relaxation sanctuaries in our apartments. Close the door, and you have a tiny space all to yourself for some much-needed and well-deserved R&R. But tiny apartment bathrooms can also feel cramped and compact, with not enough space to create a soothing atmosphere. Luckily, there are tons of small ways you can turn that tiny bathroom into a snug and cozy oasis. Here are 20 small bathroom ideas so you can update your small bathroom and convert it into the self-care haven of your dreams.
20 ideas to make your small bathroom a spa
From investing in some plush, indulgent towels to adding shelving, these 20 small-bathroom-approved ideas will make any tiny apartment bathroom feel like an upscale spa.
1. Add plants
From helping purify your bathroom air to creating a natural, outdoorsy look, plants are a great and easy addition to your bathroom. In order to maximize space, hang them from the ceiling or use ledges and shelves.
2. Declutter and remove unnecessary items
Keeping things spic-and-span is key to creating a spa-like setting in your bathroom. Having too many things out on your counter or shelves is visually chaotic. Think about it: When you go to a spa, are lots of things left out and about? No, they keep things clean and neat so you can focus on getting grounded. Remove unnecessary items and keep your on-display goods to a minimum.
3. Keep it clean
Make this a habit and always clean up after yourself so your bathroom doesn’t become cluttered again. Clean it on a regular basis as well. Having a clean and organized space goes a long way to creating a soothing, relaxing environment. If you want to add bathroom decor, keep it simple and streamlined.
4. Make sure you have lots of storage options
One of the best ways to keep clutter to a minimum is by having lots of storage options. It’s your bathroom, so you still need a lot of stuff: toiletries, towels, beauty supplies. Take advantage of storage options like cabinets and cupboards to hide things out of sight and out of mind. You’ll have fast and easy access to all the things you need while creating the illusion of clutter-free minimalism. If you prefer on-display organization, wooden baskets and stylish organizers are another option.
5. Use up vertical space by adding shelves
In small apartment bathrooms, space comes at a premium. There often isn’t a ton of room on the floor, so you can maximize storage and style with open shelves. Creating sharp, clean lines, open shelving is a very on-trend way to use up vertical wall space. You can use them to store rolled-up towels, display plants and decor items or place toiletries. Just be sure to not over-crowd them or the effect won’t work as well.
6. Invest in a fancy showerhead
Treating yourself to a new showerhead is a super-easy way to make your bathroom more luxurious and indulgent. Available in tons of different materials and colors, you can choose options like gold or brass to accent your walls and floor. The type of showerhead matters too, from giant rain showers to multi-setting heads with different flows and pressure settings.
7. Get a bath tray
If you have a bathtub in your apartment bathroom, purchase a sleek and stylish bath tray or caddy to use during bathtime. Wooden ones are the best way to go, as the look mimics the refined, natural air of a spa. With a caddy, you can turn any bathtime into spa time, with a spot for books, snacks, candles or a glass of wine. Plus, they’re small and compact, making them easy to store away in between uses.
8. Elevate the floor with stick-and-peel tiles
One of the biggest challenges facing renters who want to upgrade any space in their apartment is the risk of damage. You want to make the space your own but don’t want to create lasting changes or damages that endanger your security deposit. An easy way to do this is by using stick-and-peel tiles. Available in tons of cool colors and designs, you can choose from a wide range of options that fits your bathroom’s look and aesthetic. Not only are they easy to install, but they easily come off come moving time as well.
9. Purchase plush towels
We all love those ultra-soft and fluffy towels you find at spas. Well, you can have those at home too. Find high-end towels from top brands and stores in your desired colors and prepare yourself to feel snuggled and cozy. Keeping them rolled up and on display is another way to recreate that quintessential spa look.
10. Get a towel warmer
Another great thing about spas? Your towels are usually already pre-warmed, enfolding you in soft, cozy fabric after you emerge from the pool or sauna. But did you know you can do that at home yourself? Towel warmers are available in a wide range of styles, from small bins you can tuck into a corner to towel racks you can attach to the wall if you don’t have much floor space. With a towel warmer, a pre-heated towel is ready and waiting for you after your bath, completing the spa experience.
11. Paint it white or neutral tones
Color is key to making a space feel relaxing and at ease. Opt for soothing tones like white or neutral colors like tan, beige or delicate pastel hues. Plus, you can always paint over it when it’s time to leave. Adding a neutral stick-and-peel wallpaper is another option.
12. Hang eucalyptus in the shower
The scent of eucalyptus is a near-ubiquitous spa sensory experience. And it makes sense why. This heavenly-smelling plant has tons of health benefits, from promoting relaxation to even helping relieve cold and sickness symptoms. While you could always light a eucalyptus candle or diffuse eucalyptus oil, why not go for the real deal? Purchase a bundle of eucalyptus at the store, smoosh the leaves slightly with a rolling pin and leave it to hang under your showerhead. Come shower time, the hot water will help release the scent, perfuming your bathroom just like a spa.
13. Add candles
From infusing your bathroom with relaxing scents to creating a soft, cozy glow, candles are an affordable and easy way to elevate your bathroom. Many also come in cute, stylish packaging, which goes the extra mile in helping create a look. Light candles while enjoying your bath for a soothing sensory experience.
14. Scent the space with a diffuser
Another way to add scent to your spa bathroom is with an infuser. Design-forward ones will match your aesthetic and you can customize the scent based on your mood.
15. Get cool, boldly patterned bathmats
For a pop of color or pattern, zhuzh up your bathroom floor with a fun bathmat. Different styles and sizes can make the floor more visually interesting, plus it feels great underfoot.
16. Use wooden accents
From natural scents to organic materials, spas love to use natural, outdoorsy elements to create a soothing, healing environment. Along with plants, using wood accents will help recreate the look. This could range from woven laundry baskets to natural wood shelves. It’ll make the space feel both rustic and natural, yet clean and sophisticated.
17. Invest in high-end toiletries
Going to spas, you’ll notice that they always use higher-end toiletries for things like soap, shampoo and body wash. From the texture to the scent to the packaging, fancy toiletries will make you look and feel more luxurious. These can also function as statement pieces, sitting out on your bathroom counter or shelves as the sole decor.
18. Create soft lighting
Lighting is key to creating that soft, soothing spa atmosphere. Instead of using a harsh overhead light, add backlighting behind your mirror, a cute hanging light fixture or even battery-powered light fixtures that attach to walls. Adding a dimmer option is another way to create the right mood. You can keep the light low when you’re trying to relax or ramp it up when you’re getting ready and need full lighting.
19. Get a design-forward shower curtain
In small bathrooms, shower curtains can take up a ton of visual space. If that’s the case in your bathroom, you want to make that space fit your aesthetic. Instead of generic shower curtains, find ones with interesting textures, stylish patterns or soothing colors.
20. It’s bidet time
Looking to be on-trend with your bathroom amenities? Add a bidet to your toilet. Popularized by the Japanese, bidets make even using the bathroom feel fancy and luxurious. Get a deep, complete clean after relieving yourself and leave feeling more refreshed than ever.
Save your money on a spa and treat yourself at home with these small bathroom ideas
As nice as it is to have a spa day, you can’t always find the time to fit it into your schedule or budget. Creating an at-home spa in your bathroom lets you indulge in much-needed self-care whenever you need it.
Still looking for a new place to spruce up the bathroom? Take a look here first.
Elvira Rincon never loved the small apartment that sits between Sunset Boulevard and Dodger Stadium. Even 30 years ago, shortly after she arrived from a small town in Queretaro, Mexico, and moved in with her husband and five children, the one-bedroom unit built in the 1920s felt cramped.
But over the decades she made it a home, planting a sprawling container garden of flowers, fruits and medicinal herbs to cure her family of stomach pains and colds. Her husband poured concrete to make a small patio in the courtyard, where they hosted birthday parties nearly every month. At $495 a month the rent-controlled apartment allowed Rincon, her children and now grandchildren to build a life in the heart of Los Angeles.
That made it easy for Rincon, 59, to dismiss the first buyout offer. A developer who bought the complex and a neighboring one last year proposed paying her and her neighbors $22,000 to leave. She did the math and figured the money would be gone in about one year in a county where the median rent for a one-bedroom is $1,600.
The second offer to Rincon and her neighbors came in February: $55,000. It was more money than she and her husband, who works in a local nursery, could ever save on their own — and still not enough to stay in her neighborhood for long.
Soon after, the ownerssent workersto tear apart a storage shed she’d had for years and haul it away, along with a barbecue and many of her plants, saying they were health and safety violations. Rincon saw it as harassment meant to pressure her to go so the landlord could jack up the rent.
Like so many others, she and her family had one shaky foothold keeping them in a rental market that was otherwise soaring out of reach, and they felt that people with more power than them were trying to shake them off of it.
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The company says it was simply making changes requested by its insurance company and that it is listening to the concerns of residents, not trying to force them out.
Even so, Rincon and her neighbors are on edge, unsure what to expect next and asking themselves whether they still have a place in L.A.
“There are times when I feel desperate,” she said. “I get frustrated. And I tell my husband, ‘Let’s just go. Let’s just go.’ ”
In a city faced with a housing and homelessness crisis, where many renters pay more than half their income to live in overcrowded, aging homes, tenants like Rincon have what many others long for: low-cost housing.
Though city and state officials are desperate to create more of it, developers are simultaneously reducing affordable units by buying out longtime rent-controlled tenants with cash-for-keys offers and renovating old buildings into pricey new apartments or condos. Many residents quietly accept the offers and leave. Others try to hold out, knowing that taking the money probably means leaving their communities or facing rent that’s double, triple or more what they currently pay. Sometimes, tenants say, that leads to harassment or pressure campaigns.
The city has adopted policies meant to protect tenants of rent-controlled buildings from being forced to accept buyout offers or being evicted for not accepting.
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In some cases, landlords are required to offer to tenants a base amount for relocation — which ranges from about $12,000 to $23,000 for long-term renters. At times, owners offer more than that. But for tenants with very little income or credit, the money may not go very far once the sky-high rent of their next apartment is factored in.
City leaders have passed rules against harassment. But advocates say the rules lack enforcement, and plenty of tenants say harassment happens anywaywith little recourse.
Rincon arrived in Echo Park in the mid-1990s, fleeing a severe recession in Mexico that left her family’s farm deeply in debt.
Her first home in the U.S. was in the same apartment complex where she lives now, just across the common area, in a unit she shared with her brother-in-law, Pedro Villegas, her husband and others. Three decades later, Villegas still lives in that apartment, paying monthly rent similar to Rincon’s, whose monthly payments have increased twice over the years to $640.
Despite language barriers, Rincon became close with her neighbors, who include an 80-year-old retiree, a nursing student, her mom and brother, and a Cambodian refugee.Their kids often served as translators.
They’ve watched out for each other’s children and grandchildren, fed each other’s pets and shared lemongrass and guavas from their gardens. Though Rincon doesn’t care for the loquat tree that grows in a corner of the property, she keeps watering it because her neighbors love the fruit.
“We’re more like a community. We have been for years,” said Virginia Watson, 80. “We all know each other. We talk. We watch out for each other. It’s very unusual for L.A. because in other places I’ve lived everybody’s kind of anonymous, in their own little cubicle.”
Once Watson retired and began living on a fixed income, she was able to stay in her home because the rent was manageable. The same was true for Rincon and her family when she injured her back and stopped working.
Villegas’ four children have lived their entire lives in the complex, roaming the hills of Elysian Park and riding their bikes to Echo Park. He works at a laundromat on Sunset Boulevard, a short walk away. His youngest is now a junior at Ramon C. Cortines school downtown.
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Like Rincon, heknew the $55,000 offer wouldn’t last long in his community.
“The cost of rent is just too difficult,” he said. “The money doesn’t go far.”
Watson lives in a studio apartment adjacent to Rincon’s. She’s been there for 20 years, lives on Social Security and a small retirement income and pays $529 a month. When she’s looked online for other studios in the neighborhood, the most affordable cost isnearly $1,500 a month, an amount that she said would take about three-quarters of her income.
She might have considered the offer to leave if it was affordable to move in the city, she said.
But “rent is really, really high in L.A. I don’t know how you would manage for any length of time,” she said.
On Nov. 8, a few months afterWatson, Rincon and their neighbors decided not to take the initial $22,000 offer to leave, the property owners, Lilac Development LLC, served Watson with a three-day notice to pay or leave, saying she had not paid her rent for the month, though she says it was paid.
Watson reported the incident to the housing department, which investigated and found the notice in violation of city code for failing to provide proper information under COVID-era tenant protections, according to public records.
One month earlier, the owners served another resident with a three-day notice to pay or vacate the property, saying they owed $86.
In that case, the housing department found a “potential violation of the Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance,” records show.
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In both cases, housing officials wrote letters to the owners, explaining the law.
Watson and her neighbors see this and other actions, including the workers who went to the complex twice in March, tore down Rincon’s shed and hauled away her plants, as a pattern of harassment meant to pushthem out of their homes.
“I wake up after dreaming that I’m in a battle with landlords, big companies,” Watson said.
Recently, she packed up many of her belongings, assuming she would soon be out of a home, and she has kept them that way.
“I don’t unpack them because I don’t know how long I’m gonna be able to be here,” Watson said.
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Rory Anglin and his girlfriend, Jenna Loredo, are the newest residents of the two complexes, having moved in four years ago. They pay $1,236 a month for their one-bedroom, which Anglin sees as “the last of the good rents in L.A.”
When he told his mom in Mississippi about the $22,000 offer to leave, she was stunned at the amount.
“In Mississippi, that does sound like a lot,” Anglin said. In L.A. it most certainly does not.
Even so, Anglin said they were willing to consider taking a buyout until they felt a harassment campaign against his neighbors had begun.
“The end game for me is ‘leave us alone,’ ” Anglin said. “If we decide we want to move, we’ll move. But before we do, I gotta make sure all this stuff stops. It has to stop.”
If there’s a silver lining, Anglin said, it’s that the neighbors have become even closer in the last few months, forming a tenants’ association and strategizing together to push back against any harassment.
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Sara Rose, a property manager for Lilac Development LLC, told The Times that although the company initially offered cash for keys in order to “try to get tenants paying market value,” the company was no longer pursuing that strategy and would focus on “making the property habitable for current tenants.”
The company is not trying to evict anyone, Rose said.
“It’s not something we would take further action on if it wasn’t appropriate to do so,” she said.
Rose also said Lilac Development sent workers to haul away Rincon’s shed, barbecue and plants after its insurance company “advised there was certain work that needed to be done” to get the property insured.
They plan to inspect each property to figure out what needs to be fixed. In April, a city housing inspector found several conditions affecting the “health and safety of the occupants” in Rincon’s building and issued an order to fix the problems, which include damaged plumbing, fences and paint, by May 11.
Residents say there is a long list of problems beyond what that inspection revealed: leaking ceilings, mold, broken heaters and damagedflooring.
“I think based on the feedback we’ve received so far there’s no interest from the residents” in cash for keys, Rose said. “If they are interested and they approach us, it would be something we’d be willing to discuss. We don’t want to continue reaching out on something they’ve made clear they’re not interested in.”
Rincon said the first she heard about the change in plans was from The Times.
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For a long time now, she and her neighbors have felt as if they were in a state of limbo, waiting for an eviction notice or the return of workers tasked with hauling away more of their things. Like Villegas, she has seriously considered returning to Mexico, but her husband tells her they could never leave their children and grandchildren.
There was some relief hearing that the company would focus on making their home more livable rather than on getting them to leave. But she was also skeptical.
How much space do you need? Do you prefer a palace of an apartment? Or could you live in a micro unit that’s barely big enough to spin around in?
When it comes to apartment size in the United States, traditional wisdom has been that bigger is better. But in different countries across the globe, tiny apartment spaces are typical.
Find out how your apartment square footage stacks up to the rest of the world.
Who’s got the most square footage?
According to information shared on the website Apartment Therapy, Americans enjoy some of the largest homes in the world. A British organization studied home sizes worldwide, determining that Americans typically enjoy the most square footage and usable floor space. Australia’s homes came in second. And British homes came in last, averaging a paltry 818 square feet for a two-person household.
Space is certainly at a premium in the United Kingdom. While 818 square feet figure may seem small at first, it appears more generous when you consider what it’s like to live in some of the most populous urban centers in Asia. In Hong Kong, China, for instance, micro-apartments are the trend, if not the rule. Rent is high in this bustling metropolis, and space comes at a premium. It’s not uncommon for renters to live in less than 400 square feet. Busy business travelers can even rent a 7-square-foot apartment “pod” – a space just big enough to crawl in and sleep — for around $40 a month. In places like Hong Kong, space itself is the luxury.
Make the most of your small space: 11 Ways to Make a Small Apartment Seem BiggerHow to Decorate a Small Apartment9 Tips to Make Your Studio Apartment a Tiny Treasure
Average U.S. apartment size
Back in this country, apartment floor space has certainly seen its share of changes. Apartment sizes in the United States grew for many years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which has been tracking the average apartment size since the 1970s. Their records show that square footage continued to grow — until recently.
According to Eye on Housing, as of 2013, the average apartment size today is 1082 square feet. Along the West Coast in places like Seattle, Washington, or in Texas towns like Dallas and Houston, apartment sizes are shrinking. Micro-apartments have long existed in New York and San Francisco, where space is truly at a premium, they’re also starting to show up in places like Kansas City.
Though most developers are building smaller units, not all cities across the United States are following the trend. In Washington, D.C., apartment living spaces are actually getting bigger, for instance, even in a high-demand market.
Just because you live in a small bedroom, doesn’t mean you need to skimp on style. Here are 7 small bedroom ideas to liven up your space.
When living in an apartment, you might be a little short on space. However, you do not need to be short on style! While you can’t magically expand the parameters of your bedroom, you can add some pizzazz with these seven small bedroom ideas.
If you’re craving some feng-shui and want to update your tiny room with a new decorating style, here are several ideas that will be sure to optimize your space and make you feel like you’re in your own personal haven.
7 small bedroom ideas to freshen up your space
Regardless of your decorating budget, you can utilize any or all of these small bedroom ideas to jazz up your space. Let’s get started with the transformation!
1. Paint a wall
Color is one of the best ways to liven up any space, regardless of size. On one side of the color wheel, you could go with neutrals, like white or beige, to create a blank slate. The fresh white walls can add a clean look and brighten up the space. It also leaves room for you to add a statement piece of art that really stands out.
On the other side of the color wheel, you could go bold and paint one wall a signature color that will add a splash of color. If you choose to go with a color, choose it wisely. Sometimes, dark colors on all four walls could make the space appear smaller. You can find a paint finder tool to choose the right color for your room.
2. Hang some art or a decorative mirror
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? If you’re looking for small bedroom ideas to spice up your space, consider going art shopping and finding the perfect piece of art to add to one wall. You could buy a large statement piece or purchase several prints and make a photo collage. The idea here is to use art to make a statement in your small space.
Another thing to consider is adding a mirror to a wall. This could be a wall mirror or a standing mirror, but make it big! The mirror can help amplify the space and make it seem larger than it is.
3. Get some greenery
You don’t need a green thumb to add some greenery to your bedroom. Go to your local nursery and find a cactus, succulent or even a small tree to bring home to your room. You’ll want to consider things like how much light your room gets and how often you need to water the plant, but there is a plant for almost any situation. Greenery adds life, literally, to your space and that can make your small bedroom feel like a retreat.
4. Become creative with storage
One of the biggest problems with small spaces is the lack of storage options. Don’t fret, though! You can and must get creative when living in a small space. First, make use of the available storage you do have. Add boxes or bins to any shelf to reduce visual clutter. Next, consider propping up your bed to add more under-the-bed storage to hide and store items. You can also add furniture — like a dresser, bookshelf or desk — to decorate and organize.
Remember, clutter makes any space look smaller. So, you need to be organized and get in touch with your inner Marie Kondo to make your small bedroom appear larger.
5. Upgrade to multi-purpose furniture
Make your furniture multi-task! If you have the budget to buy some new furniture, invest in multi-functional furniture. For example, can your shelves double as a desk? Or can you buy a bed frame with built-in storage? Multi-purpose furniture is cool and it helps save on space, which is key to upgrading a small bedroom.
6. Add some height
It might sound counter-intuitive to add large furniture to a small room, but sometimes, larger furniture in a small space actually makes the room seem bigger. For example, we mentioned adding a mirror to your room earlier. Why not make that mirror tall and large to add some height and dimension to the space? Or, consider adding a piece of ladder furniture that adds height and doubles as storage?
7. Make use of tight spaces
The seventh small bedroom idea for decorating is to think of tight, small spaces in innovative ways. For example, do you have an extra closet in your room? Consider taking down the closet doors and converting that space to a mini office complete with a desk and chair. Do you have tall ceilings? Add a high shelf and use that for boxes and bins.
General tips for small bedroom living
Living in a small space can be frustrating if you aren’t organized. But, you can make it work and live in a fabulous small bedroom by following these three tips.
Stay clean and organized
Clutter is distracting and stressful and makes any place, regardless of size, seem smaller. If you live in a small apartment or have a small bedroom, make it part of your daily or weekly routine to clean and organize regularly. By keeping an orderly space, you’ll have a cleaner house and head.
Live minimally
Less is more, right? One thing to consider is the “one in, one out rule.” For example, if you purchase new clothes or a new piece of furniture, donate something old instead. This makes it so that you aren’t adding more stuff to your space but remain with the same amount of items, creating less clutter.
Add light and fresh air
Dark spaces can seem dreary, so make sure to turn on lights, add lamps or open window shades to bring in light. Likewise, prop open a window or add a fan to avoid a stuffy, cramped feeling in your bedroom.
Create your dream small bedroom
By incorporating one (or seven!) of these small bedroom ideas, you’ll create the cozy room of your dreams. Friendly reminder to check with your landlord and lease, though, before making any permanent alterations to your apartment. Once you get the green light, grab your paintbrush and paint away!
Still looking for that dream apartment to decorate? Start here.
My monthly Extraordinary Lives series is something that I really enjoying doing. First up was JP Livingston, who retired with a net worth over $2,000,000 at the age of 28. Today’s interview is with Jeremy, Winnie, and Julian, also known as the family behind Go Curry Cracker.
With the goal of traveling around the world, Jeremy and Winnie were in their 30s when they retired around six years ago. Their 3-year-old son travels with them and has already been to 29 countries as well!
They were able to do this by saving intensively – over 70% of their after-tax income.
In this interview, you’ll learn:
How they retired in their 30s.
What made them want to retire early.
How they live comfortably, rent houses with private pools, fly business class, and travel a ton – as opposed to the myth that early retirees are boring and just eat beans and rice to survive.
How they decided on the amount they needed to retire.
What they do about health insurance in early retirement.
And more! This interview is jam packed full of great information!
I asked you, my readers, what questions I should ask them, so below are your questions (and some of mine) about their story and how they accomplished so much. Make sure you’re following me on Facebook so you have the opportunity to submit your own questions for the next interview.
Related content:
1. Tell me your story. When did you retire and HOW?!
We are Jeremy, Winnie, and Julian, also known as the family behind Go Curry Cracker!
Winnie and I retired about six years ago with the goal of traveling the world. Traveling more in retirement is a pretty common goal, so I suppose the interesting bits are that we were still in our 30s and our 3-year-old son has now been to 29 countries.
What made our location and financially independent lifestyle possible was a decade of intensive saving – we were literally saving 70%+ of our after-tax income. Instead of buying stuff or experiences, we were investing in our future freedom.
Alas, we had already succumbed to some lifestyle inflation so we sold the house and moved into a small apartment, sold the car and started walking and riding bicycles, and turned our home kitchen into the best restaurant in town.
Unwinding lifestyle inflation is a huge mental challenge, but we both grew up on the edge of poverty so we had some experience with prioritizing purchases and finding solutions that didn’t require money. Nowadays, our investments pay all of our bills, and we could buy a house, buy a car, live a typical life… we just happen to not want those things.
Instead, for the past many years, we’ve basically spent the summer in Europe, autumn in the US, and winter in Asia. It’s not quite a perpetual summer vacation, but close.
2. Was early retirement always something you were striving for? What made you want to retire early?
Prior to 2002, we were both essentially following the normal life script – go to school, get good grades, get a job, etc… Maybe the only unconventional thing is I had student loan payoff as the #1 priority. Every story I heard about debt while growing up had a tragic ending, so I wanted to be debt free ASAP. I even cashed out all of my vacation time for five years or so to get extra pay. We also did crazy things like using 0% interest credit card offers to accelerate student loan payoff. Literally every extra penny went to the student loans.
When I finally got my head above water, I took a vacation, my first as an adult. After three weeks of scuba diving, fresh seafood, and tropical drinks, I looked back at where life in the real world was headed and thought, “This is it? This is the American Dream?”
Within six months the house and car were gone and the early retirement plan was underway.
3. Would you say that you live comfortably?
If by comfortably you mean do we rent houses with private pools, fly business class, and enjoy an occasional Michelin Star restaurant, then yeah, that sounds about right. Combined with 52 weeks of vacation per year and full autonomy, we are probably at an above average comfort level.
That may sound a little smug, for which I apologize, but I think it is important to truly understand the power of deferred consumption. We can only live as we do today because we didn’t live like this yesterday.
By living well beneath our means for just a small part of our total lifetimes (10 years +/-), something many would consider “uncomfortable”, we are now able to live well above the standards of even high-income households – just without the need to consume all of our waking hours with a high-income job.
In summary – yeah, life is good.
4. What career did you have before you retired? Did that career help you to retire earlier?
Winnie was a Program Manager for a large PC company, and I was an Engineer at a large software company.
I do wish we had those insane technology salaries that I sometimes hear about in the news, but our average combined income over our hardcore saving years was only about $135k. I guess I should have studied harder.
I think more than the job, my degree helped us retire early. I basically applied engineering principles to our finances and our lifestyle, trying to optimize for quality of life and low expenses. I then used that same mentality in designing our investment portfolio (100% index funds) and minimizing our taxes ($100k income with $0 income tax.) If I had studied art history or interior design, I probably would have thought about these things from an entirely different perspective, perhaps one that required more expensive furnishings.
5. What advice do you have for the average person that doesn’t make six figures a year who wants to retire early?
The core principle to follow is living well beneath your means, aiming for at least 50% savings rates. Or in 1950s parlance, live off one income and save the other. This recipe for financial success has worked for much of recorded history.
Of course, this is easier when making $100k than it is when making $10k, all else being equal.
For many average income households, it helps to change perspective: It isn’t that we can’t afford to save 50%, it is that we can’t afford our current lifestyle.
This is where we were when we got started, and some tough choices are ahead… it is necessary to either earn more, spend less, or wait (much) longer. Or all 3.
For households with incomes well below average, such as our families when we were growing up, it is absolutely necessary to grow income. Public assistance can help for a while (I’ve eaten a fair amount of government cheese), but ultimately skill development and probably even relocation to a job center are necessary.
6. Do you still earn an income in retirement?
We do. With all of this free time, it is fairly difficult to NOT do something that brings in some extra cash.
Last year Winnie published her first book (in Mandarin / Chinese) which was on the bestseller list in Taiwan for a while. About three years ago, Go Curry Cracker accidentally started to earn some affiliate income. I now actually try to run the site as a business, but limit myself to just a few hours per week.
I also employ a pretty aggressive long-term tax minimization strategy, which saves us thousands of dollars every year in taxes. I suppose that can also be thought of as extra income. We’ve actually reported about $100k annual income each of the last five years with income tax bills of $0.
For anybody who is interested, I do publish our full income statements and tax returns (business and personal) every year (linked to above). A lot of people have found those helpful to optimize their own finances.
7. How did you decide how much you needed to retire?
We set a target to have an investment portfolio worth 25x our desired cost of living in Seattle, where we were living at the time, although we were spending much less to turbocharge our savings.
25x is just the standard 4% Rule, which (in oversimplified terms) says you can annually spend an inflation adjusted 4% of your portfolio, probably forever. So, say if you wanted to spend $40k/year, you would need $1 million. That was our minimum.
When we hit that target, Winnie stopped working, and I continued on for about three more years, during which we were just living off dividends, so we were essentially investing 100% of my paycheck.
We also wanted the portfolio to continue to grow so we could leave a bit of a legacy, so even after we stopped working, we wanted to continue living beneath our means. We did this by living large in Mexico and Guatemala rather than Paris or Tokyo. And as luck would have it, the stock market performance over the past five years has been pretty good, so our portfolio just continues to grow, and we can’t spend it fast enough.
8. What sacrifices or hard decisions did you have to make?
This may sound cliché, but I don’t think of anything we did as a sacrifice – we just employed a suggestion my grandmother used to make all the time, “Hey there, you hold onto your britches now young man!” Roughly translated from the original Minnesotan, I think that means “slow down.” In other words, hold off on the lifestyle inflation for a while.
When people rush out to buy their dream house (with rented money) or a new car or a big vacation, they are sacrificing their future for immediate consumption. We just waited a little longer, and along the way we discovered that none of those trappings of success have any real meaning to us.
But of course, when society and advertisers are screaming at you that you need to consume and upgrade, it can be difficult to pause and reconsider. We avoided a lot of that by not owning a television and using the great outdoors for entertainment.
9. What do you do about health insurance in early retirement?
For many years, we were self-insured and just paid cash for any medical needs. We paid $3 for a doctor visit in Mexico, $20 for some dental care in Thailand, $50 for a chest X-ray in Taiwan, and $90 for a visit to the emergency room in Portugal. Medical tourism is your friend. What we weren’t spending on health insurance, we invested in more index funds, building our own healthcare fund.
If we were in the US, we would buy health insurance on the State or Federal Health Exchanges. The US health system is all kinds of messed up, so without insurance you are only one minor incident from total financial devastation.
As of about six months ago, we are now all covered by the Taiwan national health system, which is a single payer universal healthcare provider. We pay about $25/person/month for great coverage, which includes dental. (Hot tip: marry somebody from a country with a good health system.)
10. Will you be planning a place for your child to make long term friendships and connections? Do you plan to continue travel when your child is school age?
We like the idea of homeschooling up to age 10 or 12 or so, but we are still figuring it out. Even so, it probably won’t be all or nothing (Julian is enrolled part time in a Montessori pre-school now.)
The pros/cons of life-in-place vs nomadic living is such an interesting discussion for us, because we are inherently a global family (our nuclear families are spread across 2 countries, 3 States, and 6 cities) and despite our very different backgrounds, we independently concluded that the idea of “home” for us isn’t really a place.
Our thinking comes from our existing communities – Winnie grew up in a big city (Taipei), and she has friends from back in the 3rd grade who all have kids around the same age as Julian. When we are in Taiwan, we all get together and it is like they never missed a beat. It’s a beautiful thing.
I grew up in a small town in Minnesota, and 99% of my childhood / high-school friends and family moved away for college and career. There is literally no one place I can go where all long-term friendships and connections exist, and yet I have them, just spread around the world. It’s also a beautiful thing.
We try to get quality time with all of our family every year, which is much easier now that we don’t have jobs. 2 years ago, we had 4 generations together for a week on a lake, with Grandma, my parents, my sister and 2 brothers and spouses, and their 9 kids. This year we took my Mom and Grandma on an Alaska Cruise, and also spent a couple weeks with all of Julian’s cousins. Next year will be something special again, and we all stay in touch via Skype. We also plan on having more kids, which means sibling connections.
What we do will change and evolve as we learn more and figure things out, but overall, we’ll listen to our kids, make sure we have regular quality time with family, and stay connected with friends and family via Skype. And everywhere we go, we build community with friends, family, and other adventurers. I think it will be the same for the next generation.
11. What hardships come up when traveling with a child and what do you do about it?
The hardships of traveling with a child are largely the same as the hardships of parenting. Kids have needs and wants, and if they aren’t addressed in a timely fashion then chaos ensues. As with most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – and even then, things go awry.
Where most families have to balance child rearing with a career and fixed schedules, we have a great deal of flexibility. Seldom are we schedule driven, and when we are (e.g. a flight departure time) we avoid other commitments. We also aren’t doing the quick 1 week vacation thing, with a lot of time getting from A to B and a whirlwind of tours and activities; that’s much too intense and exhausting. We are more so living our normal lives, just in different locations. We play at the park daily, take naps, explore by foot, and enjoy the local delicacies. If we are having too much fun at the park, we can always see the museum tomorrow. Somehow, we usually manage to see the highlights.
Since we aren’t always in one location with a regular schedule, we focus on having routine in the absence of routine. We have regular toys, regular nap time, and a bedtime ritual which involves a bath, songs, and books. Plus we all co-sleep, so we are together 24/7. It’s hard to provide a stronger sense of security than parental presence.
It all seems to be going well; Julian is a happy, healthy, normal kid. He loves being outside exploring, enjoys meeting new people, and is always ready for the next plane, train, or automobile.
12. If you were starting back in the beginning, what would you do differently from the beginning?
We made a lot of mistakes… buying a house, buying a car, spending money without a long-term plan, but I don’t know if I would change any of them. Those mistakes helped us grow and appreciate where we are today. For example, we are Renters for Life, but we probably wouldn’t really appreciate the total joy and financial advantages that come with not owning a deteriorating wooden box.
If I could go back in time and tell my younger self, “Hey, read this Go Curry Cracker blog, you’ll learn a lot!” we could probably have become Financially Independent 3 to 5 years earlier. That’s a lot, considering my entire career was only 16 years, but it’s not that that much in an 80 – 100 year life span.
But, what I would do differently:
invest only in index funds from the beginning
not waste my time dabbling in rental properties
always live within biking distance of work and prioritize biking and walking
always rent
learn to cook well sooner
start travel hacking sooner instead of paying for vacations
13. Lastly, what is your very best tip (or two) that you have for someone who wants to reach the same success as you?
Design your life so that saving a high percentage of income is the natural and ordinary outcome.
Aim for saving 50%+ of after-tax income, and minimize taxes