Small Space Tricks Part 1
Before the renovation
The goal for the finished renovation
Our house is a 2 bedroom unit in Northcote, Melbourne. There’s 76m2 of floor space and a 15m2 garage. Sometimes two adults live here, sometimes three. This blog series explores the transition of our house from cramped and impractical, to light, airy and highly functional.
76m2 might sound unworkable to readers used to living in typical detached Australian homes which average around 240m2 (including garage). However, in almost all other countries people live happily in much smaller homes, and even in Australia apartments average just 108m2, and that figure includes apartment common areas.
Of course, a home of this size will only work if it is designed carefully. We explored six key strategies for making a small space lovely to live in:
1) Connection to outdoors: A good connection to the outdoors goes a long way toward making your limited indoor area feel spacious.
2) Noise control: Nothing makes your space feel small and cramped like hearing your housemates’ or neighbours’ conversations as if they’re happening inside your own room.
3) Layout: A functional layout means you’re not tripping over furniture and other people as you go about your day’s activities. It means different rooms have the right amount of separation or openness to each other.
4) Light: Bringing in plenty of natural light does wonders to a space. No blocking of precious light with permanent awnings or curtains that refuse to open wider than the window. Choose colours carefully.
5) Storage: Good storage and plenty of it makes all the difference. Storage opportunities can be found in unexpected places.
6) The details: Sometimes getting the small details right will make a place feel bigger.
Stay tuned as we go into more detail on how we used these strategies to tranform our home.
