Living and dining with sliding doors open looking into the “bedroom”

This home tour got me excited about small living and our own apartment in a way I haven’t been in a bit. The built-in sofa, the drying cupboard, the fun bunks and cohesive palette and lighting!! It all really speaks to me. The homeowners sent me one photo and I was set on it. Each photo that followed got me more invested in their space and story. Their insights about small living are particularly meaningful, with the longest list of small space solutions to date! Thank you for opening your home to us! The family prefers to remain private but wanted to share their home with the kind and like-minded community here.

I am truly honoured to share their home below.

Intro

We are a family of four, Mum and Dad, 7 year old son and 5 year old daughter, plus a 2 year old puppy. We live in beautiful Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia. Dad grew up in Vancouver, Canada and Mum lived and worked in Japan, France and Switzerland for 10 years before returning to Sydney. We love food, travelling, being outside biking, walking, swimming and gardening. Our kids are very active, and love all sports, swimming, cartwheeling and cooking. We are passionate about small space living and all it’s challenges and benefits.

How big is your home and what is the layout?

Approximately 70 square metres (approx 750 square feet). It was a standard layout 2 bedroom apartment with 1 living and bathroom. We have recently opened up the bedroom closest to the living room so the living area is larger in the day, and the bedroom can be closed off at night.

Tell me about your choice to live small. Was it a conscious decision or did it just evolve?

It was a conscious decision. Our preference is to live in a smaller space, where we can walk or bike everywhere we need to in our daily lives. We also love that our impact on the world is minimised, and that our family is growing up in a close community. It of course has it’s challenges, but we think that’s normal regardless of the size of space you live in.

A cozy bench seat and the wall bed concealed behind those cabinets.

How would you describe your home style?

Scandinavian, Japanese, with green wherever possible

Is there a piece of furniture or accessory that you couldn’t live without that makes living in your space easier?

- Our wall bed (thank you so much Alison for all your kind information on these over the years) which makes our flexible living/bedroom work

- Our ‘drying cupboard’ - we have a large cupboard with a pull down hanger, metal rod hangers from Ikea, a washing basket at the bottom to store clothes to be folded and a dehumidifier which dries our clothes. The only thing we used the main bedroom for in the daytime prior to the renovation was having clothes on drying racks and clothes ready to fold. Having the drying cupboard to make all this happen and to close the doors on it to keep it out of view is wonderful and makes us smile every time (ed. note . this is one of the smartest small space solutions I have ever seen!! I need to incorporate something like this into our home!)

- Our washer/dryer – doesn’t require ventilation so it’s in a cupboard happily hidden from view and more quiet in the bathroom. It is very heavy (having a condenser)

- Our large countertop in our bathroom – this gives us a mud room, laundry room and larger bathroom space all in one eg dropping off beach bags onto it, gardening stuff; or preparing the washing for hanging, or the kids hop up there to put there suncream on etc

- Sliding doors – our space wouldn’t work without these saving swinging space

- The string shelving system with desk – we did work from home before the pandemic, but during and since the pandemic the desk was indispensable for us, and the fact it’s part of the kids shelving system means it doesn’t take up extra space or look out of place/have to be packed up at the end of the day

- Ikea Trofast plastic storage boxes – we used these before we renovated and made sure our cupboards would fit these afterwards. These work very well for us as they are light enough for the kids to access themselves since they were little and provide the ‘home’ for toys, craft, school work etc to return to at the end of the day

What is something you love about living small?

Using our whole space and that each room does many different things, it makes it feel alive and a little like magic. The kids beds for example lift up for storage underneath and sound like a spaceship opening when we do it; our sliding doors go to the ceiling so it feels like you’re moving walls – it’s fun every time. We also love how small spaces reflect the personality of their owners as you need to focus on what you love. For us, we have a very large kitchen for a small space because we love cooking. We also have an entire cupboard devoted to Lego.

What is something you hate?

If we could build a cantilever pool out from our apartment that would be awesome. We are looking forward to more families seeing the benefits of living small in Sydney, currently it’s not a big part of our culture but we are starting to see this change in a positive way. Interestingly for ourselves, the challenge of managing ‘stuff’ in our house is exactly the same challenge shared with all the households we know, big or small homes, with and without kids.

Please share about your renovation. How long did it take? Did you design it yourself? Where did you stay during it? (So many questions!!)

We decided to renovate when thanks to our robot vacuum we realised we used less than half of our space as ‘stuff’ was on it. We pretty much lived on a large rug in the front room not really using either bedroom. We did look to move elsewhere first as lots of people adding children to their homes tend to, but couldn’t find an area we liked as much as where we lived.

The main part took 3 months, but it has taken another 9 months or so finishing off items delayed for many reasons including COVID. We were lucky enough with timing to move across the hallway to another apartment during the renovation – one of the benefits of apartment living!

We designed it with our architects Studio Esteta. We love their aesthetic and architectural experience, we contributed the small space ideas eg layout, storage, usage etc and use of natural materials wherever possible.

Can you explain a bit about those amazing bunks? Do they sleep on the bottom and play up top?

Exactly, it’s a play loft up top and beds with storage (to fit IKEA’s trofast boxes) below. It’s really fun - there are led lights up there too so they can change the light colour with Alexa and have a little dance party. They looove showing their friends, which we think is super fun when you live in a small space to have something the kids can be so excited about and proud of.

So what does the curtain over the bench seating do?

We tend to close the curtain at night for softness and privacy, or for quiet times - the kids love hiding under the bench or behind the curtain on the bench. The idea was also it could be a chill out reading space for us and as the kids get bigger especially with the curtain closed.

We have the curtain open in the bed picture just as it was such a lovely sunny day, but normally it’s closed. You’ll notice the two large cushions, I wanted a soft headboard but wasn’t sure the bed would still close so we went for two large feather floor cushions which are working better than expected. We all love lounging on the cushions in the day, or the kids use them to drive their cars or puppies over, and when we have their bigger cousins around it becomes a bit of a hang out and talk zone with the cushions and the bench seat and floor space. They are super comfy to lounge on the bed head at night too.

The kids Lego fits under the bed, so it’s still fun to leave the Lego up and put the bed down over it like magic :).

The bedroom is closed off by 3 sliding doors - two you can see in the kitchen/living area picture, a third goes across the hallway on the other side of the room.

I think Small Space-ers need to stick together and share all their best tricks. Do you have any storage or organizational tips you want to share?

- Ikea Trofast storage boxes 

- Involving the kids in organizing and giving away things as much as possible. Now the kids are

a little older, we are talking more about how what we consume affects the environment too

- Be honest with yourself about what you are not using and on the other hand, what you love,

and design your storage, your space accordingly

- Some advice given to us by some friends in an apartment with 2 kids, 5 years or so older than ours incase it helps any of your readers. They mentioned there is a time when kids are little eg. 2-3 years old when it feels really tricky and many families think moving for more space is the only solution. They suggested this age is just tricky regardless of the space available – it does pass with a lot of humour (hopefully) and your current place can and will continue to work for your family. (ed.note love this and agree!)

Sources:

- Plywood Chair: Eames lounger LCW chair

- Wall lights:

Vaulker Haug

Flos 265 Parete Wall Lamp

Flos Glo Ball
Artemide Dioscuri

- Fans: Big Ass Fans

- Tapware: Astra Walker

- Rugs: Armadillo rugs

- Kid’s rug: Supertuft green carpet

- Countertops: super white dolomite

- Joinery: Tasmanian Oak veneer on birch plywood with a white wash

Small Home Tour: Family of 4 in 750 customized square feet in Sydney, Australia