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Smaller Homes Design Dilemma Home Decorating

Tiny LA Apartment Rental

6 years ago

So I’m downsizing from a 1000sqft apt 2br/2ba to a 1br/1ba apt in Torrance, CA. I’m in a family of 3 - my wife and 3 year old daughter. The rental space is tiny, and the landlord doesn’t allow painting the walls.

I’m trying my best to make this space work. We’re doing bunk beds in the bedroom, but I’d really like to make the rest of the place awesome like those tiny house hunter shows and could use any tips. Multi use space saving furniture? Clever lighting? Everything.

I’ve tried finding interior decorators in Craigslist with no luck. Total budget is an ikea/Wayfair 2k, and I’m starting to worry that my next two years saving for a home is going to be miserable. Help?

Featured Answer

auntthelma

6 years ago

Three year olds take up a lot of space. My first suggestion is that you make a 'play room' by pulling the sofa away from the wall and putting a toy box and soft carpet and maybe a kid table behind the sofa. It won't keep all the toys in one place, but it will give her space for some stuff.

If you watch the tiny home shows, you understand loft beds. You said bunk beds - how do you mean?

I'd have a parents' loft bed with a cute little toddler bed underneath.

Another way to think of things is to give the bedroom to the baby - bed, toys, all her stuff, - and keep the living room for yourself with a good quality sofa bed or a murphy bed.

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Comments (39)

Shola Akinnuso
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for responding. Giving our daughter the bedroom and using the daybed as a living room was our original idea, but the living room (pictured) is so small that a full sized daybed would actually dominate the whole space to the point that we would be unable to put any other furniture in.

Wife and i decided to suck it up and do a full over full bunk bed where we get the bottom and she gets the top. Even that will dominate the bedroom, but at least we can set up a small area there where she can play.

At least with this new plan, the living room can actually be a living room, albeit super small. The bedroom is pretty much where we’ll go to sleep and hang out clothes. There’s no room to do anything else.

And for those of you wondering why we’d do such an extreme move? We want a home or some kind of investment property in two years. Torrance CA is becoming super expensive but the schools are great, it’s safe, and my wife works ten min away. She preferred to sacrifice space for the locale, and now we’re reducing our rent by HALF which gives us the ability to one day get one of the beautiful homes that we see on this very site! One day...
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Katelyn Newell --- I’ll add my 2 cents worth on considering your choices as being between a portable washer unit and putting an all-in-one washer-dryer front-load combo (or a compact washer alone) in the linen closet. For you and your landlord to figure out if a compact or combo unit is feasible in your space, you all will need to understand the four issues to be faced when retrofitting laundry into a small space in an old building like the one you live in. These four are: space, water supply, drainage, and power. The advantage of a portable washer is that you and your landlord don't have to address any of those issues. However, you mostly have to put up with more tradeoffs and limitations than with combo, although the Magic Chef suggested by Ci-lantro seems to have fewer of them and has goodcustomer reviews. Of course, combos have their own (different) tradeoffs and drawbacks. . 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If that sounds interesting here is a link to that automaticwasher thread. To me, a combo unit, even with its own tradeoffs and drawbacks, would be preferable to a portable unit, especially when dealing with "pretty gross" work clothes as you mentioned. The question with a combo (or a solo compact washer with no dryer like the set-up hcbm has) will be whether you can address all four of the old-building-retrofit issues of space, water, drainage and power. Based on what I’ve seen done over the years by friends and neighbors with spaces similar to yours, I think you may be able to solve the first three issues for a compact combo without large expense other than the cost of a machine. It's the electrical that might be the intractable issue for a compact washer or combo, as I will explain below. 1. The problem of space: IOW, what you can fit in where. The linen closet looks like the more convenient location for reasons that katinparadise, Aphaea and others have already pointed out. The question is what you can put in there -- you specifically asked if you could fit a 23½” wide compact stack (as opposed to an all-in-one). The answer is you can but there are a couple of considerations to address. The first consideration with putting a washer-dryer stack in that linen closet is that the back wall would be the only place in your linen closet where there would be room for power and hose connections for a stack. That's what Scottie Mom and Ci-lantro were talking about when they mentioned access to the connections being a problem. Putting them on the back wall is undesirable because you could not reach the connections without the onerous work of pulling the whole stack completely out of the closet. No such problem with an all-in-one front-load combo unit. Those are the size of a compact washing machine, alone. Easy to mount the connections on the right-hand (bathtub side) wall and they could be placed above the washer where the connections would be easy to reach when you need to do so. FWIW, somebody here in this Forum recently discussed this aspect as a reason she chose a LG all-in-one (model WM3488, IIRC) for her similarly confined laundry space. I remember this being in rococogurl’s long thread about the Bosch 500 compact series washers and dryers, but I haven’t been able to find the thread to provide a link, yet. The other space consideration may be more apparent than real. This is the concern raised by several posters, including wdccruise, about installation instructions that prescribe an inch or two of clearance on each side for closet installations. Obviously, you don't have that space with a closet that you measured at 24½" wide. However, most compact laundry is designed to be able to go under a counter in the same 24” wide spaces as for a dishwasher, i.e., where there would be next to no side clearance. It turns out that the side clearance usually is not for ventilation but, rather, is prescribed to assure sufficient wiggle room when pushing a heavy and awkward washer-dryer stack into a narrow closet. I recently confirmed this when I called Miele tech support while helping a friend with one of the Miele washers recommended above, and Miele confirmed that one could put their 23½" washer in a 24" wide closet as long as one could mange to insert the stack without damaging the walls or the machines while doing so. Also, it may be worth noting that Electrolux’s instructions for its compact washer, EFLS210, specifically say it is designed for zero side and rear clearance. (As an aside, If you can live without a dryer and can solve the other installation requirements, the Electrolux compact might be a good choice for a "washer only" option. If interested, you can find some long and favorable discussions of the Electrolux compacts both here and at the automaticwasher.org site. IIRC the lead poster used the screenname of Practigal if you want to search for those posts. Also, IIRC, hcbm has posted --- or maybe somebody else posted in an hcbm thread? --- about ways to successfully run indoor drying when you have a small apartment and only a washing machine . Would be worth looking for hcbm's posts if you decided to go with a "washer only" set up.) 2. Water Connections: Not a problem in that linen closet. Relatively easy and therefore not very expensive to cut a hole in the closet's right-side wall (plaster?), tap into the existing hot and cold supply lines for the tub, mount a recessed box with hook-up fixtures on the closet side of the wall, and then patch and paint to cover the rest of the hole. It can be a basic handyman job unless your city’s codes require the plumbing connections to be done by a licensed plumber. With a combo unit or a washer-only set-up, it would be easy to put the hookups on that right wall slightly above the top of the combo or washer. They would be readily accessible there whenever you needed to get at them. 3. Drainage: The issue here is that old buildings usually have old plumbing and old plumbing does not drain as quickly as current washing machines require. A standard solution for this problem is to drain the washer into a large laundry sink. Basically, a laundry sink acts as a reservoir to hold wash water while it is draining through the small (and therefore slower) old drain pipes. You don't have room to add a laundry sink, but your bathtub can double as one. Indeed, you can drain a portable washer into one (and people do) so why not a compact washer or combo? BTW, portable washers don't have the same drain problem because they use smaller volumes of water and drain more slowly; the inflow and outflow are low enough that they can be run from and into kitchen sinks and sometimes even bathroom sinks. For a piped-in drain, washers now drain so quickly that “code” requires 2” as the minimum diameter for standpipe drains, as ci-lantro pointed out. Code also require a plumbing vent stack (a/k/a DWV) within 5 horizontal feet of where the drain pipe from the washer connects to the house drain pipes. . Older plumbing won’t likely have the requisite stack and will be smaller diameter pipe, 1¼” or maybe 1½” diameter. Although some compact washers' and combos' instructions do say that they can drain to 1¼" or 1½"pipes, the actual diameter of very old pipes will likely be even less because of the calcification and scale that builds up in old pipes over the decades. Basically, it probably will not be permissible to cut a laundry drain into the drain-pipe below the bathtub. But, doubling up the use of bathtub for also serving laundry duties will solve that problem and also will be much less expensive to do. A side benefit could be that the wash and rinse water flows would clean your bathtub without your having to scrub it. ;>) This is something you will want to check with a local expert as I've read a few posts reporting that there are a few cities whose code enforcers will not permit this. FWIW, I’ve seen the "double-up the use of the bathtub" solution used a couple of times in my town where we have lots of very old, very small houses. The Code enforcement folks signed off on it both times. In their view, they said they saw no direct connection to the sewer lines (there being a gap between the end of the drain hose and the water in the tub so there would be no chance of siphoning wastewater back into the tub or washer). They said no code provision otherwise prohibits doing laundry in bathtubs. (A reprise of the idea that doing this with a regular washing machine is no different than doing it with a portable washer.) Of course, you won’t want to be running a wash load while bathing, but that seems like a minor inconvenience in a one person apartment. One thing you may want is a lint trap on the end of the drain line or in the bathtub drain hole. You don’t want laundry lint snagging on and plugging up in the rough & scalely old drain pipes. You will want to frequently check and clear the lint trap. If you improvise one with pantyhose over the end of the drain hose (as you might do if you run across the many internet recommendations for doing so), you may need to clean it out with every load. May want to bear that in mind when considering portable washers, as well. 4. Power This might be the intractable issue for your getting a compact washer or compact all-in-one combo in your apartment. You need electric outlets to run your laundry machines. Your photos do not show any outlets in the linen closet. Most compact washers and most all-in-one front load combos run on standard 120v power. Practically speaking, you might be able to run an extension cord to a nearby existing outlet. Do note, however, that many appliance manuals warn against using extension cords with their washers and some cities' codes also forbid it. The big obstacle here is that codes generally require major appliance outlets to be on dedicated circuits. A "dedicated circuit" has one outlet and does not serve other lights, outlets, etc. The electrical in old buildings usually offers only a few circuits in each apartment so additional wiring would have to be run for permanently installed appliances like fridges, washing machines, dishwashsers, and etc. Your old building may or may not have the electrical capacity to add additional 120v circuits and, if it does, it may not be easy to run additional wiring to and inside your apartment with some major renovation work. Also, with regard to some of the above suggestions for stacking compact washers and their dryers in the linen closet, be aware that most ventless dryers – other than Miele’s --- need a 240v outlet. (There are numbers of "portable" 110v dryers but the y all seem to require venting, as far as I could tell from the last time I researched this). Formost ventless dryers, the obstacle to getting one is that many old urban buildings do not not have the capacity to provide a 240v circuit and, if they do, running the circuits may require tearing into walls to run a 240v circuit to a second floor apartment. A big problem in an occupied building, eh?. Something to be checked out with your building. Maybe the electrical was upgraded in the last decade or so? (Heck, maybe the plumbing was updated, too, so most of the issues might already have been solved. Something else to check out when your landlord considers looking into what might be installed and where.) As a side note, most compact all-in-one combos run from a single standard 120v outlet. The Miele compact washers and dryers (recommended above) both run on 120v power,. The Mieles, however, have their own complication because the washer and dryer have to be on separate circuits. IIRC, the manuals (and warranties) and the company's published q&a responses are pretty clear that the combined loads for for the washer and dryer will exceed the capacity of single 120v circuits. For your apartment, the difficulty of providing two circuits to the linen closet could put a Miele stack out of consideration even apart from their being so expensive and even apart from the inability to provide accessible hookups for a "stack" in that closet. Of course, the dryer does not have to be stacked, but is there anyplace else to put one in that apartment?
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PRO
User
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
First off, kudos to you for making short-term sacrifices for a long-term goal! You will get there and look back on these tighter living conditions with fond memories.

Similar to what was suggested above, I would dedicate the room to your daughter and put all of her toys (and your dresser) in the bedroom. Toy clutter in every area of the house will overwhelm the living conditions. Make sure to contain the toddler-trail of toys.

For your room (aka. the living room) I would check out IKEA for easily convertible couches. I know from experience, that they have different quality level of mattresses for the sofas that you can select from, in order to avoid a "college futon" feeling.

Keep the rest of your furnishings clean, simple and full of function!

Here are some ideas...

Himmene Sleeper Sofa

Fakse Rug

Stockholm TV unit (great for hidden storage)

Hektar Floor lamp

Side Tables

Slakt Bed with storage (extra bed for potential guest/grandparents)

Hemnes Dresser

Storage Baskets

Wall Lamps

Hope this helps!
Shola Akinnuso thanked User
nosoccermom
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Check out www.apartmenttherapy.com for lots of great examples of furnishing small apartments, incl. layout suggestions, storage, etc.
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acm
6 years ago
If you're downsizing from a larger place, can you not use any of your prior furniture? I mean, you may want to replace every table with a super-efficient storage version of itself (I have an end table that's my home office!), but surely you don't have to stretch your budget to cover, say, a couch too? Hard to know what to suggest without knowing what you already have, what activities you need to support, how much space the new place has, etc.
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Ellie RK
6 years ago
Just gonna comment on the Himmene sofa, don't ever get it.

Made the mistake of getting it for one of our smaller guest bedrooms and it's the most uncomfortable thing you can ever sleep on. Even if you love firm mattresses, this thing is beyond that. Just extremely uncomfortable. We have to now get rid of it and get something else in it's place.
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Shola Akinnuso
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Thanks for the great recommends, all. To answer the question about our current furniture, it’s all living spaces stuff and the couches are too big. We have a 3 seater and a live seat. We considered keeping the loveseat but wanted to listen to other suggestions here first. If it made more sense to get a modern ikea couch that could be a bed for guests, we’d go with the consensus.

As for bed couch situation, there are a couple of things we have to stick with and one of them is a comfort for health. I would love to get a good couch bed that is full sized but if it’s u comfortable, misery follows. We currently sleep in a medium firm ikea mattress which my wife tolerates, but finding a good couch for us to sleep on for two years is a needle in a haystack...

I'll take my wife to Ikea this week to try out the Hemme sofa, however. It's a very good suggestion. At least it's a direction. We looked at full-sized daybeds. Talk about HUGE.

Here's a link to a video of the apartment if anyone is curious:
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PRO
Nanke Signature Group
6 years ago
Sounds like this is a pretty important adventure you are on!

It will take some adapting but 2 years will fly by! Some other great places to check for affordable, smaller-scaled furniture would be thrift stores and some antique stores. Older furniture tends to have good, sturdy, bones are more likely to hold up over the years and can be refinished to suite your future spaces and styles- much unlike many of the pieces you may find current affordable furniture vendors. The suggestion would be to look for accent furniture like tables, trunks, and shelving units. For seating, World Market has some pretty affordable love seats and day sofas.

The best advice is to suggest you maximize the use of vertical space for some storage as it wont interfere as much with your living space.

Best of luck with you new project!
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C Marlin
6 years ago
Have you look at Craigslist for a few good pieces for a very good price?
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PRO
Carolina Kitchen & Bath
6 years ago
I like the idea of loft bed for parents with the toddler bed underneath. Will the landlord let you do that?
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auntthelma
6 years ago
If you do the loft bed, you get some advantages - you can put a firm mattress on a plywood base and have the firm bed your wife likes. You can also have a toddler size mattress on the floor underneath and also have a little play area for her. A table and chairs, maybe, or a doll house, toy kitchen or toy storage.

You can design the loft bed for your specific needs.
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Emily Jowers
6 years ago
Storage beds are great, or even a high bed that you can put containers under, but that likely wouldn't work with bunk beds. I like auntthelma's recommendation for the kid's area behind the couch. Your room looks like it might do better with the couch against the wall though, so maybe a play area in the other corner. Just try so separate it so the whole room doesn't become a play area.

Get rid of anything you can then take everything you don't need to have right now, but don't want to get rid of, and store it in big containers in a closet somewhere. Having less stuff will help you not go crazy in a small space. I would also get some big slouchy baskets for toys for each room so that cleanup is easy. Lots of places sell them and you can even make some out of rope if you wanted.

Get a media console with some closed storage to store things in. Not sure what your style is, but minimal is best for small spaces. Keep lines and decor neat. They also make coffee tables that can be pulled up and used as a dining or work space. That could be nice.

Use tall storage/dressers in the bedroom to maximize your wall space.
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acm
6 years ago
Look for end tables with magazine racks on the side -- they make great laptop holsters! :)
Shola Akinnuso thanked acm
chiflipper
6 years ago
Kudos to some very smart, motivated parents. You daughter's "toys" will be the biggest issue. Stick with books, building blocks, and several small items. Explain to well-meaning relatives that "less is more" when it comes to gifts...for all three of you. Hang tough, it will be worth the struggle.
Shola Akinnuso thanked chiflipper
Shola Akinnuso
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
This thread is so awesome and so encouraging! I'm feeling much better about our decision now! I've been obsessing and anxious for days so much that I've been unable to sleep!

I'll look into the loft /storage solution. I was just worried that the bed would fall on our daughter or something. We definitely DID NOT want to do the bunk bed, but we thought - space and comfort situations withstanding - that would be our only option. The ceilings aren't super tall. If i can convince my wife to climb, that may be a great solution if the ikea couch idea is a bust. We have a firm mattress now and as I said earlier, she 'tolerates' it, but would rather have something soft. The last thing we need are back problems.

Also, thanks so much for the living room/play area suggestions, too. I'd much rather just let our daughter have the bedroom free reign as long as she's confined there with her toys. However, if there's spillage (inevitably), the slings over couches or even a storage cubby might work too.

We're looking into self-adhesive wallpaper (thanks for the tip about Apartment Therapy!) and lighting solutions. Even though we have the dreaded popcorn ceiling, I think paying an electrician to install some kind of lighting from IKEA might make a huge difference.

What do you all think about shelving? Wallpaper styles?

Emily, where did you find that table? The one coffee table/laptop desk in your response??
Olychick
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I would seriously look at Murphy Beds for the living room. It will take a chunk of your budget, but Costco even sells them for under $1k. Spend a little more and get bookshelf/cupboard storage. Plan on using in your new home in the guest room or another room. If you can fit one in, you could keep your loveseat and give your daughter the bedroom.

My friends have a custom one, which would be more $$ but when it's up, there is a pull down table. They use it in a family room as a puzzle table except when they have guests.

Online Price
$1,899.99 Less $400.00 Your Price $1,499.99 after $400 OFF Valid 12/1/17 through 1/3/18. While supplies last. Free delivery and handling
This one is $999, free shipping.

Both of these are double size, queens are a bit more. You might even think about one for the bedroom, with an additional toddler bed, if the living room doesn't work. If it would fit, you could then fold it up and out of the way for play space for your daughter.

I see them on Craigslist once in a while, too.

eta: this is the one my friends have...much more expensive tho and shipping would be $$. But there must be manufacturers in your area, too.
aok27502
6 years ago
Is there room in the bedroom for a true trundle bed? You could have a normal sized bed at a normal height, and your daughter could sleep on the trundle. Push it under the bed during the day, so it doesn't feel so crowded. It might require arranging the furniture in a less than optimal configuration, like the bed up against a window or something. But it's temporary.

Congratulations on making this huge decision!
roarah
6 years ago
I lived on a 27 ft sailboat with a toddler for three months because I wanted a simpler summer and it was great! Your digs seem colossal in comparison! When we think about it our kids would just assume play with pots and pans in a tub than the million toys we buy them . I think sometimes we try to buy furniture to fit our stuff rather than paring down. Be ruthless and donate as much as you can rather than buying nifty furniture solutions. If after your cleanse you need better storage buy it than. Remember you are here to save money!

It is totally possible to raise a three year old with just a small basket full of toys and a butt load of imagination. Think of staying in a hotel it works out fine. I would put your daughter on the top and since it is a full she will actually have loads of room to stow soft toys. My kids love playing in their top bunk beds!

Look at this as an adventure and remember parents and children live in far smaller abodes across the world. It is a short term goal reaching situation that also has a great possibility to teach you how little space we all really need.

Kudos!
Sherry8aNorthAL
6 years ago
Y'all need something to sleep on. Twin over queen would be my want. Something to sit on to watch TV, read, ect. Something to eat dinner on. Kids need a LOT less toys than you think.
User
6 years ago
I second (third?) giving the bedroom over to your daughter as her space. For one thing....if you're new at the marriage thing, plus you're putting these demands on your lives, you really want to keep some amount of coupledom. Having a grown up space separate from a family space will save your sanity.

I think what you're doing is great. It's smart and you'll manage just fine.

I also think a murphy bed is your answer here....You can also do a drop down table so you can have room to pull the bed down when needed and the table up when needed. Folding chairs in bright colors can hang on the wall.

Loveseat and chair (Poang is very very comfy) from Ikea and you're good to go.
aprilneverends
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Your situation is awfully much like ours many years ago(different country though)..also had just our older daughter back then..tiny rental, two rooms..living was smaller with a tiny window, but bedroom was roomier and with a window and a dooor to outside

We lived there since I got pregnant and until DD was 3..then we could move to our first place

so I'll share some of my experience. Hope it's fine

first , we shared a bedroom with her, but was easier a) we moved out when she was three, while you're just moving in b) she slept in her crib next to us all this time and got more grown up bed only when we moved eventually, and she got her room. She's on a smaller side though..was and is.

But I did want our tiny living to be a living, and as it didn't have big enough window also didn't want to put a kid there.

My advice. Invest in a good mattress. That'd take a big chunk of your budget but will be worth it. Wouldn't do a Murphy bed in a rental. Find a sofa that will unfold for the night for the living-having guests? one of you is sick and needs to spend a night separately? the most versatile and comfy you can find. Look into vintage ones, especially check retro styles, they knew how to make these things back then. Also, good sofa can be taken with you later.

Dont do full bunk beds-too tall for a small girl..and no, I wouldn't agree to climb never ever..we women use facilites more..usually..also hard to predict, maybe you'll want another child during this time, how she'll climb?

If already-trundle bed that goes under the bigger bed would be my choice. Neat duing the day..at night you can roll it a bit away so you have space to put your feet on when getting in/out

And. I'd look for it on Craigslist, Nextdoor, you name it. And especially I'd look there for casegoods and lighting. Granted takes some time..but you'll get more interesting space with more quality pieces for less money. Even IKEA-look for it on Craigslist too..since somebody already put it together for you..)) True, involves delivery problems sometimes..see what makes sense for you and what doesn't.

In general-the less placeholders the better. Go for whatever you can repurpose later. And don't buy a bunch right away, that's how mistakes are made. buy the most important then slowly collect.

I second usefulness of Poang chairs..)) and no, I mean yes, kids don't need a lot of toys at all..they need the ones they can play with over and over. Few favorites go a long way. They're very imaginative in this age..obviously dolls and books and things to build from and drawing stuff..but a kid can imagine the whole big story using almost anything. I had two pairs of plastic necklaces when a little girl myself, I imagined they were two ladies(if you put each necklace in a way when you get very uneven shape "eight"), could play like that for hours. My mom also let me borrow couple blouses of hers that I considered very beautiful, a scarf..that's it, that's hours of imagining myself a princess, a gypsie, a whatever book I read at the moment/movie I saw, and made impression. Wood floors? Great. One can imagine himself a figure skater. When I was a bit older than your daughter, I had 6 imaginary students whom I taught figure skating..each days lessons and all)) In short. Don't worry about toys. couple baskets/bins. IKEA has cute organizers by the way. Do alot space though where her artworks can go..even frame the best if you so wish.

Look into Tempaper for wallpaper that's removable..check also plenty of options on Etsy.

Great decision. For me location always trumps the size too. With right organization you can have a very cozy and livable space

What's your style? In furnishings etc? So we could suggest more specific?

Also I'm not that far from Torrance CA..don't seem to have furniture you might find useful at the moment but who knows.. might have something else.

Ah. And size of that rental was truly last thing that bothered me. Or my daughter. And no, she grew up having no issues sharing room with us for three years..if anything I'm more upset now on how long hours of her daycare were, since I worked full time and continued studying. If I could change something back in time-I wouldn't even think in the direction of that rental. It was a good thing. I remember it as happy place. Money was tight that's true(in addition to rent, we payed also mortgage for a future condo that was being built..endlessly..lol)
decoenthusiaste
6 years ago
You could do something like this right of the front door and invest in good quality twin mattresses for the two of you now and for your daughter's room later. It would serve as seating and sleep space.

I think a 3-5 year-old might enjoy sleeping in a tent. Especially good for giving you some privacy if all of you sleep in the same room.

Double on the bottom and single on the top can work well.

Or try a single daybed with a pop-up trundle that lifts the bottom mattress up to make a double bed.
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Banjo Hughes
6 years ago
Get a good mattress and box springs for the adults to use in the bedroom. Your little girl can sleep on a good twin size bed in the living room. Use your loveseat in the living room with a coffee table and tv. You can make up the twin as a seating area also. Might be time to purge some toys or store with a relative. Your daughter will come through this with flying colors. But get a good bed for yourselves.
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eld6161
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I wouldn't invest too much in this apartment. It looks clean and move in ready.

I would buy a sleeper sofa for you and your wife in the living room. Are you near a Raymour and Flanigan? My DD bought a comfortable sofa bed for a reasonable price. It has a memory foam mattress.

Both my DD's live in studio apartments, so I know tiny. Your apartment while small is not tiny.

I think we can help even more if you share the actual dimensions and layout of the rooms.

Sorry, but I am not an Ikea fan. Used them for both DD's college years. I think the quality has gone down.

Yes, you can get an inexpensive murphy bed, but I would be hesitant about the quality and comfort.

There are some that have sofas attached and then fold down into the bed. Those are pricey.

ETA: I just read Banjo's comments. Building on the idea of your daughter in the living room, I am wondering if it makes sense to buy a juvenile bed. Something smaller than a twin, which can eat up a lot of space.

There are also chairs that convert into beds.
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Banjo Hughes
6 years ago
From Denver Mattress a queen size for 600 dollars. Get a bed frame for it. You need to sleep well. Don’t suffer on a junky bed you deserve better, and need your privacy.
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aprilneverends
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
oh, I found one apartment that impressed me several years ago

obviously you can't and shouldn't customize it like that-it's a permanent space in NY and all that's going on there while very cool and smart is tons of money thus unrelatable

but some ideas like a small trundle on this pic

http://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/house-tours/g899/small-apartment-decorating-0710/?slide=16

(btw I'd be elated to sleep in a tent as a kid. but. I'm not sure that's a long term solution, and couple years is a couple years. Depends on what's on the floor I guess, etc. Also tent takes precious space while trundle can be hidden. Tent can be hidden too though..theoretically..okay I'm confused now, lol)

the idea of a storage everywhere you can find it...in an ottoman, in a bed..not a new idea, obviously, but look for things like that

http://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/house-tours/g899/small-apartment-decorating-0710/?slide=10

(why banquette is a good space for towels I don't know but hey it works for them. main idea-the more built in spaces you have inside your furniture pieces the better)

carving the entryway.

http://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/house-tours/g899/small-apartment-decorating-0710/?slide=5

obviously you can't paint etc-but organizing one's entry(which you do have, I think? the narrow one?) is very important to how you'll feel in your place and how well it'll function-maximize it as smart as possible. yes, Apartment Therapy site is good, but their books (the first couple ones) are even better in that regard..highly recommend.

especially this was well composed and gave plenty resources too https://www.amazon.com/Apartment-Therapys-Book-Small-Spaces/dp/0307464601/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1513317806&sr=8-3&keywords=Apartment+Therapy

ignore whatever is unrelatable here, but the idea stands..and I find it useful for years already wherever I move-if you have a wall use it to the max..in a way that will make sense.

http://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/house-tours/g899/small-apartment-decorating-0710/?slide=4

Can be wall system, simple bookshelves, some mix of open and closed storage..to me main problem in storing are always all these documents, paperwork, kids' artwork every family has and it grows and grows..and I hate clutter especially one can't afford clutter in a small space. And these are things that you generally want them to be in certain place so you don't overturn the whole house when you need document X or certificate Y or prescription Z.

(granted we're more miserable than most, with the amount of documents we have, changing several countries and all..but all these papers tend to pile with some cosmic speed)

And if you find something like this(can be traditional, can be modern sensibility) second hand you're very lucky. They're modular, and if you like them enough-you can drag them along for years afterwards, using in this way and in that way. My ex still has our first wall system from 20 years ago. I'm not counting how many houses it changed. True, that one we bought..but then we didn't have Craigslist either)) First neighbors, donations..then you slowly buy what makes the most sense.

Okay shutting up now..sorry for the long post..congrats on your new home!
PRO
User
6 years ago
Keeping your daughter in a toddler bed for longer (which someone suggested above) is actually a good idea. How large is the closet in the bedroom? Could you designate part of the closet as her sleeping quarters? I'm only thinking of long-term privacy for you and your wife.
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aprilneverends
6 years ago
I thought and thought..no, wouldn't put a kid in a living. Not conductive for everyday life. Say she's sleeping-and you:

-might need to stay later to cook in the kitchen

-want to watch TV. alone or with guests

-have a small party that goes past her waking hours

etcetera etcetera. say she goes to sleep at 8 or 9 pm(depends on a kid of course)-that's your time to do stuff around the house, or relax for a bit. If she's in the living,even if she's a very good sleeper (we kinda trained our kids to be very good sleepers but no doubt it also depends on how a person is by nature too)-will cut into your ..roaming free there lol

while certain aspects of privacy...let me put it this way..they don't have to be taken care of strictly in the bedroom. it doesn't matter where it happens that much. as long as you feel comfortable.

as somebody who went though similar experience...I believe both you and your daughter will feel more comfortable and have more privacy sharing the bedroom..which is your initial plan anyway..
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Anna S
6 years ago
Friends raised two children in a space that size. They slept in the living room, on a sofa bed. Lots of people in expensive cities live this way. It will not be awful for 2 years. You just need to educate yourself about your options for small scale, multi-purpose furniture.

Capitan's beds with built in storage underneath are easy to find and inexpensive.

A floor plan, even a rough one, would help. Please include dimensions.
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User
6 years ago
The only way you are going to keep your daughter's possessions in a room where she will have to spend time by herself is to lock her in there. Kids want to be where the other people are, not off by themselves ALL the time they play. Solitary confinement for a 3 year old?
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daisychain Zn3b
6 years ago
My advice would be to not do the loft bed thing with you guys on top and her on the bottom. We used to do this when we'd visit my mom and the kids were little. I'd stay awake all night thinking the bed was going to collapse and crush them. I'd always end up getting them to come into bed with us.

Do a big dresser in the living room to put the TV on (if you have one). You can use the dresser for storage, but it will look like a buffet.

We had to share a bedroom with our pre-teen daughter for a year while our house was under construction and she slept in one of these. Privacy Pop It might not work in your situation, but the tent idea posted above made me think of it. It helped when we wanted to stay up and read and she wanted to sleep (or more usually, she wanted to stay up playing video games and we wanted to sleep).

Good luck!
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User
6 years ago
Nobody is suggesting solitary confinement....jeesh...
aprilneverends
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
why, she can play/draw/dance in the living then pick up the toys etc before changing routines or going to sleep. put them in a bin or a basket or a drawer that's hers, a shelf that's hers. like millions of other kids. what's the problem. she's gonna get her bedtime story. she's gonna have a totally normal life. actually she'll get to spend more time with her parents due to these close quarters. True, kids this age want to be close to their parents-so she'll be too, just like everybody else if not more.

for the first several years of my life we were 6 people in 2 rooms, kitchen and bath communal with neighbors. I don't remember being unhappy. I do remember myself more or less since age one..of course I remember also whatever scared me or shamed me or worried me, but overall life was full of wonders, at this age. My parents and grandparents, they probably felt less elated, living like that for years and years...
Olychick
6 years ago
I agree; giving a child a room of her own, where she can have a place to keep her toys and a quiet place to sleep doesn't mean she won't always play where her parents are. It just means that things can be put away and the parents can have some respite at bedtime. Do other children who have their own rooms feel like they're in solitary confinement?
User
6 years ago
It was mentioned as a solution to have ALL her stuff in the bedroom where it would not become clutter in the living room.
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Olychick
6 years ago
I guess my thinking was just that they'd have a place to store all the kid stuff and she'd, of course, have toys in the living room when she's playing with them and not have them in the main living area all of the time.
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PRO
JudyG Designs
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Would the bedroom fit a double with trundle?
For living room, a sectional with chaise…some nights you have to be alone and a chaise can accommodate a little one or double as the back seat in the car.

We all need a cuddle once in awhile.

How much space between the front door to the corner? 6 feet?
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jo_in_tx
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I think the single bed over a double or queen bunk is the way to go since you could use any mattress that you find comfortable. And your daughter could use your bed as part of her play space. Use the space under the bed to store her toys, and find a container for more toys in the living room. Don't make this more complicated than it is - just be prepared to pare down as much as possible. Shoes stored on the back of the closet door, (cheap) plastic storage units in the closet, etc. You can make this work.

Good luck!
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Banjo Hughes
6 years ago
I wonder if they’ve moved in yet? We seem to have been abandoned.
0

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