Lets kick things off with my current place of residence

About 7 months ago I moved to Costa Mesa to a small studio less than 400 square feet.  Although this is small to most, it was more than enough considering it's single car garage "future shop" and side yard "more uncovered space than I need."  Making such a small space work was an exciting challenge in space planning.  I started off by laying out the studio in Sketchup, then dividing what little room I had in to different zones: sleeping, entertainment, eating, kitchen, and work.  With inspiration from several magazines like Dwell and a couple of articles on www.apartmenttherapy.com I decided on an open shelving unit that would go from floor to ceiling.  This unit would not only hold books but also my TV and computer.  I also designed a shelving unit to go around the heater on one small wall.  Mostly everything else would be based on what I could find from the local Ikea As-Is section.  If you are not familiar with Ikea As-Is, I suggest you go look!  I know many feel that Ikea products are too cheap, too over produced and lack soul.  But when you are on a budget they can be a life saver, especially when taking advantage of the Ikea As-Is area.  It's like a scrap yard of designer bits and pieces for pennies on the dollar!

Ok, enough rambling, here are the results of my studio project.  As everything else, it's always evolving and I will update the changes here on my blog.

 

 Welcome to my humble abode.

 The knock off Eames lounge was another project and I will expand on that in another post.

Although I have only briefly tested the heater....I'm pretty sure nothings going to burst in flame.

 The whole bar unit is composed of Ikea as-is parts, as well as a couple new pieces to make things symmetrical.  The hanging LED lights were also from Ikea and made in to light pendants.

 I scored after I found a chest of drawers for just 40 bucks that had the same mid century slanted faces that are built in to the kitchen and next to the closet!  I modified the drawers to open different ways, and changed three of the drawer fronts to smoked Plexiglas.  This allowed my DVD remote signal to pass through.  I then built in the whole chest in to shelf unit.  Oh yah, and the TV pivots to be viewed from any where in the studio.

 Are we noticing a color trend?

Although I have done away with a couple of these coffee table components, the piece on the left is completely made from Ikea as-is parts.  It was made to sleeve over the couch making a nice center table.