Design Tips for Small Space Living: Video 2 of 2
Here’s the second part of the television segment featuring Kimball Starr sharing tips on how to make the most of your small home interiors. If you missed the first half, here’s Design Tips for Small Space Living: Video 1 of 2.
Video transcript below:
♪[music]♪
– [Announcer] With your host Sheryl Borden.
– [Kimball] And this is a small dining area where I’ve used a bench instead of dining chairs because it’s open to the living area and it was very tight to get by, so a bench will only take up at about 15 inches whereas a dining chair can take up 18 to 24.
– [Sheryl] Oh that’s a good tip.
– And it definitely saves space.
– Yes but I just thought it was, you know, a choice, but I didn’t realize it also had a purpose…
– Yeah.
– …like this. Good idea.
– Yeah, very compact. And this, of course, we have our reflective surfaces, which reflects the view and helps the space feel bigger.
– Bigger.
– This is for, if you don’t have a lot of space for home office, this is in the living area.
– And again, you’re using the walls.
– That’s right.
– As a furniture piece.
– And this could be with, normally could just be an empty wasted space because the TV area is over here and the bay window, but by putting some floating shelves, streamlined furniture is really important, small in scale, thin, not a lot of ornamentation, and then by having reflective surfaces, the chrome on the base of the chair and then the reflective surfaces on the shelves, it helps reflect light and makes it feel like it’s more spacious. And for your living areas, we have, this is a very tight space. This is actually, might seem counterintuitive to some people. We took the sectional and went the whole width of the room. So it fits completely wall-to-wall, because there’s a piece of glass over here on this side that you can’t go any further. But because we kept the wall color and the sofa the same, it just blends and floats. And then here we have a coffee table that’s double duty where it has storage but it can also be used as additional seating if you’re having a party.
– That’s a good tip.
– For storage in the kitchen, the island is great, it’s kitchen storage. It also has a slide-out counter over here so people can sit and have drinks. And then we also have over here, here’s a little pointer, a built-in storage for the media and office so these Shoji screen doors slide to the right side and there’s a slab…
– Close it part of the time.
– That’s right. So you can close it completely. And this was just an unused closet space. This is how you can take hidden niches and really utilize it into functional spaces.
– Right. And it’s very attractive too.
– And this has multiple functions here. So this space, they didn’t have a dedicated dining area. This is the entry area, so this place is only 650 square feet.
– Total.
– It’s a one bedroom, total.
– Okay.
– Very small.
– So the only place to sit and have a meal was the island that you just saw, or here.
– So this becomes a coffee table, but it’s also a dining table.
– That’s right, with the adjustable-height coffee table, it can adjust and the built-in banquette utilizes all your space. The seats of the banquette actually come off and you can have storage underneath.
– Storage. I love storage.
– So it keeps everything nice, put away, but it maximizes your storage. And for bedrooms, if you don’t… This is a very tight space. Wall mounting your bedside lamps helps keep your nightstands free. And if you’re in a closet for your bedrooms, this was a very small space that had bi-folds that would open up into the space so if you replace it with a curtain, it adds softness.
– Decorative. And it’s soft.
– So this is great also if you have a lot of doors in the hallway. A lot of closets and doors going on and they are always in the way, just to replace them with soft textiles. And utilizing storage around stairways.
– Oh yeah.
– So this is a spiral staircase and it’s been clad with a bookcase that’s mounted on a piano hinge so it’s a huge bookcase…
– It looks like it.
– … that you pull open. So it is, not only does it serve a great storage function, it’s decorative by putting a real bright pop of color on the inside, it looks really interesting from the outside.
– What a conversation piece!
– Yes it’s definitely a conversation piece. And then for people who are in lofts which are not necessarily small spaces but they don’t have anywhere for storage. They’re usually just a bedroom and big open space and nothing’s partitioned off. So I created this room within a loft and this is glass sliding doors so that when we have overnight guests they can stay in there, and when the doors are open, it looks like this.
– Oh how nice! That’s the same room?
– That’s the same room, so the doors slide open and then back here is a murphy bed. Just drops down and your overnight guests can stay there.
– Great ideas. You’ve really dealt with lots of interesting challenges.
– San Francisco has a lot of small spaces, yes.
– Well, thank you so much. I have really enjoyed seeing these examples.
– All right, great. Thanks so much, Sheryl.
Kimball Starr is a San Francisco award winning interior design firm whose interior design has been featured on national television and globally published in a series of hardcover books. Diverse spaces spanning contemporary design to traditional interiors are indicative of the variety of styles provided by this San Francisco Bay Area design firm.