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David’s Modern Tiny Apartment


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One of our readers (David I. from Vancouver) is sharing his tiny apartment with us today. He lives in a minimalist 452 square foot condo and has done most of the customization and design work himself. When he first moved in the place was completely empty which allowed him to start planning improvements for the space. Below is what it looks like today. Let me turn the story over to him below. davids-tiny-apartment-10 I moved in with my clothes, kitchen stuff, and a cushion to sleep on. While it was empty I became aware of the space, its limitations, and I started building around it to make it better. davids-tiny-apartment-05

Workstation Nook

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Kitchen and Living Area in the Evening

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Dining Table and Murphy Bed for Guests

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Kitchen

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Custom Wall Mounted Shoe Box

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Living Room

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From the Outside Looking In

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Description/Story from David (Owner)

here is a shot from the outside, looking in.  taken at night.  the wine-em-dine-em-69 area is on the left.  to the right is the living room, and behind the couch are a set of custom designed and built doors, enclosing a 5ft x 5ft walk-in closet, and has since been reno’d.  those doors are gone, and a wall constructed where the the right door is, and a pocket door put in its place; a pocket door with frosted glass.  its a great, ambient light source.  its quiet light.  🙂  anyway, behind the framed wall, with pocket-door, is a custom built, california-closet system, again designed by me, to fit every need, in a tiny space.  and everything is mounted off the floor, on wall-tracks.  again, brilliant.  it has a pull-out bin-style laundry hamper, a legal-sized filing cabinet, a pull-out tie/belt rack, two pull-out drawers (socks and underwear, and the like), floating shelves up the wazoo, a pull-out basket, and more.  and there is still enough room, if you have company, to pop into the closet, and do a complete change, behind frosted glass, in complete comfort.  here is an aside:  when my sister would visit, back in the day, her youngest, about 3 or 4, would take all her toys and dollies, and go into this closet to play. hi alex.  david lypchuk here, in vancouver bc, and just discovered you and your mate, doing wonderful things like this out in the kootenays.  good on you two, for stepping up, taking a chance, and doing something like this.  you two are long overdue.  i think people are getting frustrated with the high costs of living urban, the crazy pace, the noise, even the white noise, and have realized, as they go through life, that less is more, and that are there are some bare essentials required for living comfortably, and you guys have tapped into it. my place was photo’d and featured in a home section of the local paper, a few years ago. before i bought this place, back in 2000, i made sure, as this is a studio, that i could get a murphy bed into the “enclosed balcony (as they sold it to me).  once i met with a murphy bed co, they told me what i could do with the space, bed-wise.  they said i could fit a bed that was double-wide, and queen-size in length.  that worked for me.  im single, 6ft, with no interest in co-habitating with anyone in this space.  and it opens up, looking into the livingroom, directly focused on the fireplace and tv.  its brilliant.  i close the floor to ceiling blinds, that are my entire exterior walls, slide the pocket door (i love pocket doors) cutting off the kitchen from the murphy bed room.  the only place to look is out, at the tv, the fireplace, or above one at the tin ceilings that cover the murphy bed room.  i also had a drop-down table built into it as well, which seats 3.  so, in roughly 36 sq ft, i eat, i sleep.  i call it the wine-em-dine-em-and-69-em room.  its been known as that since the first day it was installed.  the chick from the newspaper, when she read the ‘story’ part, which also included the wine-em…. reference, she chuckled back, but said that prob wouldnt be making the paper.  lol.  i also have a small crystal chandelier in the wine-em room. david-and-pike so here is a bit about me, alex:  i am an-about-to-be 49 yr old guy, into yr 21 as a mailman.  in my future, i hope to rent out my condo, collect a cpc pension, work part-time in something i love, and go back to my tiny home, on a few acres, where i could let my wiener dog run free, have a horse, a few egg laying chickens, a garden.  and that can start as early as june 13, 2014.  but who is counting.  🙂

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 14 comments… add one }
  • LaMar
    May 31, 2013, 7:23 pm

    Nice place but the owner sounds immature!

    • Michael Pierce
      May 31, 2013, 7:54 pm

      He reads normal for me.

  • Cahow
    May 31, 2013, 8:23 pm

    With spaces designed this intensely, I find that an attached video really helps “connect the dots” since so much is packed into such a small space.

    LaMar: “Word”, says this chick.

  • Amanda Moody
    May 31, 2013, 8:58 pm

    It is a neat little place and the owner has wonderful ideas planned for his future. Good luck in your adventures.

    Folks let’s be kind and not judge or speak unkindly of others. What did he do to you for you to be so mean?

  • Heather Caldwell
    May 31, 2013, 10:01 pm

    Immature is a GREAT thing when you are in your forties… It means you finally GET IT… Live simply, spread joy and laughter, and for GOD’S sake have a ball while your doing it (which seems to be the theme of the wine ’em dine ’em room!). LOL. Alex, thank you for not cutting that out, it made MY immature day :-). Blessings, Heather (currently building a tiny house in Fairfield IA. 200 sq. Ft. For myself, my two teens, my 4 cats, and my chaweenie dog!)

    • Alex
      June 1, 2013, 12:01 am

      LOL glad you enjoyed it Heather!

    • Cahow
      June 1, 2013, 8:00 am

      What LaMar and I are referencing is a thisclose 50 year old man talking like a teenager. It’s not the “wine ’em” or the “dine ’em”, it’s the attached “69 ’em” and calling a female reporter “chick” that broadcasts this person’s level of maturity. When someone is reading an article vs directly talking to someone, what you SAY speaks volumes about you. Just as any public figure about “hot mikes”. If someone on this site used words like “trailer trash”, “hippie”, or “tree hugger”, they’d be called out and beaten down with tiny house e-fists. Now who’s judging someone by their words?

      Immature is NOT a great thing over the age of 21 y.o.. Being CHILDISH is NOT the same as being CHILD-LIKE. Steven Spielberg is “childlike”; Linsay Lohan is “childish”.

      • Cheesus Riced
        June 1, 2013, 9:51 am

        Newsflash to the perpetually self-absorbed: Get over yourself and how others choose to live & be won’t wad your panties so much.

      • Alex
        June 2, 2013, 6:20 pm

        Nicely said. You’re a great thinker/writer.

      • Brian
        June 7, 2014, 4:54 pm

        LOL to all the comments concerning his life style. The obvious thing is this man is comfortable in his own skin, is talented and I love his home. In Australia his comments would not even raise an eyebrow.

  • Eli
    May 31, 2013, 11:07 pm

    I don’t think we should judge the owner based on his choice of words. His space is amazing! And I actually like his sense of humor 🙂

    • Amanda
      June 1, 2013, 8:48 am

      Well said Eli! Plus people forget that language differs in different parts of the world and even the U.S.

    • Alex
      June 2, 2013, 6:20 pm

      He does have a great sense of humor 🙂

  • ElTee
    June 1, 2013, 2:58 am

    I would love to have seen a floorplan and/or vid tour as it’s hard to get an idea of things properly (like where the shoe rack is). My flat is 450sq foot (I’m not sure if I’m fortunate or not that it has walls in place for rooms lol) but it seems to be bigger than this even has a separate designated 117sq foot bedroom, good size bathroom, kitchen & even a store cupboard the same sq foot as his closet. So there just seems to be some space missing somewhere in his condo (assuming it’s not just the pics making it look small), unless the bathroom is pretty big or it includes outside space where the photo was taken from?

    While the 3 seater dining table is a great way of getting a multifunctional space, I think 3 seats could be a bit restricting for having guests over. I guess there’s always the breakfast bar stools, but if you’re having guests over for dinner, you don’t want to be sitting separately like that. So, I think I would’ve gone for one of those expanding tables (the type that start tiny but end up seating 10 – obviously you wouldn’t want one that big as there’s probably not the space here, but at least one that seats 4 or 6), that said, you do get the advantage that you don’t have to move anything, just pull down the bed and go. I think possibly the pic was mislabeled as it says “Dining Table and Murphy Bed for Guests”, from what David said in his piece, it’s his only bed.

    I do like the design a lot, but having seen the one where they have a wall that moves to allow bunk beds for guests (can’t remember the square footage of that one) and has storage literally everywhere… then it had a tough act to follow. I think the difference there was probably budget size though, I think that other project didn’t spare any expense. It’d be interesting if people gave ballpark figures on how much the work had cost them.

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