Case study: A small bedroom (10′ x 12′ sq. ft.) with no closet space in a three-bedroom share.

1.The  first step was  to make  an inventory of whats’  important in the clients’ life. Obviously; somethings will have to go in order for the client to live in an uncluttered environment in such a small livingspace. And what we mean by somethings is not only physical but some of their habits, rituals or routines will have to be modified. MD² always recommends that you involve a good friend to help you along this step. A friend will usually give you a more objective view on things that can make it easier for you to get rid of  stuff. Not to discourage but this step can sometimes take time. In this case it took one and half years before we proceeded to the next step. Without this step is almost pointless to move to the next level.

2.You have to tackle the storage problem head-on. Where will you store your personal belongings? You have two choices; either you customized or buy furniture. If you go with the furniture option , your options are limited.  You  have to always keep a mind  that your goal is to lived in an uncluttered livingspace so the furniture have to be proportional to the size of the room otherwise it would not work.This limits your storage space to the size of the furniture. I recommended customization. In a room this size , it may even came out to be less than buying furniture. In this case, the idea was to take two feet from the floor plan, make the room a square room and use the other two feet to create a storage wall unit hidden behind  floor to ceiling curtains.

3.Think vertically. After  many rounds of downsizing on his personal possessions; we were left with a book collection and other bric-a-brac. We built a long shelf  close to the ceiling that went from wall to wall to show the collection of books and other treats that the client own. We also made two side tables out stacks of books for each side of bed. This allowed the client to keep all his books and gave him the chance to personalize the room to reflect his personal style. Visually ; it made the room feels taller by directing your eyesight upward.

4.Divide and conquer. We used the actual walls to give the feeling of different rooms within room. By  using 1″x¾” wood trimmings ; we created the feeling of top/bottom, left/right sides to the room.We also used a three-color scheme in the room to help reinforce the visual partitions.The unique feature of this project was the used of mirrors to divide the room in  half by running a line of mirrors going up a wall , zig zag and across the ceiling and down the other wall ; not only did the mirror gave depth to the room but they also gave the room  so many different angles.You get a feeling of being inside the bedroom but at the same time you get a feeling that you are looking at the room from the outside.

5. Last and most important. If you look closely at some of the photos ; you’ll notice all kinds of lighting. Lighting is the ingredient that tides a room together. You have to incorporated it into every level of the room; from general, task and accent lighting, to help create ambience. I like to tell my students that lighting is the key to any successful makeover and it is also the one that is mostly ignored.