Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.
A highly ambitious project I took on, that I didn’t know I was taking on, was how to make the best use of small spaces when I first moved to New York. Originally, from the South and used to living in big apartments and two-story houses with a yard, I had no idea of the severe reduction of living space I was about to subject myself to.
When I first moved here 10 years ago, I didn’t have a high-paying job, so I found a room in Kensington, Brooklyn, for $700 a month. It essentially was just an empty living room, so I had no doors. It had an entrance to the dining room (that no one ever used) and the kitchen, so I had to find a way to seal up the kitchen entrance. It already had a large curtain separating the room from the dining room. I took measurements of the room, imagined what “amenities” to compensate for an actual studio apartment, and hopped on the IKEA website to find furniture that would fit.
Like every good nerd, the first thing I setup was my PC to create my “office space”. I figured running two regular tables to run along the wall and form an L-desk was a lot cheaper and took up a lot less space than purchasing one. So I got two IKEA LINNMON tabletops with IKEA ADIL legs. Next I needed a “living room” spot to watch TV and chill because just sitting at an office desk all day was not the way. I opted for the IKEA Soderhamn, modular couch, with the IKEA PS cabinet (it’s really a locker) in blue to put various things in, which ended up being the place for the modem, router and my PS3. The TV on top was one my ex-boyfriend left behind that I brought up to NY with me and of course I had to get an air conditioner put in as well.
Next, I needed a “kitchen”. The apartment had a full kitchen, but I am an extreme introvert and a hermit, so the less potential contact with my roommates, the better. So for my kitchen, I moved my dining room set from the corner and got a mini fridge with a microwave and hotplate on top.
Next, I got a bed. Space was very limited at this point, so I looked for a bed that could fold up and opted on the IKEA BRIMNES which was a two-level bed that folded from a full sized bed to a daybed. I got it in black and this is where things got hard as you can see with all the parts. I put it together, no problemo for the most part, except for one badly threaded screw that threw the whole bottom layer off. I could never get it right, so the bed got put together, but had a very slight wobble. Once the bed was done, I wanted to add a final touch of adding a “canopy”. I always wanted a canopy bed so I got one off of Amazon and made a makeshift one with a little purple light I got at the Mall of America in Michigan when I went at an earlier time.
Once I got the bed together, the room still didn’t feel quite right. It felt like it just had a bunch of open air, and I wanted to feel cozy, so I got the IKEA full-sized KALLAX shelf to use as a divider to separate the “bedroom” from the “living room”. I’m glad I got this when I did, because IKEA no longer sells this thickness bookshelf anymore. They replaced it with a thinner version due to the wood shortage after Covid.
Finally, my “micro-studio” was done. I had a living room, bedroom, office, didn’t really need a dining room because I usually eat at my desk anyway, and still had some space to move around. I didn’t have a closet so I used the existing white curio that was already in the apartment for that. Even though I didn’t have any doors, I nailed up a wooden board to block the kitchen behind the bed, so I had 100% privacy and wasn’t annoyed by the cooking from my roommates.
All in all, I felt like my little DIY micro-studio came out really cute and showed my personality. I had everything I needed in this tiny spot and after living in it for 3 years, I learned that I really don’t need as much space as I thought to be comfortable and happy. All I need is one big room, a bathroom and barely even a kitchen. What was really cool was my brother came up with his friend one time and they had space to crash in my “living room” and another time, my friend came up to crash for a weekend, so the place was really functional. Every time I left, I couldn’t wait to get back home and crash in it myself.
This was my first place I got when I moved to New York in 2016, and I’ve now been living here for 10 years. I’ve had 3 other places after this one, which were both full apartments to myself, as I am done with the roommate life, but if I find myself in such a situation again, I definitely know how to hack it, so it was 100% a learning experience.
Oh, and if you’re weird and curious about the fate of the bed, it ended up going into the trash because it was too much of a hassle to put it back together at my 2nd place. The PS locker soon followed the same fate to the trashcan a few years later. Apparently, it’s easy putting most IKEA things together, but once you take them apart, they’re really a pain to put back together because they lose their integrity and things don’t fit together as the first time. But here I am 10 years later and I still have the KALLAX shelf, the two tables, the Gigantisk trash can (it really is gigantic but unfortunately discontinued) and the Soderhamn couch but changed the covering from gray to orange, which is also now discontinued. 🦉
Cool 😎 I’m always inspired by Japanese small space ideas