Expert Tips and Tricks for Designing Small Dwellings

Tasked with transforming a 93-square-foot brick boiler room into a guesthouse, architect and metalworker Christi Azevedo flexed her creative muscle. The architect spent a year and a half designing and fabricating nearly everything in the structure save for the original brick walls. "I treated the interior like a custom piece of furniture," she says.

The outbuilding serves as a studio, a guest house, and a playroom. A Murphy bed sourced from Craigslist was customized with a birch surround to give it a built-in appearance.

Hal Colombo's 68-square-foot Seattle guesthouse, which he proudly describes as "funky," includes a full tub, planted roof, and Murphy bed mounted onto an automatic garage door. Copyright Andrew Pogue Photography.

The architects worked closely with the clients to match the aesthetic of the vintage furniture they collect. The midcentury modern Danish chair, seen right, has been refurbished and reupholstered.

An enthusiastic cook, Miller says she can easily work in the galley-style kitchen. The reclaimed-wood surround echoes the exterior cladding.

Jaanus Orgusaar's NOA cabin in the Virumaa region of Estonia is currently used as a summer cottage.

Both a workspace and sauna, this 34-square-foot hut, which belongs to Finnish artist Helle Kvamme, mixes business and pleasure in astoundingly close quarters. The steam-filled studio is heated by a woodstove underneath. Copyright Helle Kvamme.

The three levels of the house transition from public to private: The ground floor is composed of the kitchen and living-dining area; the bathroom and closet occupy the mezzanine, accessed by a ship’s ladder; and the sleeping loft hovers a couple steps above. The seminal 1970s tome A Pattern Language, written by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein, inspired the layout. “I’m a huge proponent of the [book],” says Azevedo. “I like the ideas of a bed as an alcove, natural light on two sides of a room, varying ceiling heights, and different levels of privacy.”

DIY touches define this three-tiered, 182-square-foot studio, belonging to artist and engineer Steve Sauer. Tables, shelving, and benches are made of wood recycled from IKEA products. Copyright Andrew Pogue Photography.

These rustic roof beams were also recovered from the barn and support a covered patio at the rear of the Bunkie.

This 450-square-foot apartment includes an origami-like desktop that unfolds to reveal a perforated-steel divider that allows the passage of computer cables hidden inside the office compartment. This transformer-like cabinet helps maximize limited square footage.

“When we first set out on this crazy adventure, we always pictured parking Woody in a place like this,” Brian says. “We honestly couldn’t have imagined it would be this spectacular.”

Milgard sliding doors were added with the future in mind. “We really wanted it to feel big since we planned to live in it full-time,” Brian says.

A 55-inch Samsung Smart TV, a gift, is one of few indulgences.

The sleeping loft features a Velux skylight. Structural insulated panels by Vantem keep heating costs down in almost any climate.

Container Store finds, like galvanized-steel shelving in the kitchen, maximize storage.

Architect Greg Dufner carefully devised his own Greenwich Village apartment's interior; he used multiple strategies to carve several spaces within its single main room. He says "I think our main take away when designing a small space has always been 'creative built-ins.' This means eliminating sheet rock walls when possible and creating built-in cabinetry as room dividers. It also means, there is no such thing as 'left over space.' Every space should be built-out with custom sized built-ins to maximize storage. It's like detailing a luxury yacht."

The resident, a Tokyo transplant, commissioned architect Tadashi Murai to create a fully-equipped structure that comes with its own power, heating and cooling, water, and waste-disposal systems.

Raising the bed above floor level, architect Kyu Sung Woo converted this tiny studio into an open and comfortable home for Wonbo Woo. Photos by: Adam Friedberg