Small space living: the way forward

In Australia we are blessed with wide open spaces and a relatively affordable housing market. The average family can usually afford a 3 or 4 bedroom house with a backyard and even in most capital cities can live relatively close to the CDB without compromising on space.

However, in many countries around the world, population growth and the inability to expand outwards, means cities are growing upwards at an increasing rate. Apartments are the norm, and many people cannot afford a large space. Hence, a new market has been born, small space living!

Some companies, such as Resource Furniture specialise in space saving furniture. Beds that fold into cupboards, furniture that can transform to fulfill numerous functions, all with the aim to make a small space as liveable and functional as possible.

The Altea Book Sofa wall bed by Resource Furniture features an interior bookshelf system and two-seat sofa

The useful thing is, small saving ideas can help us all regardless of the size of our home. To give you some inspiration I have collated my five favourite space saving ideas for you below. Also check out ‘The 10 commandments of small space living’ from Apartment Therapy, one of my favourite blogs with real life renovation stories and very useful interior design tips.

1. Storage

One thing you can never get enough of is more storage, whether in a tiny apartment or family home. How great are the two ideas below, both utilising dead space underneath a staircase for extra storage and a functional drinks cart!

Extra blanket storage hidden under the stairs

Utilising the dead space under a staircase for a moveable bar, a perfect way to serve drinks when friends come over!

2. Diving up your space

A clever way to break up a small space into different functional areas is to use room dividers. These could be a simple screen, or piece of furniture to break up the space and create the feeling of different ‘zones’ e.g. the sleeping or eating zone. Two creative ideas below involve upcycling old LP records to create a unique room divider and using full size bookcases to create a whole ‘secret’ room hidden from view.

Old LP records used to create a unique room divider – both clever and sustainable!

A study is hidden behind a bookcase cleverly installed on hinges to swing open like a secret door

3. Space saving furniture

If you have a small lounge room area, or need to use a a small space for multiple functions e.g.relaxing as well as eating and studying, the below two ideas may give you some inspiration on what space saving furniture can achieve.

A modular sofa designed by Matthew Pauk – a sofa, two padded seats and a coffee table all within the one piece! Can be easily packed away when not in use

This amazing creation from Matroshka Furniture is a bedroom, living room, dining and study all in one piece of furniture 15m2!

4. Fold away desks / tables

In small apartments or units, one piece of furniture which may not be considered a priority to squeeze into already limited space, is a dining table or study desk. However, these simple pieces of furniture can be clevery hidden away and pulled out when required, see the two below ideas on how to achieve this.

A clever and stylish way to incorporate a small dining/study table into a small space, disguish it as a mirror!

Hide away an entire study inside a cupboard tucked away in a nook – this keeps your clutter hidden from view and allows you to have a functional space in an area that would normally only be used for storage.

5. Indoor gardens

A common drawback of living in a small space is a lack of outdoor room or garden. Apartments don’t always come with porches or patios, much less a full backyard. Fortunately, there are a lot of small planters designed to help people grow flowers, plants, and herbs indoors, no matter the size of your home.

“Woolly Pockets” are soft containers, made in the U.S. from recycled plastic bottles. They are just one of many small planter ideas from www.woollypocket.com

Why not have a go at creating your own terrarium to grow a miniature garden in your own home. They’re easy to make, can use any recycled glass vessel, look fantastic and dont take up much space at all! See this article for a step by step guide on how to grow your own.

I hope you have been inspired by the fantastic small-space living ideas above. If you’d like even more inspiration, check out Pinterest for a never-ending amount of great ideas for your home.

Quick guide to sustainable flooring materials

It can be overwhelming how many different materials are available to you when building or renovating your home. As well as wanting the best products for the job, many people these days are interested in using sustainable materials and reducing their impact on the environment as much as possible. To help you decide on what sustainable materials you might be able to incorporate into your next project, I have created a quick guide below, focussing on hard surface materials, in particular flooring.

Wooden flooring:

• If you are lucky enough to move into a older home with floor boards already laid, consider refurbishing them rather than purchasing and laying a new surface. Often a wood floor that looks like its past its prime simply needs some love and care and can look amazing when refurbished well.

• If you need to lay a new floor, consider reclaimed timber. While it may cost slightly more, reclaimed timber can have wonderful character and is a fantastic way to reduce the amount of new timber needed especially when building a new home. If you are in South Australian try: Adelaide Rural Salvage or Adelaide Hills Building Materials to see what options they have available.
  

  A beautiful example of recycled/reclaimed wooden pallet flooring – a unique touch to a family room (image from dixib.com)

• If the above two options are not possible, make sure you choose wooden floors that are from managed forests and are FSC certified, meaning they are sustainably harvested. It is also important to purchase timber grown as locally to you as possible, to reduce transport and therefore, pollution on the environment. Many flooring companies usually have an FSC certified option available, just ask! Additionally, FSC certified products can be used in many parts of the home, not just for flooring.

Rapidly renewing/recycled flooring:

• Bamboo is a fantastic green option to install as flooring. It grows quickly and is extremely hard, as hard or even harder than some hard woods. It re-grows in 3-7 years compared to oak or pine that takes around 20. Another great feature – its generally much cheaper than FSC certified hardwood. Bamboo comes in many colours and styles and looks fantastic, in some cases people cannot even tell it is not a hardwood, but a grass! I purchased my bamboo floors through Bamboo Flooring SA and am very happy with the results.

My new bamboo floors – they look so similar to real timber many people cannot tell the difference.

• Cork is made from bark that has been peeled from Cork Oak (Quercus Suber), and if harvested correctly, does not harm the tree itself. It is a wonderful choice for homes as it provides cushioning and absorbs sound. It is a great insulator, hygienic, anti-allergenic and water resistant and is easy to maintain. Have a look at Premium Floors for some examples of cork flooring, including the ability to digitally print onto the cork flooring and achieve a natural timber look!

ReadyCork Vita Oak Java by Premium Floors

• Linoleum (not to be confused with vinyl) is manufactured from dried and milled flax seeds mixed with other plant material (including cork) and in many cases from recycled content. It is extremely durable, fire resistant and can last for 30 to 40 years. Additionally, when its lifecycle comes to an end, linoleum is biodegradable and can be composted!  An example of marmoleum and its fantastic colour range is distributed by Forbo (also GECA certified – see link further below)

• Recycled rubber flooring is a great choice for spaces for young children, basements, yoga studios or home gyms and is an anti-slip, non-laminated surface with excellent noise absorbing qualities and is easy to clean and maintain (Check out Regupol for some more info)

• Carpet – some carpets and rugs are now made from sustainable or natural fibers such as cotton, sisal, wool, jute and coconut husk. See Carpet court for an example of Australian manufactured carpet that uses yarn made with renewably sourced polymer, which consists of 37% natural corn sugar. To reduce wastage, unused parts of the corn are utilised for agricultural feedstock.
• Armadillo & Co also have a fantastic range of hand woven, Fair Trade rugs made from sustainable natural fibres (Armadillo & co)
• Carpet tiles especially if made from recycled or refurbished carpets) are also a great choice as if moisture, stains or wear occurs, you can simply replace the individual carpet tile rather than the whole floor. Some companies (e.g. Ontera) go a step further and have a reuse and recycle program, where you can return the carpet tiles to be recycled after use!

Ontera modula carpets were used in this bright and fresh office project (Norman Disney & Young), showing the look that can be achieved using carpet tiles

Cork, linoleum, recycled rubber flooring and some carpets and carpet tiles are also all Good Environmental Choice Australia accreditated.

Hard surface flooring

• Consider refurbishing a concrete floor. Advances in grinding, hardening, colouring and polishing mean old slabs can be given amazing new life. If you must choose a new cement floor, make sure you specify a cement with fly ash content (a recycled product).
  

  The beautiful industrial look of a polished concrete floor (image from Houzz.com)

• Concrete, terrazzo, natural stone and ceramic tile are the longest lasting of floor materials. Ceramic tile has the advantage of achieving the look of wood or natural stone without ever having to re-finish or seal the tile. Also, you can replace individual tiles instead of entire sections. Tile and terrazzo floors can also be made with pre and post recycled content.

Dont forget, products are constantly changing, with new sustainable options on the market every day – be sure to ask your local retailers what is available in your area, and dont be afraid to do you own research online.

Renovating with a green footprint in mind

When my partner and I bought our first home a couple of years ago, I instantly started to imagine what I could do to improve the layout, the look and the feel of our own space. However, one thing was always certain, I didn’t want to rip everything out and chuck into landfill, and I wanted to reduce the impact that my renovation had on the environment. Yes, my kitchen was a lovely 80s, timber cabinetry, laminate bench top number, but I was certain to get a more modern look, I did not have to rip it all out and start again.

Just so you get an idea, here’s a before picture of our lovely kitchen.

Our kitchen: before

So, here’s five things that I did to reduce the impact of my kitchen renovation on the environment, and save money in the process!

1. Re-use the carcasses of the cabinetry

I knew I didn’t want to keep the solid timber doors in my kitchen, no matter how sturdy they were, they just weren’t the look I was going for. I considered painting the doors but I was informed that as they were real timber, the paint would seep into the wood grain and end up with a bumpy surface.

Instead, I decided to buy new laminate doors and drawer fronts, but keep the internal carcasses. The cupboards themselves were good quality and I didn’t mind the basic layout of the kitchen itself, I just knew would add an island bench once we knocked down the surrounding walls to open up the living room. By re-using all the carcasses, this meant a lot less rubbish going to landfill, and less money spent on new cabinetry!

2. Paint the splashback

Although the tiled splashback colour was a sad, washed out beige which I knew had to change, the tiles themselves were in great condition and could easily be painted. Each tile was divided into 12 x 12 smaller squares with grooves running through them. I knew that if I painted over them, I would get a sort of smaller, square subway tile look and I loved the idea of that.

I had heard great things from other renovators who has attempted to paint their tiled splashbacks and I was up for a challenge! So once I knew which paint colour I wanted I purchased tile primer and glossy tile paint from the hardware store and gave it my best shot. I was totally stoked with the results!

Here is a picture of my painted splashback, complete with the new door fronts on the recycled cabinetry. I get comments all the time and people are amazed it was a home job!

BTW the cost was so minimal too – just a couple of cans of paint and rollers etc, under $150!!

My painted splashback, teamed new cabinet doors (but recycled benchtops) helped give the kitchen a more modern look

3. Buy a second hand island bench

I have a friend who bought her whole kitchen second hand off the internet, and so I knew that there were kitchens out there, ready to be thrown away but that just needed a new owner to take care of them. After scouring the pages of gumtree and e bay, I found a few second hand kitchens with decent island benches that were the look and size I was going for. However, usually the problem was the owners did not want to sell the islands by themselves.

I was in no hurry so I kept looking, until finally the perfect bench came along. A lovely couple were selling their island bench by itself from their very new kitchen, as they wanted to replace it with an identical larger model. Complete with 2pac painted cabinetry, soft close drawers and Quantum Quartz (engineered stone) bench top, I bought the island for an amazing $1,100! (It was worth more than $3,000). We borrowed my dad’s trailer to pick it up and had to re-silicone down the bench top, but it was such an easy and satisfying purchase.

We managed to get a island bench colour which complemented the existing laminate bench top and so for now, we have kept the back bench tops to save money and recycle as much as we can. But the good thing is, if I want to replace the other bench tops to match the island in the future, I can match the engineered stone.

Additionally, I waited until I had purchased an island bench before I painted the splashback, and so I was able to tie-in the warm grey from the island cabinetry into my painted splashback to bring it all together (note in the picture below the grey doesnt look quite right – its is not that yellowy). I even replaced the handles on the island to match the same style as those on the back wall cabinetry, although they are a different size but this doesn’t bother me much. I’d rather slightly different handles than purchase a custom made island bench with the carbon footprint and price to match!

The contrasting island cabinetry allowed me to add another colour into the kitchen and tie this into the splashback

4. Re-use the appliances and sink

Appliances don’t last forever, however we figured since they were working fine so far and didn’t look too bad, we could get at least a few more years of life into these beauties. Saving money and reducing landfill for now, we will upgrade our appliances only when we they finally give out. Perhaps our kitchen doesn’t look brand spanking new with stainless steel appliances, but it looks much better than it did before. I will purchase new taps in the future and possible a new sink if we upgrade the benchtops, but will leave for now.

You will also see in the above and below pictures, I purchased a second hand cupboard off gumtree for our temporary pantry. One day when we have a bit of extra money we may install proper cabinetry along the back wall. However for now I am happy with my pantry, fridge, and my DIY shelf that I made from a plank of wood and spray painting two brackets blue! Up until recently I had never undertaken any DIY projects but now I have painted a splashback and made a shelf! Who would have thought…

5. Choose sustainable flooring

We knocked down four walls in our renovation and opened up the living areas to be open plan. In doing so we needed to replace all the flooring and didn’t have a large budget. The solution – we chose bamboo floorboards. A sustainable and budget friendly material. I love my floors and am so happy with our choice. Check out my other blog post on choosing sustainable materials for your renovation for more information on the amazing properties of bamboo and other products.

Our new floors are one of my favourite purchases of our renovation. I was so happy I could find a sustainable option that didn’t cost the earth

See the links below for more information and ideas of how you can make your next project or renovation as green as possible:

My green life ‘Make your renovations green’

Inhabitat.com ‘Green Renovation’

www.yourhome.gov.au

Apartment therapy ‘Doing a green home-renovation’

Happy renovating!