Myndu Interior Design

I recently visited a friend in her new apartment, and I was so surprised to see how awesome it looked!  My friend’s new apartment is a studio apartment, meaning there are no bedrooms.  It’s just one big room that has a kitchen and room for a bed, the only room being the bathroom. I never thought I could deal with living in a studio apartment because I’m the type of person who has so much stuff, I wouldn’t know how I’d fit everything!  But I also realized the benefits of a studio room.  With a studio room, you really learn what’s the most important type of furniture and how to keep messes at bay, because there isn’t a lot of space to spare!

If you’re a college student or just anyone who is staying in a studio room, it’s definitely easier to move things in one by one and slowly moving in, instead of bringing everything into the room and trying to sort it out later.  Here are some tips for anyone staying in a studio apartment.

1. Keep furniture to a minimum
A bed, desk, and dresser are really the three essential pieces of furniture to have.  Something to sleep on, something to work on, and something to store your clothes.  If needed, a bookcase is also nice to have.  If there are other things you want to bring in, really consider the amount of space it takes up and how much you really need it.  Otherwise, clutter will pile up faster, especially there will be less room to take up.

2. Hang mirrors on the wall
Mirrors are a really great way to maximize space without actually really giving yourself more space.  Reflecting a room off the mirror can make it actually seem bigger, which can help create a more comfortable atmosphere because it feels like there’s more space.  A definitely a good touch if you get claustrophobic easily.

3. Hang things on the wall
Instead of a million photo frames laying around on your desk and such, try hanging or taping pictures on the wall.  Instead of lamps, try finding lamps you can hang off the ceiling.  Try finding different solutions for different types of things you want to bring into your room.  Instead of things taking up space from the ground up, ask yourself if there’s a possible way to take up space from the sky down.

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Two pieces of furniture that just seem to take up space are coffee tables and paper shredders.  A little random, but I mention it only because Pigeon Tale Designs has combined the two to create a more useful piece of furniture using less the space.  Although I hear it’s a bit pricey, it’s still really nice if you’re the type of person who actually uses a paper shredder.  The shredded paper that ends up inside the coffee table, which is see-through because it’s made out of glass, also creates a cool looking aesthetic for your coffee table, and changes over time as you shred more paper and empty out the trash later.

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• Papervore Coffee Table (neatorama.com)

Decorating or redecorating your kitchen shouldn’t be about the easiest way out. Let yourself go wild, go the extra mile and make your kitchen everything you want it to be and everything it should be.

The hardest part of decorating your kitchen is sticking to the decision to make the changes—which we all know is hard enough in a time where we’ve been brainwashed to believe that we can always procrastinate and things will still manage to get done. But don’t think that just because you’ve made the decision to decorate your kitchen means that it will be smooth sailing from here on out. Do that and you’ll be in for an extremely unpleasant surprise that will make you wish you had never started.

What you really have to do is be ready to commit to your kitchen decorating project and make a goal of going above and beyond what you’d normally expect yourself to accomplish.

For instance, my brother recently purchased a slightly used but newer home. The previous owner had ghastly taste in decorating and my brother inherited a puce stone floor. However, rather than tear it up—stone is expensive!—he decided to take matters into his own hands. Armed with a can of sealant stripper and a bucket of bleach water, he was able to lighten the floor three shades and give it a more palatable appeal. Then, just for good measure, he went out and purchased a blue and beige woven bamboo area rug that turned the eyesore of a kitchen into a girlfriend’s paradise. The simplicity of adding an area rug to the kitchen not only gave his kitchen life but also helped to disguise some areas of the floor where he couldn’t quite get the floor to evenly shade.

He also purchased one beige area rug for the inside of his closet pantry and two blue area rugs—one to place in front of the stove and the other for in front of the sink. These three rugs are all cotton area rugs—they match well with the more expensive bamboo area rug under the kitchen table, but can be washed in the washing machine whenever they meet with heavy traffic or spaghetti sauce.

Take a lesson here and remember that you don’t always have to engage in a complete overhaul of your kitchen just to make it look appealing to yourself and to visitors. All it takes is a little ingenuity.

But don’t think it stops with a bucket of bleach and a bamboo area rug. Your kitchen requires a certain amount of life that comes from your décor including your kitchen towels, wash cloths, curtains (if you have windows) and various amounts of chachka that show off your personality.

Whenever you decorate or redecorate your kitchen, whether it’s a permanent change, a temporary change or a seasonal change, get ready to go overboard and let yourself go wild. There’s nothing better than a room that shows off every part of who you are and how you see yourself. Go the extra mile and be the change you wish to see in your kitchen.