Living Large in Small Spaces: Expressing Personal Style in 100 to 1,000 Square Feet

In her lively, informative text, design guru Marisa Bartolucci takes readers inside 33 small homes from cities across the U.S. to reveal how a strong sense of style--rather than design know-how or unlimited resources--is the most effective tool for transforming an ordinary cramped living space into a smart yet functional private sanctuary.

Of course, I had to force myself to pull it out and look at it, since I've been so immensely disappointed by almost all of the books on the subjects of "small" spaces (probably because most of these books define small as 1,000 to 1,999 sf) and since I'm interested in more than just pretty pictures.

Lo and behold, this book, which is largely wonderfully detailed photos of real people's real small spaces (including a 100-sf dorm room and 2 couples with babies living in less than 500 sf), is inspiring in the most practical sense of the word. It's reassuring just to know that other people in the universe reside in sub-1000-sf quarters.

While it is true that many of the featured small-space livers are artists/designers of some sort, with skills that the average Jane doesn't have, I see it less as a book whose ideas you'd want to copy and more of a book whose ideas you'd want to emulate, and I quickly found several good ideas I could apply to my own spaces. Plus, I'm not even half-done just going through it and absorbing the minutiae of each photo and each apartment.

The best part(s)? No fancy-schmancy lofts (with the exception of one converted factory space) and no excessive and gratuitous photos of Wolf ranges and Miele dishwashers.

I couldn't find it used, but I can't feel too much regret about buying it for full price.


Best Book for Small Space Decorating   August 8, 2003
34 out of 36 found this review helpful

This is far and away the best decorating book for small spaces I've read. It's 400 pages, with 400 photographs, and it explores 33 small homes from 100 to 1,000 square feet. My favorite aspect of this book is that the spaces presented are in the United States. I have found that most small spaces shown in specialty books are from Europe or Asia and so lots of the ideas don't translate too easily. The apartments/homes are presented in order of size. Each home contains a very readable description pointing out a wide variety of design ideas, decorating techniques and how each tenant achieved what he/she wanted in a home despite it's limitations. I'm so pleased I bought this book!


Really small spaces!   March 25, 2007
John Shim (San Francisco, CA)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

A small but pretty coffee table book with great content and some good ideas for living in tiny, tiny spaces.

1) 16 of the 33 profiled spaces were 500 sq ft or less! The other 17 were 600 - 1000 sq ft in size. I haven't seen many books on small space living that focus on this size range. Most books seem to present 2000 sqft houses as tiny.

2) The owners of these spaces didn't all have an unlimited budget. Many were in rentals so gut renovations, moving walls, etc was not an option. Many did have expensive or design worthy furniture and art but quite a few were heavily furnished with IKEA and thrift store finds.

3) Most of the owners had to be very carefull with clutter and picking pieces that would work in the space and that they really loved. Some of the other Amazon reviews found this to be somewhat unrealistic but I think that when you live in such small spaces, you are going to have to keep things very neat and tidy.

4) Part of the title is "expressing personal style". There is plenty of that in the book mostly clustered around what I'll call "modern" (eams etc), "drama" (red, red everywhere), "eclectic" (high design items mixed with garage sale items) and "standard" (danish). Many of the owners have extensive collections that are well presented and show off their unique personal style.

5) Most of these places are inhabited by: architects, artists, interior decorators, makeup artists, writers, curators, floral designers, etc. Essentially those who are in the "profession". I got the impression that hiring someone is de rigur if you are an accountant or fireman.

6) I liked the organization of the book by size of the space, architectural diagram of the space, lots of well shot photos, a narrative of who the residents are and how the space came to be and a picture of the residents.

7) One of my favorites were Francisco Parod and Ximena Orozco, the couple from Mexico living in a 450sqft NY apartment...with a baby! Not only did it look comfortable and open, they furnished almost everything at IKEA. My other favorite was Karen Meyer. She had translucent screens that could slide between the living room and dining room. This provided flexibility to the spaces by making it more expansive or more private, as needed. A murphy bed that was behind a shelf unit in the dining room could be opened up to create a guest room. A nice example of rooms doing double duty.

All in all, the best book I've found for realistic ideas for very small spaces.




Great for Useful Ideas   January 1, 2004
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

This may be the best book out there right now on dealing creatively with small spaces. Most of the others I have seen feature gorgeous Manhattan or European lofts, or are the homes of architects and designers. They are eye candy, but not much help.

This book is quite inspiring, however. It's unfortunately short on sources, giving only a brief list of featured designers at the back, but the pictures are clear and the little accounts that go with them are written by the people who actually live in the apartments and they offer some useful ideas. And when a book acknowledges that some of us do live in less than even 1,000 feet, that's a book that's operating on a level of reality I can appreciate, because I live in 544 feet. Some of the apartments in the book are much smaller. I finally feel a little validated.

Another thing I like about it is that it's not a coffee-table- book size: it's manageable to hold and look through, even standing up. It is organized by size, from smallest to largest.

Definitely worth a look.