A little bit of inspiration

At the library the other day, while Sofia was hurrying me to the children's department, I happened to notice a book called "The Smart Approach to Small Space Living," and I snagged it as I rushed by. I always love looking at these design books, and especially those that have small houses in mind.


The book has more information than I can process at the moment -- and in any case, if I start talking about what color I want to paint the walls in the addition before Dave has the walls built, I'm likely to get into trouble. But the text is fun to skim, and the pictures are great fun to daydream with.


It seems our kitchen-tucked-under-the-loft idea is a popular one! I think it will make the kitchen feel cozy to have it under a lower ceiling than the dining room.


Here's another kitchen/dining room area that's similar to our plan -- we'll also have an island with seating on one side. Our dining area won't be nearly that big, though, as the stove and stairs will take up a lot of room.


I liked the look of this room, with its painted wood floor and bed tucked under a slanted wall. (The hand-woven rug is nice, too!) I also like the rustic wood trim in the back -- that's the kind of thing I want to include somehow on the walls, but I'm not sure exactly how we're going to do it. We've used most of the wood we salvaged from the bin teardown already. But wall trim is not a necessity soon, of course, so maybe I'd have time to look around for that kind of thing later -- perhaps from some other old building in the area.


The bottom photo on this page shows just the kind of little nook I want to tuck behind the front door -- a seat with shelving/closet space on both sides. I'd actually like to cover that whole east wall with bookshelves, except where this seat would go and where the windows are.


Finally, I really like these drawers under the stairs. How clever of them! It would be nice if we could do something like this at some intervals in the storage space behind the knee walls upstairs.

... Of course, all this is far down the road. People have asked what color we're going to paint the walls, or where we're going to put the clothesline. Let us get a toilet and lights first, and then I'll start thinking about wall colors or landscaping!

But in the meantime, it is fun to daydream!