life in a tiny apartment.

Tip #144: Your space is mutable.

Here’s a watercolor version of our current apartment floor plan. 

I get a kind of bizarre number of requests for floor plans and I’m not sure why, but the requests kind of creep me out. Creep is probably too strong a word and we’ll blame my reaction on recurring childhood nightmares related to the Lindbergh baby. Nevertheless, a floor plan seems like an intimate thing to ask for, like a peek inside my underwear drawer. (But then, of course: Sigh.)

I think my real hesitation to share a detailed floor plan is that it feels that implicit in the request for a plan—or the delivery of one—is an idea that a home is static. If I was very ambitious, I would have painted at least seven different versions of this plan. Each different plan would reflect a major shift that we’ve made along the way to making our space work for us. The loveseat in one spot, the loveseat in another, the loveseat no longer here at all…to say nothing of bed or crib or desk. Short of moving walls and major appliances, almost everything in this space is subject to change, nearly all the time. The truth is that this month’s floor plan might not be next month’s floor plan. 

The internet and the accompanying glossy images we scroll through give us the impression that homes are finished spaces, when of course they’re works in progress. Especially in small spaces and especially with a growing family and changing needs, the spaces where we make ourselves comfortable get to change. I’m not suggesting that we all engage in an endless and exhausting game of musical chairs, but I do think that thinking of our homes—and other people’s homes—as mutable is a helpful exercise.

All that said: Enjoy this floor plan. It’s what our place is looking like on this September morning in 2016. Now just don’t blink.

PS. I’ve written about some of this before:

Here’s a piece on why I prefer to go (mostly) rug-less.

Here’s another on rearranging. 

Here’s a real oldie on switching out artwork. 

Tiny apartment survival tips #1 – 143, RIGHT HERE. 

(Speaking of (intimate and) frequently asked questions: I updated my FAQ.)