Customer Reviews

Compact Living

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Graining's book does a great job of illustrating the architectural challeges of working with small spaces. If you are currently designing/remodeling or building a new modern space...I would recommend this book highly for some unique ways to maximize your square footage. There are great storage ideas, especially for the kitchen and living areas, which require design and construction. Also, there are some excellent ideas for the bathroom that would be especially helpful if you've just begun space planning or picking out fixtures for a remodel or new construction. Unique ways of hiding heating units by making them part of the space, rather than an intrusion, are offered as well.

Although, it's not the book's focus, Compact Living offers some ideas for the apartment owner living in a spatially challenged flat. The most helpful tip to apartment owners is Graining's suggestion regarding the use of color to help create zones of living within the space. The book also offers a few great ways to utilize the small spaces that are often forgotten in a seemingly tiny room.

Generally, this book is great if you're building or extensively remodeling a small space, but doesn't offer much to apartment owners with little money or control over the structure of their space.

Two of my children recently moved into new homes -- one in San Diego (1450 square feet), and the other in Washington DC (1500 square feet & four children). They both have high rents/mortgage payments and modest budgets, so I've been helping them search for clever ways to live in small spaces -- i.e. maximize efficiency, minimize costs, and preserve attractiveness. COMPACT LIVING contains many attractive ideas for economizing on space (for those whose tastes run to modern), but executing these ideas may prove more expensive than the author Jane Graining suggests (at least in the high rent areas!).

Graining has attempted to address the needs of both the renter and the home owner, but most of her ideas are better suited to the home owner (whether condo or small house) who can afford to make relatively permanent changes. Some ideas involve clever collapsing furniture which is portable, but the furniture shown is relatively expensive (wall beds, telescoping tables).

She provides numerous examples of walls and ceilings opened with skylights and bigger windows and she advocates the use of glass blocks and mirrors for lighting interior areas with remote sources of light. She also suggests bright colors in the form of painted or tiled surfaces can be used to "lighten" a room and make it appear bigger. For example, one idea involves two wall beds housed behind bright enamel red "closet" doors that are separated by a vertical, foot-wide floor to ceiling glass block strip which allows daylight to penetrate into the bathroom beyond. This detailed work is not a minor modification however parsimonious and attractive the use of space.

Graining says those who live in small spaces must think vertically, and she offers a number of nifty ideas for employing overhead space to accomodate loft beds, book shelving, cupboards, pantries, closets, stackable appliances, and racks of pots and pans. Many of her illustrations include vertical elements designed by architects and installed by professionals or extremely talented amateurs. Clever and talented folks may be able to copy some of her ideas without breaking the bank, but I am not that clever.

Title should be "Compact living... on a limitless renovation budget."

Everything is designer showroom-perfect on these pages, like an Ikea or Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel catalog.

However the spaces lack human reality, such as quirky collections or individualized space needs or child friendly design. You don't even meet the inhabitants.

Yes, invest in built in cabinets and fold away stair cases if you own and have the money. Again, these options are unattainable for many struggling to pay the mortgage or are renting.

A much better book is Bartolucci's "1000 sqft or less." That features real people with real budgets.

I wanted real advice, not catalog advertisements for perfect unattainable ideal design. I was disappointed. But perhaps idealism and extravagance, not realism and cash poor budgets are what most readers want... Hence the popularity of ARchitectural Digest, and why I am so turned off by such mags.

I rent my apartment, but I found many of the ideas in Compact Living to be useful. For example, instead of buying a dining room table I just use a small table and chair like on pg. 9. Such a simple idea, but I was in the mind set that a dining room table had to be of a certain size to be useful. That is what this book is good at...helping you look at your space, no matter what size it is, in new ways. When I have someone over for dinner, I improvise. I borrow another chair and small table from in my bedroom. I do agree however, that home owners will derive more benefit from this book, than those that rent.

I also had not been so familiar with "Loft Style" before this, but now I know I like it. However, I think the tips in the book can be applied to many different styles, even though the style shown in the pictures is primarily Loft Style.

Recommendation: This is a book primarily for people who live in small spaces, but I think it would also appeal to a wide range of people.

I bought seven "Small space" decorating books. This book stands out
for its magnitude of adaptable ideas, for a variety of tastes. Unlike many others, Graining focuses solely on American housing, showing how singles, couples, and famiies live in small homes,
and in every space: dining, eating, cooking, sleeping, bathing, working, laundry. Abundant helpful photos, and the best "bird's eye" views of the rooms. By far the most inspiring of the lot,
and the best value.

Whether they found the book helpful or not, what the other reviewers have to say is true. Graining's remedies for compact living are expensive, professionally designed, and professionally installed . The materials are cutting-edge and the taste is ultra-modern.
But there are some truly innovative solutions for living in a small space (which may inspire you to get creative about your own space). And some basic and practical ideas are sprinkled throughout.

What makes this a 5 star book for me, however, is that it includes something the others don't: FLOORPLANS. There are illustrations of the entire layout, including furniture placement and photos of every room in the house. While these apartments may not resemble anything like your own home, getting to see the individual rooms and how they fit together in the whole space to form a cohesive design IS useful. I've seen some of the photos in this book in other design books (as an isolated room, photographed from one angle). Being able to see how they work with the rest of the space and flow with adjoining rooms is immeasurably helpful.

As someone who is designing a new place that I want to make small but open, as well as environmentally friendly and energy efficient I found this book a good reference book for those of us wanting to build on a small lot in the most cost effective as well as land efficient way.

Loved how on page 79 she shows how structural pillars in a bedroom area act as both a full height headboard with a full height mirror panel which makes a small room seem vastly bigger and brighter. Its the use of these overlooked areas like pillars that often are sheet rocked enclosed, but instead are used to make the bed work better as well.

Or all the examples of spaces between studs in all rooms that can be designed to hold CD's. books, cooking items, files etc. All discretely as well. O of my favorite bathrooms is featured beginning on page 90 where clean space lives up to its name. Loved this example so much I am making it my own.

Compact living reads like a college text . . . you'd rather be doing something else but know you've got to read it to pass the class. That's how I see this book. It wasn't one that grabbed my attention from the beginning (a main criteria for me with books) but sticking with it unto the 32nd page (The Living section) made it worth the purchase. It gives great information such as the use of pattern in painting - it eats up visual space quite greedily. Also, on creating space - think in threes (redecoration, reorganization, and lightning). But I would have loved to see more real-life examples, less wording and more practicality. If you're a new apartment owner, I'll recommend "First Home with Style," it's perhaps the best home design book I've bought so far.

Many cool examples of small homes with sound advice on how to maximize your space--if you can make structural adjustments to your home. Almost all the rooms feature new contemporary furnishings and therefore might be better suited for people with a chunk of change to spend. Although I like this book to some extent it doesn't fit my needs as a renter.