Creating Style In Super Tight Studio Apartments

Tight living spaces present challenges, but challenges often evoke great creativity and ingenuity–and this is certainly the case inside these four small studio apartments. Not only are these tiny homes packed with great space saving ideas and bespoke furniture inspiration, but they manage to exude style within their limited proportions too. Exciting accent colours, artistic partition walls, a smart mezzanine, a chic glass wall bedroom and beautifully crafted small bathrooms all add up to amazing small living spaces that can easily contend with the big boys. Take the mini tour through each one and find yourself laden with a myriad of ideas and home style envy.

Designer: Maria Ko Visualizer: Anastasia Bila

In Saint-Petersburg, Russia, a 23 square metre studio apartment is decorated in warm umber, cobalt blue and pale lemony accents.

Each piece of furniture is custom built into the apartment to ensure that every single centimetre of space is well utilised. Storage cabinets have been built around the base of the window, and drawers pull out from the space under a custom made sofa bed. Yellow and umber handles add dashes of colour.

A Neuro pendant lamp by Davide Groppi zig zags up the side of a Bauhaus art print, ensuring that the small space is spiced with big design statements.

Three yellow base cabinets and three wall cupboards make up a tiny kitchen at the centre of the floor layout. Whilst the yellow base cabinets define the kitchen as its own zone, an open shelf unit is umber coloured to create a cohesive link with the rest of the home decor. Basic white tiles cover the backsplash and countertop.

A glass wall and ceiling wraps the small kitchen, which prevents kitchen steam from rising directly up into a mezzanine bedroom above, and stops cooking splashes from hitting the adjacent sofa bed by the window.

A cat ladder staircase design climbs up to the mezzanine bedroom. Black handrails assist the quirky ascent.

Underneath the mezzanine level, dark blue tiles with umber grouting colour a hallway seat by the front door. The closets in the entryway provide much of the storage for the tiny home, though there is additional closet space on the mezzanine. Recessed yellow handles add an extra stripe of colour, which matches them with the built in storage cabinets around the window.

The bathroom is concealed behind mirrored glass doors, which make the narrow hallway appear open and spacious.

The umber stripe that’s painted around the top half of the apartment engulfs the whole mezzanine bedroom. An open fronted wardrobe system is painted in the same umber shade so that it falls back into the walls. The mezzanine platform doubles as a floor bed design, offering a shallow recess in which to lay the mattress.

Directly underneath the mezzanine floor bed is the downstairs bathroom.

We find more blue tiles with umber grouting in here, and bright yellow accents.

Birds-eye view of studio with mezzanine.

Studio floor plan.

Perspective drawing.

Designer: Anastasia Bila

Our second tour takes place in an artistic studio apartment interior with a classical air. A contemporary swing arm wall lamp entends over a bed built behind a Roman column-like partition. A sculptural bust provides bedside decor.

The super chic tiny space brims with elegance.

On the other side of the column-inspired partition wall, we discover that the storage cupboards have double sided access.

Rich umber flooring grounds the light grey and white scheme.

Though the apartment is small, an area has been allocated to a home workspace. A mid century modern chair gives the plain corner its fashion sense.

A column separates the utility area from the wash and pamper zone of the bathroom.

Floor plan visualisation.

Visualizer: Alexandru Ionita

Tour three is a 38 square metre micro apartment kitted out with scaled-down home comforts. The bedroom is separated from the main living area by glass partition walls, and a raised floor. A privacy curtain draws around the inside of the glass to complete the divide. The adjacent living room is a gorgeously executed design with a plush white couch and elegant arcing floor lamp.

The glass bedroom walls allow sunlight to permeate from two tall living room windows.

Stepping up into the bedroom gives it a mini sense of grandeur.

Colours inside the glass wall bedroom meld with the rest of the interior, though a dark grey headboard wall gives the tiny sleep space it own subtle identity.

An Ikea Evedal Lamp on the lounge side table also serves as a bedside lamp.

The opposite side of the apartment is home to the kitchen, which surprisingly has room for a substantial kitchen island.

The kitchen island and two bar stools serve as the dining room.

White subway tiles are set in a herringbone design across the backsplash.

White marble makes up the countertops.

A trio of pendant lights make the kitchen a bright and welcoming space.

Unique bathroom furniture fashions a high-end bathroom design.

Attractive wood effect panels back the vanity splash zone.

Grey stone tiles complete the look.

Visualizer: Artem Rechitsky

Lastly, we come to a 36.5 square metre home in Moscow.

Red accents bring a white interior alive. A dark red sofa is teamed with a red small side table and red wall art in the lounge.

A grey TV wall cools things down on the opposite side of the room.

Red curtains run between the lounge and bedroom area.

A round dining table straddles the lounge’s wood flooring and the kitchen tile. A white and wood kitchen design embraces the dining set within its L-shaped arrangement.