Small spaces? Think Tardis!

There is a definite trend in recent years for a constant feeling of moving up. Not just a "Keeping up with the Jones" mentality, but a vague feeling of some how deserving something better.
Many families now feel a large 4 bed house is their "right" and damned be anyone who might suggest they can't afford it.
In this climate  having your children SHARE a room is the same as suggesting they all share a bed and have to knock ice off the outside of their covers in the morning and if they need a wee in the night there's a handy piss pot under the bed.

Its just not done you know.

Anyway, we are a 5 person family currently living in a 1 1/2 bed croft cottage (the 1/2 will become clear in due course. Hold your breath though. By the end of the summer we may have reached the dizzy heights of TWO and 1/2 bedrooms through some drastic re-jigging.

But now I'm getting ahead of myself.

I want to show you round my home.
Bit by bit.

I'm proud of how we fit our lives into such a compact space. Whenever I feel like cabin fever sets in (like when we get 4 months of snow for example!) I try and remind myself that 100 years ago a husband his wife and their 7 or 8 children might have lived in this house, and back then it would have only had 3 rooms and a lean to pantry.

So to start, let me show you round my living room and the 1/2 bed.

  

Space saving comes in all guises. By using this re-claimed mirror (found in the back of the shed when we moved in and stripped and varnished by me!) we have doubled the space and avoided clutter.

The steps up to our bed double as book shelves on this side.......

...and on the other, maximizing usage in what could have been awkward wasted space.

Custom make furniture. When your space is limited nearly all ready made furniture will be a compromise. We made this sofa to fit in the available space under the bed, and its a cosy spot to read or watch a movie.  

Custom made means less waste. These shelves are perfect for our DVD collection, and its worth noting that they are mostly made out of the slats from an old bunk bed! 

Find a second use and make your furniture work hard. This chest has followed us everywhere and done service in the tack room and as a toy box. Now its used as a blanket box cum coffee table.

 

Biko admires the view from the bed! Our raise bed is surprisingly private and unobtrusive in our "living room" area.

Kim built all the wood work in this post and I made coffee and supervised!