An 800+ sq ft apt sounds like a windfall to a New Yorker. I have lived the majority of the last 25 years in a 500 sq ft Manhattan apartment. The bedroom doesn’t quite look like this anymore, but you get the gist.
I lived in the City for five years – first in a cruddy walk-up apartment at Kenmare and Mulberry (now totally gentrified), then a nice but small two bedroom on 92nd between 1st and 2nd. My bedroom barely fit a twin bed. Then I became a nanny on Park and 83rd (only way I could figure out how to afford to live and go to school at the same time). That apartment was huge! 1/2 of the 8th floor. I had a large room, private bathroom, with the world’s cutest tub, and half of the laundry room for my drafting table. The kids had friends who had a two story apartment on Park, with an entire set of rooms for “the staff”. Then, the family moved to 95th and Madison. They rented a studio apartment for me on the 6th floor, while they lived in the 4 bedroom apartment on the 29th floor. I sometimes miss New York …
1 Like
The thing is, Brits are used to “double beds” which are even smaller than 140. And last year Ikea actually started selling beds in UK sizes for that market.
Maybe Brits like to snuggle up more in bed than other nationalities …?
3 Likes
My own apartment and the rental are both 450 sq ft 
2 Likes
I am in the same position and I stuck to a 140cm bed with two tiny Ikea stools either side of it. I would recommend you do not go up a size if you have to lose the option of any space beside the bed - having 40cm either side as I do is a VERY tight fit for people wanting to actually get into bed like normal human beings and some people are rather put off by a bed butted against a wall, requiring them to climb over someone.
I mention the exact bed dimensions in my listing anyway - with the plethora of different names around the world, the dimensions are the only way you can be sure that the reader knows what you have.
@eliel Sigh … it’s so difficult, isn’t it - if only we could magic our room sizes bigger …
Lots of good advice from everyone, but some of it conflicting. I think what I’ve taken away from it is:
160cm bed if possible
BUT
only if it leaves room for a bedside table each side and room to get out of bed.
It’s the opening closet door that is the drawback, but unfortunately I can’t alter that as it’s part of a set of 4 doors with a beautifully crafted closet of shelves, drawers and hanging space … hardly any of which the guests ever use, of course (I need to start another thread on why travellers don’t unpack their suitcases any more!)
I need to find a few days when we don’t have guests to take proper measurements of the room and move some furnitur about., as another possibility could be to move the (new) bed to another wall entirely …
As always, thanks everyone for the brilliant suggestions!
Well, small it may be, but it’s beautifully fitted out and looks so cosy! I love your mini-kitchen and am adding it to my ideas book, since we’re considering making our Air bedroom suite into a studio apartment.
This darling place is a dream!!! You live here? It’s so cozy and cute! Love all your decor! I know you aren’t a pro decorator, but you sure have a knack! So you live here and rent out the Catskills place? Love it.
2 Likes
Sandy, I really like your style - actually it’s rather like mine, except rather more well thought-out! I have the pale aqua and green colours too and I’m glad to see that someone else arranges their books by colour! We have that tall Hemnes dresser (in black) and though I wasn’t sure about it at first, but now I love it …
I really covet that sofa - it looks both elegant and comfortable, a difficult combination to find!
Super cute apartment! It looks so homey with all the books.I love the colors too.
Reminds me of my sister’s place for years. She lived in a tiny, 420 sq ft apartment in the Back Bay, a very nice part of the city. For some reason, almost 75 sq ft of the apartment was a sauna, which she turned into a closet. Not one inch of space went unused. The oven held her sweaters, the dish cabinets held shoes. One day she called, and that was unusual since we paid for long distance calls back then, to tell me that she had a bought a car!!! It was a small Passat wagon. I asked about the engine, seat materials… Oh I don’t know any of that, she said, but I JUST DOUBLED MY STORAGE!
And so, winter clothes were stored in the back of her Passat in the summer, and then she changed out her winter for summer wardrobe… Much like @CatskillsGrrl, she eventually bought a small house in Maine, next to her favorite ski slope never “upsizing” out of that tiny apartment. Every weekend she would head to Maine, with all of her dirty laundry in the back seat of that Passat [since the trunk was filled with off-season clothes]. The money saved by not using a laundry service eventually furnished her Maine cottage.
2 Likes
@Malagachica, @konacoconutz, @Artemis, @anon67190644 - Awww, thank you for your kind words! Yes, this is our place in the city. We spend about two weekends a month at our Catskills place - and almost all my vacation. For those of you who know NYC real estate, our apartment is rent stabilized. My husband has lived here since 1974. It used to be a hotel and our ‘efficiency kitchen’ is more or less the original configuration. We added the island and modern fridge. The sink is the original sink / refrigerator combo.
1 Like
Loving your place @CatskillsGrrl / beautiful decor. I always love when there’s colors and not when it’s a home trying to be a beige hotel!
1 Like
@Jepjep, I, too prefer a place with character. It is worth making quite clear that I do not - and would not - try to share my NYC apartment on Air. It would be a violation of my lease and NYC local laws and I would risk being evicted over it. And rightly so.
2 Likes
So how does this work in terms of ownership? Do you own the apartment and pay to be a part of the building? Like a leasehold? A co-op? Or is all of it owned by someone else?
It’s so flippin cute it should be in a magazine. (I write home features for a living so I have some expertise there!)
And 1974, are you joking… That is more than 40 years ago, wow, just wow. That you can share such a small place with a spouse is a testament to your strong marriage! I thought you lived alone.
@smtucker - we always bring out laundry with us to the Catskills. Why struggle with a laundry room (although we do have a nice one) when you just do it in your home? We walk back and forth from our garage with a big wheely thing cart that has our laundry in it and our cat carrier bungied to the top. Jeff says it looks like we are fleeing the Nazis rather than going to our weekend home.
It speaks to my school girl fantasy of being That Girl, Marlo Thomas, having a place like that in NY, work in an ad agency and have a boyfriend named Donald. Your place is so iconic it could almost fit as a set in a Woddy Allen movie or some such. 
2 Likes
Our apartment building is just your classic rental building. The vast majority of the units are NOT rent stabilized - only us old-timers. The majority of units are market rate. In our building a one bedroom like ours goes for about $3700, I think. “Rent-stabilization” is the generic term for various state and local schemes that regulate how much landlords can increase rent on a lease-holder. Many of the schemes started in the post-war housing crunch and continued through the 70s. The number of apartments are, of course, dwindling because when the apartments are vacated the landlord usually guts them and can invest enough into the apartment that it is taken out of stabilization.
1 Like
But you can certainly see why if someone gets an apartment like that they hold on for life! I take it you don’t pay that much?? Wow, cool story.
I do [quote=“konacoconutz, post:39, topic:7725”]
Your place is so iconic it could almost fit as a set in a Woody Allen movie or some such.
[/quote]
I do walk through Central Park to go to work. I am very lucky. We have the best of both worlds. Jeff says he paid his dues, though, by living here through the 70s and 80s. But others would say that was the best time.
1 Like