Wednesday, April 30, 2014

LIVING SMALL: THE JUST ENOUGH BEDROOM

St. Helena, CA

Our beautiful quilt from Target.
Our wee cottage in wine country came unfurnished, so in anticipation of move-in day, we made a preemptive trip to Napa (the city) to make our first land bound purchase: a bed. After four years of living on a rough-and-tumble boat and four months of road-tripping, my kid-before-Christmas anticipation of having a comfy bed was certifiably whack-a-doodle.

So item #1 delivered a few hours after our arrival: a bed.

Our commitment to living small made us ponder what else was truly necessary in the aptly named bedroom, and in the strictest sense, the answer was nothing. But, hey, even a dorm room has more than a bed, so, not to be outdone, we got four more things, two nightstands and two rugs.


IKEA in Sacramento had Expedit cubes on sale for $9.99, so we bought four and stacked them, perfect beside the extra-tall bed. And not bad @ $19.98 per nightstand.


To outsmart the need for an annoying bedskirt, I got a King-sized quilt for a Queen-sized bed, and instead of buying a dresser to accommodate a few items of clothing, we got a $30 rack (on the right), also from IKEA.

That door mirror came with the place, but alas, no hangers. We bought 30 hangers for $3.51, which is a handy clothing control feature. No hanger for that new shirt? Something's got to go!

We put hooks behind the bedroom door to hang our coats and jackets.

The just enough bedroom:

1 bed
2 nightstands
2 rugs
2 bedside lamps (not found yet)
1 wire rack
30 hangers
10 hooks


Today, I am grateful for: my light and airy, just enough bedroom.

Napa vines at work.

MORE ABOUT: downsizing | living small

3 comments:

  1. OMG, the cube idea is fantastic! Our daughter just moved into a very small apartment and needs something to put her TV on. I wonder if we should bolt them together?

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    1. YES! I didn't go into detail here, but we left off one side of one of the squares, bolting a square and a U together, so it looks like a solid, double-decker piece. Does that make sense? They also make a four-square cube. IKEA rocks.

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  2. I LOVE that place. Her apartment is like a L shape with the living and dining across the bottom and the bedroom in the top of the L. I wonder if we can stack enough to make a room divider with a giant hole in the middle to put the TV in?

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