So the question I'm pondering now - how are we going to fit two adults and two hounds into 800 square feet? And more importantly - are we out of our minds? Granted, our tiny little cottage in Athens was no more than 900 sq.ft., but there we had the advantage of an attic in which to conceal the overflow of stuff. That luxury is absent at the garage, and so the question remains - in lieu of purging our possessions down to one towel, one plate, and one fork each, how do we artfully manage our belongings to minimize the appearance of clutter?
I'm the type that likes everything organized and neatly stowed behind doors. I like clean surfaces - minimal visual clutter. So last night I pored through my box of cut sheets for inspiration, and I found some examples of beautiful, small interiors that have reconciled copious amounts of stuff with tiny interior footprints.
I'm loving this living room from design guru, Paul Fortune - especially how the bookcases ground the space while providing abundant shelving. (Looking at this, I'm also wishing we could enlarge the casement window on the Southwest elevation of the garage, but that's not a possibility.) The contemporary gilded coffee table is an interesting counterpoint to the distressed leather + linen upholstery, and the combination provides an additional layer of complexity to the design. Well played, Paul Fortune.
And then we have Thomas O'Brien's beautifully appointed, but small, Manhattan apartment. O'Brien is one of my favorite designers - his work is elegant, and he is most coveted for his "warm modernism."
His space is obscene with "stuff," and yet it's still gorgeous. His layered approach to building an interior is something we're going to have to attempt in the garage.
I still think we've lost our heads.
