This place is an absolute dream for those hipster types and those that love the ‘Shabby Chic’ and up cycling couture. Finding the beauty in vintage items and places can be an easy thing to do. When you look into the past, and marry that with modern technology and updated style, you create a new style with ever-expanding popularity and class. You don’t even have to brag about your environmentally conscientious nature; you can let your surroundings and your interior decorating expertise do the talking for you. Making the most of a limited small space has really become something of an art form. The person that bought this 387 square foot property had a need to maximize their space on a limited budget and the pictures below illustrate that they were able to accomplish this feat with a great sense of mastery.
The apartment was used as a furniture storage room for 30 years, and then in the 1980s it was partially renovated, but due to unforeseen circumstances the apartment was left untouched since then.
The listing for the property shows an interior that needs a lot of work.
A plan was devised, complete with a raised bedroom with a large closet space underneath.
Here is a side representation of the plan for the entire apartment.
The side view of the entire bathroom area.
Before and after shot of the kitchen area. It is amazing that they were able to envision something so bland and cold turning into something so warm, inviting, and modern.
The clutter indicates that the construction is done and it’s finally time to move things in.
The apartment looks magnificent. It was such a great idea to raise the bedroom to maximize the limited space that they had.
Bathroom and front door entrances. The cork board door to the bathroom opens revealing a large mirror on the other side. Mirrors have long been used in interior design and decorating to create an illusion of extra space in smaller areas. This is really a genius way to open up the bathroom and entryway.
The cork board bathroom door.
With the bathroom door being right next to the front door, the cork board makes a great place to hang notes or pin mail, photos, or whatever else you would like on a display wall.
View of the entry way from the bathroom area.
Here the camera was set up on a tripod to capture the same angle with the mirrored bathroom door closed.
From the shower, the left door leads to the entry way, while the right door leads to the living room.
View of the shower from the front room area.
You can see that the walls of the living room/ dining room area were left to appear quite rustic and shabby.
From the entry way, the apartment is very interesting.
The floors have a rustic, yet refined quality. As you pan from left to right, you go from a chic, refined, very finished side room to a very shabby and rustic surrounding.
With a hard-line and a decorative touch, this apartment beautifully transforms from chic to rustic.
What a brilliant and elegant way to tie the contrasting style into one another.
The kitchen area also has hints of both the rustic and elegant design principles.
This photo shows the apartment as a work in progress.
If you look closely, you can see the mirror on the far left adding the illusion of extra depth to this tiny apartment.
The elevated bed looks quite cozy.
The glass wall allows a clear view to the window and helps to maximize the incoming light, adding to the warmth and comfort of the apartment.
Pull down shades were also installed to allow a certain level of privacy in the otherwise exposed bedroom area.
The finished bedroom and kitchen area really came together very nicely.
This shabby chic transformation really turned into one of the nicer studio apartments that I have seen.
This fascinating balance of old and new can most easily be described by saying that it has a particularly gritty, rustic elegance.
A lot of thought and skill, as well as a very clear vision, came into play in this amazing renovation. This tiny, seemingly dilapidated room in Sweden was brilliantly transformed into a fantastic example of shabby chic ingenuity and design. I hope you are as impressed with the final result as I am.