My main priority when designing and setting up this apartment was making sure I was able to separate the living areas in the apartment. I was so against moving into a studio at first because I did not want my bed in the same location as my kitchen and living area. Then I started thinking about loft-beds. There were none that I could find to purchase that I liked, so I decided to build one myself. Then came the unique problem of getting up to the bed, so I decided to make a Japanese step chest. That solved most of my problems. Lifting the bed in the air gave me the room to lots of open floor space, a separate dining area, tv watching area, a little office, and even a little reading corner.

I used google sketch-up before hand to plan everything down to the inch so that there would be no deciding or re-arranging once I moved in. I had a plan, and everything had a spot.

After all is said and done, my little 400 sq-ft apartment doesn’t feel like a tiny studio apartment, and I love everything about it. There’s even room on the floor for a double bed, if the need arises to pull out my air mattress. Living in it is super easy, even for two people if I have visitors or house guests.

So without further adieu, here’s #215.

It will be across from the television and adjacent to the main seating area in my apartment so it can also double as a seat if need be.

I began construction today, getting all the wood (5/8″ spruce plywood) cut and then assembling this evening. I’ll be staining it in a few days, but probably leaving the inside raw plywood because I think it looks cool. Once at the apartment, the individual boxes will be screwed together for added stability. Total cost is probably around $100 with hardware.

Here are some post-assembly pictures.