For me, a big part of the joy of living small is working out how to make the space work with what I have, or have found over the years. I think it would be much harder starting with the furniture and building the house to fit, though my dad has an architect friend who did just that for him.

The hardest part in my space is the door layout. I have way too many doors opening off the kitchen which makes nearly 1/3 of the kitchen floor plan devoted to traffic patterns.

I would add a larger dormer in the attic space. When I remodeled we got to replace a skylight with a dormer, about 4 1/2 feet wide. To go the 10 feet I'd have liked would have required much more in the way of permits and then I'd have run into issues like having to raise the roof to make the attic 'tall' enough for code. It's plenty tall enough for 5' me as it is.

I'd pick up my house and rotate it 90 degrees to get the afternoon sun out of the kitchen and shift it back away from the street a bit more.

I would have to agree that it's not so much a question of the actual numbers as how the space is laid out. I live in a townhouse development that was built in two phases because after building a few buildings the developer took the cash and ran off to South America, so the bank stepped in and finished the rest of it.

There's only 50sf of difference in size between a Phase I townhouse and one in Phase II, but a world of difference in how well the space is used. I moved to a unit in Phase II from a medium-sized one bedroom apt and I was really distressed to find how hard it was to find a place to put all my stuff. And that was going from 600sf to 1050 sf. Then eventually I moved to phase I. I only gained 50 sf on paper but my house feels enormously larger.

Since we do have a manufactured home and it is 1375 SQ FT it is not really considered tiny. Master bedroom is 14 by 12 1/2 and I LOVE it being large yet I know some of us here like a smaller bedroom. Even being alone here I some times sit at the little table in the bedroom and drink my coffee and enjoy the sun coming in the bedroom window.

The now guest room is 13 by 10 plus the closet. Not counting that in the measurement because it actually sticks into the room. But the closet is open to the room as I do not hang stuff in it except my ironing as I am doing it.

Living room is too long and narrow at 19 by 12 1/2. Using as I am now with my studio work table in one end shortens the room and now I really like the squared off cozy feel of it.

My old guest room now my over flow studio is 9 by 13 and it is really too narrow but works well for my over flow studio because my wall shelves holding all my supplies are narrow and just lined up along the walls. It would be a little tight in there for a studio room if my work table also had to be in there. LOVING my work table in the living room.

Kitchen is just a regular square space at 11 by 12 1/2 and dinning room is also 11 by 12 1/2. The two spaces divided by a peninsula. Now Joe is gone I do not do much cooking the kitchen is way more than I need. Lots of cupboards and counter space. Kitchen has a small corner walk in or step in pantry which is nice.

Master bath is 12 1/2 by 8 1/2 and I LOVE it being big and open. There is a large single sink vanity and a walk in shower no tub. My request for no tub.

I really love the house and really can not think of any changes I would make that would not be doing just as you say llucy. Yes the over flow studio is small but it was designed to be a den on the floor plan. No closet in that room by my choice. One could be added at the end but then the room would only by 9 by 10 1/2 foot.

I used to call my house tiny. It started out at 560 sq ft, then I added 150 ft bedroom. And there is an about 80 foot steeply pitched attic loft. Then the tiny and small house definitions came along, so this is how I call them. The last designation actually has a different name which is not polite or pc. I'm alone in my space, A family of five or ten would have very different scales.

<500 feet=tiny

500-1000=little

1000-1500=small

1500-2200=modest

2200-3500=big

3500+=too big

5000+=way too big

I know what you mean about windows and furniture placement. We went through the same thing when looking for a plan and I finally just designed one the way I want it. And still the windows are a problem. I would love to have a wall of windows in the bedroom but that just kills furniture placement.

I'm enjoying reading everyone's responses. :=)

Stringweaver, your description of your kitchen reminds me of my sister's. She has a 115 yr. old house with a long kitchen, 8 ft. wide with 5 doorways leading to mudroom, dining room, sunroom, basement, and a landing that goes to both the living room and the stairs to the second floor. It's not the kind of 'open kitchen' that is so popular these days, but I think it's cool because of the circulation from the kitchen to different rooms. Good for mingling when she hosts the holiday dinners. Since there is limited sitting/standing space in the kitchen itself, people don't tend to "camp out" there, but all the doorways allow for visiting without feeling isolated.

I concur with your size descriptions. The designs I play with are around 1000 sq feet for a 2 bedroom, close to 1200 for a 3 bedroom. I've lived smaller places, but often I wished I could kick back the walls 2 feet in one direction or both. I find myself drawing out rooms that are 12 X 12, 12-14 X 14 -16 for living room. Guess I like squares? I'm good with standard 5 x 8 bathrooms (I hate feeling cold when I get out of the shower in larger bathrooms).

Shades, I get you with the closet open to the bedroom. I have very few clothes that have to hang. Recently I tried the Marie Kondo method of folding clothes and storing them in a dresser. I was amazed that I was able to fit almost every piece of clothing I had hanging in one big 4 drawer dresser.

Closets are great for storing things that one doesn't want to look at, but they also take up valuable square footage and wall space. I like seeing rooms in movies with wardrobes, desks, armoires, vanities, chests and the like. In a future home, I might be tempted to eliminate a standard bedroom closet altogether.

llucy I will have to look into the Marie Kondo method of folding . I do have a dresser in my closet and I am using it for the curtains I switch out winter to summer and a couple extra blankets. I was thinking of taking the curtains out of that area. Not sure where I might go with them. I also have my stack of plastic drawers to hold my T-shirts and underwear, jeans. The plastic drawers work so well to keep all of those things so nicely in order. I have such a love hate relationship with those drawers.

The larger than life master bathroom is that way because it was supposed to have one of those garden tubs. I did not want that. I always wanted a china cabinet in my bathroom holding pretty towels and trinkets on the shelves which I now have. since it is only me I usually leave the bathroom door open and the heater blows warm air right into the door of the bathroom. It has a sensor thing set to sweep. you are so right until we installed that heater it was cold back there.

I too am enjoying this conversation on how we all use or would like to use our spaces.

You can look at some of her methods on You Tube. i read her book. Lots of repetition, but some good points.

I refolded my underwear drawer as well as my sock drawer. It is neater and easier to find what you are looking for.

Our smallest bedroom is probably 11 by 12. I think anything smaller for me becomes too small.

PHEW I spent the afternoon re-doing my clothes. Not totally done yet but very close. Even fixed the uneven heights to the drawers. Thanks llucy for the spur to get me going on this. Now maybe I can really do and finish the rest of the house. 2 bags of clothes to donate and one bag of purses/wallets.

I haven't read Marie Kondo's books, but I frequently saw them mentioned and her methods praised on organizing blogs/websites. It was seeing a pic of someone's neatly organized drawer that prompted me to try the folding technique myself. I like being able to see all my outfits and once and have whole new love for my old dresser now. I'm currently keeping a look out at thrift stores for baskets that would fit under the dresser to store shoes.