Small Space Study #3 Clandestine Barn

 Interior Design and Rendering by Michelle Morelan

Could you live in 750 square feet? This barn has a great space downstairs with a roomy entry, and studio/office space with double carriage doors which doubles it’s square footage. It features a double height stone wall and fireplace, and gourmet Wolf range included in a full cook’s kitchen. One change has been made…by code, I would think a set of doors off the LR area to the deck and stairs for egress is necessary. Living in the treetops, gourmet meals and natural iconic chairs which reference nature are all parts of the formula for living.

The barn serves double duty, where the bottom floor with stone fireplace can double as celebration space; clean off the painting table, and set a rustic scene for a meal in the painting studio in either season. In summer, you open the carriage doors, line the long table with flowers from the garden, and in winter you light the fire and scatter pumpkins about. Curtains on k-track from the beams on both floors keep the open feeling, but give you a privacy option.

A large part of the budget would be allocated is the post and beam construction, stone wall and FP. I also picture accordion doors like NanaWall in the LR, and of course, that Wolf range.

More to come on this one…it’s a great way to see it before you build it, and ask the question…could I live in a small space? For this couple, planning on travelling part of the year, looking for privacy, who are downsizing, need a painting studio, and run a home based design business, I think so.

the original plan – http://www.backroadhomes.com/tccastine.html

Lily’s Pad

need help with your small space?

Interior Design, Renderings, Original Art, www.michellemorelandesign.com

Blue on Blue…an e-design in Surrey

Cookie cutter condos don’t have to be boring…we are building the wall up between the kitchen, and infusing this Surrey condo in blue linen, velvets and prints. White stitching on the custom sofa, and tufted panels on the wall create a tactile, layered night time palette, when the client is mostly home. The sconces and pots are all on dimmers, and the banquette and round pedestal table with a curvy bench offers versatility in a small space.

e-design by Michelle Morelan Design, cost of this project: $1395. (includes rendering, floor plan, relevant elevations, shopping list and installation notes).

 

Best, Michelle

little cabins

I have been thinking about little cabins recently. Tiny little spaces to retreat to for one reason or another. A vacation...a hut on your property only you know about; one where your taste alone is rendered.

At school we played with how much space you need to live; not only for the functions, but the psychological needs as well. I have been in a few very large homes, and am always amazed at the spaces people use to watch TV, and cozy up with loved ones. You know the space, one where you feel wrapped in comfort, where the scale and proportion makes you feel just right.

The creative director of Pottery Barn once featured a room in her house she called the five to seven room on House Beautiful TV a few years back...it was a large king bed tucked tightly into a small little sun room; it was filled with down pillows. She called it the five to seven room because those were the hours her young family used the space. There was a TV on the wall directly accross from this little nest of down goodness.

The little red caboose near my Aunt Glenna's in Cape Breton...taken last summer on my first visit back in 20 years!

My Aunt Glenna's cabin in Cape Breton

I have always loved small spaces. When I was a kid, my Aunt Glenna had a cabin at Bra'Dor lakes in the middle of Cape Breton, and there was a red caboose nearby; one afternoon her neighbour gave us a tour of it. I think that perfectly decorated little summer home is one of the reasons I am an Interior Designer today.

A friend of mine from school and I have dreamed of designing little cabins on a beautiful piece of land on the west coast of Vancouver Island, so I am always doing little sketches, trying to utilize just enough space, then setting them in a forest, along a river, by the ocean or on pilings along the tide line. My thought is that these small spaces are actually desirable to others as well.

Above: sketch by Michelle Morelan, BID

Above: a vacation home on Cortez Island, BC - Coastal Living

You can rent this home...

These next few adorable cabins are from the back of Inspired House; a writers space, a lounging get-away space and a bakers escape! I like the single use of these cabins... an imagined getaway in the woods...like you are up to something oh so secret. I bet there are no phone lines!

The books pictured have some great ideas for small cabins...check them out!