12 Tiny Living Rooms or Positively Primeval Design

My living room is 20' x 10'. Long and narrow. And the entry just opens right into it. No mud room, no partition, just "Hello, welcome to my mess!" So whatever I decide to do in there needs to be immediately impressive. And also covered in plastic and screwed down due to capricious children.

And, as ushe, most inspirations are for, like, double living rooms with enormous pointy coffee tables and seven sofas. So here's some of what I found...

Shelves and rattan! Stripes and yellow!

This is sort of what my entry problem is. Except I have a bit more room...for all the legos and food wrappers that collect. (Seriously, what is up with the food wrappers everywhere? Is it just my kids? They open them, toss the wrapper in the air, and then eat the food. Do they think my rug composts mylar wrappers? PS that is a great idea...composting living room rugs for food wrappers and loose Cheerios. Patent pending.).

Modern and functional. Masculine and feminine. Love.

This room is right up my alley. Except for the antlers. I'm over the animal heads. They are so everywhere. And serve no purpose except to say, "Yeah, I read Better Homes and Gardens and wear a fedora, you?" At least they also have a cowhide rug. And a fur blanket on the sofa.

White and cottage-ie. I can't say no to that. Unfortunately, my husband can.

Ooooh...tiny sofa, Lack table, tiny desk...it makes it look like I can actually get work done! And the turquoise rug...delicious.

Simple, bright, sheepskin, giraffe.

This one cheats a little in that it's a vignette in a giant room with high ceilings...but neutral and orange always make me happy.

To make up for that, here is an actual tiny space. I love these. They remind me of my dream of having my own Marie Antoinette inspired house. For escaping all the manliness that surrounds me...sometimes, it's like living with three Gaston's...

More fur. What are we Vikings?! How cold is it, really? Aside from that, I love the dark gray and the ceilings. And the built-ins for the TV. I just realized that none of the other rooms have TVs. Maybe they are all Vikings. But, if I were a Viking, which I technically am, I think I might watch that TV show Vikings. Mostly to scoff at the stuff they get wrong. And from where could I watch it? The internets, I guess...

Annnnd finally, this pretty space. Pale blue and neutral with lucite so it doesn't look full of furniture. Again, no TV, so how is one supposed to "relax?" I guess I could just read books. About Vikings.

All photos are available on my Tiny Space Design board on Pinterest.

Outdoor Kitchens and Reality TV

I finally got home early one day. It was five o'clock and that meant I would get to watch my favorite show, The People's Court. Since I started working again, I've missed getting my half-assed TV law degree, unaccredited, of course, and wanted to see if there were any new precedents I was missing. So I watched the show, keep your dog on a leash, verbal agreements count, and don't sell a car to a minor, and then after did what most lazy people do, I stayed in bed and channel surfed. I haven't watched live TV in awhile so I was just looking to see if I was missing out. I found something called "Unusually Thicke" starring Alan Thicke and the rest of his guh-ross clan. It was so off-putting, it gave me PTSD's. Why is he so mean to his wife? You can tell even she is like, "Wait-what?!" I watched, like, five minutes and then flipped over to anything else. Which happened to be HGTV. HGTV and The Food Network both have a tendency to lull me into complacency. Their programming is so benign, I can sit and stare and not move for hours. And that is how I ended up watching House Hunters International: Nicaragua.

Thanks to Rick Bayless's brilliant show, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, I have decided to retire in Baja California, Mexico. Because gorgeous. But if you have a show with ANY Latin American country, I stop and watch like I'm gettin' paid. And here's the thing I love about Nicaragua, and more specifically Granada, they have outdoor kitchens and it's the norm! Like no one said, in a whiney American accent, "Ugh, why is the kitchen outside?!" She was all, yep, gorgeous, love the space. And I was all, Nicaragua, ehhh?

The pic above and the one below are from homes in Nicaragua. I think I found them on home rental sites. It was hard to find photos of real outdoor kitchens, mostly I found new builds, which are way boring.

Also, that episode inspired me to work on designing my outdoor kitchen. We have no air conditioning in our kitchen and in the summer it's silly to turn on the oven to heat up a pizza for 12 minutes.

Finding smaller, interesting kitchens was hard. Most of them were giant stone monstrosities with the same square footage as my house. I like this one because of the warm wood that was used.

Another tiny one with brick and a fireplace. I will always be attracted to the ones with the string lights.

Traditional Patio by Englewood Architects & Designers Godden Sudik Architects Inc

A small cement grill area with pergola. Simple and small enough for my yard.

Traditional Patio by Novato Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Derviss Design

More wood! And a tiny deck. And string lights!

Contemporary Deck by Brooklyn Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers New Eco Landscapes

This one was very much my style. Lots of color and found furniture and materials.

Modern Patio by Other Metro Photographers Marco Antunio

This outdoor kitchen is stunning! I almost didn't post it because it's quite large and requires an architects eye. But the kitchen is actually small and the mirror above the prep area is genius!

Contemporary Patio by San Francisco Architects & Designers SB Architects

So here's where we veer off course. This kitchen is so lovely, but waaaaay out of my budget. The sliding window and door would probably not be cheap. But its so incredibly creative and bright!

Contemporary Porch by Sydney Architects & Designers Danny Broe Architect

Aaaaand we're back! Purple wabi-sabi house with a tiny kitchen. This would make me so happy!

This outdoor kitchen is actually pretty close to what I want. Grill, sink, pizza oven and all in a small amount of space. And who wouldn't want that bright yellow oven?!

This one is so simple and chic, I am in love!

Another space with the sliding doors. But how amazing would that be?! To wake up on a Sunday morning and open the doors and make pancakes?!

I think this outdoor kitchen is in Spain. But I also think it's from a rental. So it's inspiring both design and travel-wise! Also, I love white appliances.

Here's another little guy, no cooking surface, but still, lovely and small and adds a lot of fancy to a backyard.

Now, one more, before I go. More sliding doors, but is that a hot tub? I love the color scheme in this one, wood and black and white, and the tiny pool. I would love something like that, small and kind of shallow for my boys to play in.

I think searching for all these pretty spaces has nearly wiped my memory of any type of gross reality show that may have tried to infiltrate my brain. And, hopefully, moving to Nicaragua will keep them away from me forever!

Pics are either from Houzz and clickable or on my Outdoor pinboard on Pinterest.