suzi west: i believe that, evenin a small space, you can have a certain levelof decadence. i'm suzi west, designer,stylist, curator. i own a shop in brooklyncalled collier west. and this is my 200-square footflat in brooklyn, new york. i was working with a brokerin time constraints. supposedly, there was somebodydue to move out in september in the garden space. i came in, took a look at it.
there's a backyard area that'sabout three times the size of the flat itself, and thatseemed like a great opportunity. what i love about thisspace is its warmth. also, there's a particularmood that it brings. and it brings a sense of calm. well, the other thing aboutsmall a space is you have a small dog. my dog's name is tchotchke.
he's a toy schnoodle. so having a petite in thehouse is appropriate. when you're in a one-room flat,there were some choices. you could approach it in-- therewould be a bed in the middle of the room,and it would purely be used for sleeping. i opted to mask that idea,because i like to entertain. i can have people over. it's limited.
there's basically a coffeetable and what appears to be a sofa. i have a piece from the late1800s that's called an amberg patent file. it's an old, handcraftedchest of drawers-- many drawers, maybe 112. and that's where i hidea lot of things. i like books, so that'san easy thing to put on exposed shelving.
i have a kitchen set upwith curated dishes. hanging on the wall of mykitchen is tissue boxes. they were already designed tohang, so it made for sort of instant shelving. i have a sensibility towardsstrong graphic materials. i love signage, particularlyfunny signage with great words on it. because i didn't have theceiling height to bring in a chandelier, i opted for reallyopulent sconces.
i have a really strong senseof capacity and what you do with your clothing. on uline, they have theseamazing bins. and so i designed a systemwhere i'd just hang the absolute extremes-- outerwear and dresses-- and everything else goes in somesort of bin or a shelve department. i want to continueto downsize.
you can break a lot of what usedto be standard rules of design by using a littlecompression and a little creativity. living small has been reallyinstrumental in what i do and being productive. for a lot of people, it's reallytight, but it's given me a lot of freedom and a lotof liberty, and i recommend it, in general, for people thatreally want to free up even your mind--
the time you spend searchingfor keys or your passport. an average clean in a smallspace might be a couple hours, versus an entire saturday. and so there's a lot ofmerit in doing it. it requires some discipline. but if it's for you, it's areally ideal way to live. female speaker: are you asocial media darling? do you like to hang out onfacebook, twitter, pinterest, or even tumblr?
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