Affordable and Space Saving Decorating Ideas for Your New York Apartment

December 26th, 2009

Apartments in New York are famous for being ridiculously tiny. Studio apartments are sometimes barely able to contain a twin bed, never mind any other sort of furniture or appliances. Apartments in New York are also famous for being ridiculously expensive! Some New Yorkers have to work two jobs: one job to pay for their rent, the second to pay for everything else. Thankfully, with a little creativity you can decorate your New York apartment very cheaply. With a little bit more creativity you can fit a whole house worth of furniture and decorations into an apartment the size of a toddler’s shoe box. Anybody can go to IKEA and copy one of their floor plan designs. Anybody can copy the decorating page out of a magazine or the style section. These are not tips that you will find on any “fancy” website but they will save you space and money. 1. Get a loft bed. Loft beds can usually be purchased relatively cheaply in New York. You can also construct a loft bed from some tall and sturdy bookcases and an old door. Bolt the bookcases to the floor and then bolt the door over the top of the bookcases. Place your mattress on top of the door. Instant loft bed with plenty of room underneath! If you construct your own loft bed make sure that everything is steady enough to remain standing in the event that you toss and turn in your sleep. 2. Shelving can be constructed by finding old industrial strength milk crates behind New York restaurants and shops and stacking them on top of each other. Purchase some pretty colored spray paint and use the paint to make the otherwise ugly milk crates pretty. These “shelving units” can be used for books, knick knacks, clothing, whatever. 3. You know those huge wooden spools that cable gets rolled onto? If you can find one of those, you have a great table. It’s a little on the short side, but if you stack it on a couple of risers, you should be able to elevate it to a normal table height without problems. Again, you can paint it or, if you don’t feel like painting, simply cover it in a nice piece of fabric and it will look fine!4. Use a trunk as a coffee table and use it to house blankets and pillows or old books and magazines. 5. To save space in the kitchen use pretty hooks (can be found for pennies in New York’s second hand shops) to hang your pots and pans on the wall. This will free up your cabinets for food or whatever else you need to store. Plus, hanging the pots and pans gives your kitchen wall a great, three dimensional arty look!6. Use an old dresser as a television stand and then store your DVDs in the drawers! Put the DVD player, video game consoles, VCR, etc. on a small bookshelf that sits next to the television set. You’ll be surprised at all of the ideas you get as you get into decorating your New York home!For more information on home decorating ideas, visit http://www. nycmicroblog. com and http://www. microblognewyork. com.