The First Apartment Book: Cool Design for Small Spaces

by Kyle Schuneman, Heather Summerville, Joe Schmelzer (Photographer)

Star designer Kyle Schuneman offers bold ideas for achieving big style in small spaces—on any budget.

A first apartment allows you to finally do what you want with your own space, but it can be tricky to decorate. Luckily, twenty-seven-year-old decorating prodigy Kyle Schuneman knows that a paper-thin wallet and four plain walls don’t have to stand in your way, and the ten amazing, real apartments in this book show it.

From coast to coast, these fabulous first homes are the perfect balance between cool design and comfort, and they offer plenty of practical ideas for making your apartment feel open, organized, and inviting. Examples

■ Multifunctional studios
■ A loft that was sectioned into livable areas
■ Cookie-cutter apartments with one-of-a-kind personality
■ Shared spaces that accommodate different decorating tastes
■ Fantastic examples of how to display collections, hide unsightly stuff, and manage picky landlords

Kyle’s creative solutions reveal how you can make your space feel much larger than it really is—and how it can reflect your passions, your travels, and your location. He will inspire you to use your surroundings for decorating ideas (think taxi-cab-yellow accents in New York or graffiti-like dip-dye curtains in Seattle). Short on time and long on style, the thirty DIY projects here include no-sew pillows and a dresser update using a little glue and decorative paper.

Full of bold, vibrant photos, an extensive resource section, and hundreds of big ideas for small spaces, this book proves that there are no limits on how spacious and how cool your first apartment can feel.

Genres: Nonfiction, Interior Design, Design, Architecture, Self Help, Art, Coffee Table Books

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2012

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good decoration ideas, some lousy ones as well. I've been looking for some inspiration as I declutter, and this gave me some ideas. I liked the explanations of the individual needs of each client and the solutions, but I agree with other reviews. This needs more photos!

[Zahava · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of the few design books I've come across so far that focus specifically on apartments and the issues that come with designing one, limited space, issues with landlord rules and so on. It had a lot of great pictures and was formatted in a way as to showcase different design aesthetics and different types of apartments styles from a bohemian attic to a rocker loft.

There are even instructionals for some of the DIY projects that were showcased in the apartments. I will say some of the solutions will be unattainable if you can't paint or put holes in the walls but still, this is great for someone struggling to figure out how to decorate an apartment with a limited budget. A good read for sure.

[Kyrie Ele · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping that there would be more pictures than provided. And while there are pictures in the book it often just shows one angle of a room or a particular project, not how it looked before and how the whole room or apartment is tied together I steady there are a lot of descriptive ways to maximize space and how to decorate for that small space. It in and of itself isn't a bad resource to have on hand but it doesn't give much... Illumination into the transformation of the rooms. But maybe that wasn't the author's intention anyway.

[Hardly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool apartments. Not many concept that I would use. But the how-to pages are so cool! I like a book that shows you a design and the walks you through how to do it yourself. Makes the book so much more interesting.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ingenious

[Tiff Gibbo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly shocked to be writing I disliked this book, I was so excited to purchase it. I've been looking for ways to decorate my living space now that I actually have some disposable income to do it. However, even though I flicked through every single page, not one idea intrigued me. I have fairly broad taste that doesn't fall into any pedantic idea of what a space should look like, and I often flit from sensibility to sensibility design wise. Even with this considered, I found almost every craft idea posed to be tacky, time-consuming and wasteful. The only one I attempted was the yarn frames and they looked really stupid and out of place after I finished. I didn't even hang them. It was like the entire book was filler and there was no point. I'm sorry to say, but I really can't recommend this book to anybody.

[Lotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

great balance of practical solutions and wildly creative ideas for small spaces. while it's been a long time since i had my first apartment, it's the first time in a long time i've been in a small apartment. i'd been struggling to figure out how to decorate in ways that would give me some privacy, storage, organization, all in an environment that was welcoming and renewed me while i'm away from the world. the book is divided into chapters according to the person(s) and place and how he's designed and executed for this particular person, this particular place. i found something useful in each chapter, something affordable in each chapter, something novel and beautifully creative in each chapter. this has been the best of what i think of as the Small Decoration Movement.

[Ryan Burdick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best small space design book since Apartment Theory's Big Book of Small Spaces.

They keep each "back story" of the home owner to 1 page, supply excellent descriptions of what interior design principles to use, have step by step instructions on design projects, and have a beautiful variety of places.

If you like small space living, look no further. This book has everything you need.

[Samuel Kordik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some great ideas and good advice, but was light on substance. It is somewhat comparable to Apartment Therapy's two books in the same decorating space, but those books have far more advice and ideas than this book. Nonetheless, Kyle seems to be a talented designer and maybe we'll see more books from him in the future.

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has some great ideas to spruce up a tiny apartment on a budget, granted I would never do a majority of them it was neat reading the process of how Kyle helped people decorate in a tiny space and make it unique unto them, even if land-lords refused to let him paint. I also love reading that an interior designer has the same obsession with chalk board paint as I do.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge thumbs up. Apartments present real restrictions: small layouts, not being able to paint everywhere and sometimes not at all, no remodeling (because you aren't the owner), and small budgets. I was very pleasantly surprised by the realism and sticking to budgets! Discussions of how furniture was arranged to maximize features and space was very thorough.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Checked this out on a whim because of the colors on the cover. Great step-by-step DIY projects and list of resources in the back. I liked how many styles were represented. I plan to try out a few of these ideas after moving to the Twin Cities.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Great ideas!

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Enough. Pretty Pictures. Wish it had more depth though.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very cool ideas here. I'm not sure how many I could pull off, but at least it's got me thinking.

[Melanie Chatten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book - each chapter is based on a person's apartment under 800 sq ft who has a specific style, even has how-to's

[Fiona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sounds great in theory.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some clever decorating concepts pulled together in themes. A bit site specific.

[Romany · Rating 4 out of 5]

My issue with this book was the patchy photography. I never got a holistic sense of the interior design. Just bits and pieces. Some of the ideas were nifty though.

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the ideas in this book were super cute and awesome and I can't wait until I move off campus in the fall so that I can try them out for myself

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Skimmed for inspiration, but mostly I didn't like the designs or the suggestions weren't practical given my landlord's restrictions. Not for me.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, so many creative ideas!
I wish I had this unique sense of style and coolness when decorating, as well as the courage to experiment with bold ideas, colors, and diy projects.