Room Remix

It’s no secret that space in New York is minimal. If you’re going to live in this city you have to come to terms with the fact that you will pay at least twice as much for half the amount of space in most likely a building that has survived through both of the World Wars. That is unless you win the lottery or are making the big bucks on wall street. For the most of us though this is the reality. It’s not such a bad thing though, especially when you weigh all of the pros of living in this city! 

The old saying does say, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” I don’t think there could be a statement any closer to the truth. So, if I can survive a couple of years in my very small Manhattan bedroom and apartment I will never take space and storage for granted again!

That being said, I’ve been in a little funk with my bedroom lately. My room is about 8x10 and holds my full sized bed, a dresser, side table, and chair which doesn’t leave much room to reorganize. I’ve had my bed flush against the corner of my bedroom next to my closet for the duration of time I’ve lived here. My one really big pet peeve about my room (beside the size) is that I hardly get any natural light in my room. My room is basically a cave. Along with being short on space for apartments in the city you will also see very strange things I’m convinced only exist in this city. 

Here are a couple of examples:

1.) Convertible bedrooms: Looking at apartments that say 1 bdr/convertible 2? Well, those are apartments that were originally made into a one bedroom or maybe two bedroom that you can “rent,” yes rent a wall to convert it into a larger apartment. 

2.) Bedrooms without windows: Wondering why it is a necessary bullet point to add that an apartment has a window? Because in this city it’s not uncommon to have bedrooms that don’t have windows! I think this is somewhat illegal, but I don’t think it is heavily enforced. 

3.) Railroad apartments: These are apartments that are similar to railroad cars. For example, you could walk into an apartment into one bedroom and you would have to walk through that bedroom to get into the kitchen, then into the bathroom, and another bedroom. It doesn’t make for a pleasant living experience if your roommate is going in and out of your room at all hours of the day!

While we were lucky enough to escape these crazy ways of New York living I kind of got the short end of the stick with my bedroom. I do have a window, but unfortunately my window looks right into another building in an alleyway about 6 feet wide. This makes it extremely difficult to get any natural sunlight in my room. Since living here I’ve found I really thrive off of natural sunlight in the morning to get my day going. So far, having my bed in the corner of my room hasn’t been helping the circumstances any and I decided I needed a little room remix. Again, there’s not a ton I could do to try and switch it up, but I wasn’t going to let that deter me! Normally I’m not really a fan of having beds right in front of the window either, but if there was any chance of me getting a little natural light in my room in the morning that was exactly what I was going to have to do. And so, that is exactly what I did! With a little moving of my furniture around I ended up with a final product I’m content with and a little bit of natural sunlight into my room. It’s not a lot, but I’m content with the final product. 

Here’s a peak! I also felt a little inspired after our museum trips and bought some canvas to paint a couple paintings above my bed. So you can check those out too!