How I got another room.
Could you fit your life into a space equivalent to four parking stalls, let alone live in it? Well, Laura Creswell did. Upon moving back to Edmonton after earning her Civil Engineering Degree, Laura wanted to find a home downtown. It had to meet her needs – the ability to cook and entertain, a place to house her passion for clothes & shoes and allow for a home office.
On the surface, this seemed easy. She didn’t want to allocate 50% of her income to housing, no roommates to offset the mortgage and didn’t want the cost of maintaining a typical two-bedroom condo.
That’s when she set out to find “the tiniest place in the city,” her realtor (and her mother) thought she was crazy. “I love the creativity that a small space provides, not to mention the obvious economic aspects of living tiny,” says Creswell.
Last September, after looking at over 40 tiny properties, she walked into an “empty shoebox” of a condo in Crestview Tower in Oliver and instantly felt at home. She had found her place. The bachelor pad was 335 square feet, the size of two parking stalls, but provided a blank canvas to design and create the home she wanted.
That was the easy part. Now everything needed a place. Always interested in creating space that maximizes its utility, Laura started to research tiny homes, watching many YouTube videos on how small spaces can be best utilized. The one item that stood out was the Murphy Bed. It makes space versatile and unique.
Laura needed storage and utility. She looked at a lot of options. One of those was not being forced to become a minimalist. This led her to find Wallbeds-etc, a locally owned and operated small business. Then she set up an appointment with Lyle Morley, President, at the Wallbeds-etc showroom. Both Lyle and his wife Zina provided a trusting, professional experience.
Wallbeds-etc listened to Laura, her challenges, her needs, and the home she sought to create. Lyle’s many years of design experience in creating space solutions for homes included kitchens, bathrooms, closets, and entertainment areas, He then proceeded to come up with solutions on how to maximize space more effectively.
It started with a Wallbed, and then designed storage utility around it. Next, Lyle incorporated a couch in front of the bed. This provided a communal living area. Then came the custom pop-down dining table for entertaining, followed by the pop-up desk that met the need for the home office.
Other functional items included utilizing the gap beneath her pantry for hidden “junk trays” that appear at the pull of a tab. A mystery door at the bottom of the Wallbed stores the couch cushions that are displaced when the bed is lowered from the wall. A window seat creates an inviting spot to curl up on with an unobstructed view of the High-Level Bridge. “A lot of people call me a minimalist, which I am totally not,” says Creswell, pulling back a curtain to reveal a closet over-flowing with colour-coordinated clothes. The apartment is immaculately organized, even her stools have a wall mount.
“I can make my condo a movie theatre for 10, a yoga studio for 4, a breakfast bar with a view and a dining room for six,” says Creswell. Laura says that it’s a system of organization, allowing to build a lot of storage & utility into 335 square feet. What she created was a small space to invent, not sacrifice lifestyle.
Wallbeds-etc is a partner from beginning to end, and then some. From design, manufacturing, installation, and ongoing customer service, they are there every step of the way.
“What is so rewarding is to accomplish your clients’ needs with such tight restrictions, anyone can fill up walls with cabinets but it takes experience design and listening to work with small spaces”, said Lyle.
Laura said, “got another room”, which exceeded her expectations. Friends often ask when she’s moving out as if her home were a short-term experiment. But Creswell believes that this is the future of housing. Smaller spaces, she says, encourage tenants to explore the outside environment— to reside in their community as much as in their homes.