Tour a tiny loft with an elevated bed

After April’s Offbeat Retreat copyeditor Caroline and I stayed a couple extra days in Seattle to tool around the city. We schemed to stay together, and decided to book this tiny artist loft keen readers might have read about in a Clicky Link a few months ago. It sounded tiny, we didn’t know a ton about the part of town it was in, but we decided to take our chances in order to stay in an unusual space — for cheap!

GUYS. This place was amazing. I want to show it to you.

This loft is just 200ft2/19m2 — and, granted, has a communal kitchen and bathroom — but holy cow is it an airy space. These photos don’t exaggerate the space the room seems to have! The room is simple, but put together enough to really make the case for small, multi-functional living spaces. Caroline worked at the desk, I napped in the loft, we unpacked and repacked and didn’t feel a bit crowded in.

The owners of the building — full of artists’ working studio spaces — renovated two units into year-round AirBNB rentals. The rooms also kind of make the case for the awesomeness of IKEA simplicity.

But the loft is the COOLEST part. Specially built for these rooms, the lofted bed is accessed via ladder. Sleeping under a skylight in your own little nest is super cozy, y’all. I want my own lofted bed!

What a super cool minimalist space. It definitely gave me ideas to bring back to my own home.

• Stand-alone closets are awesome. At the very left corner of the top photo you can see the space’s closet. It’s not a built-in, but it has a full-front mirror and provides important storage space. AND! It makes several more spaces in which you can stash things — between the closet and the wall, between the closet and the couch. Man, now I’m looking for a locker-style storage addition for each room.

• Create multiple light sources. This room had two floor lamps, two sets of track lights, and a big skylight. Being able to switch up the lights makes it easy to create different “modes” for the small space. Work mode! TV mode! Sleep time!

• RUGS ROCK. I mean, duh. But this room’s little area rug IS what makes the living area work as a separate area. I can think of a way to use a rug in every room in my house.

• Lofting can be crazy effective. The loft bed made it feel like two completely separate rooms — not just a room with a bed near the ceiling.

Heading to the Northwest? You can book this room and check out a 200 square foot living space for yourself!