SPEAKER_00: 0:10

If you are planning to build something small but not sure where to start, this is the episode for you. We are going to cover seven tips on how to maximize your interior space. Hello, Micah.

SPEAKER_01: 0:22

Hello, hello. That you've done a merger of our two brainstormed names for this episode. Awesome. I like it.

SPEAKER_00: 0:29

I like to think quick on my feet. I'm very good at it.

SPEAKER_01: 0:32

You are.

SPEAKER_00: 0:33

Awesome, Micah. So you've got some tips for me today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:35

Yeah. I'll just start really, really briefly. You might have heard a couple of podcasts on subdivisions and like, so yeah, I guess one of my real focuses is like the really small, tight subdivision where you're like, oh, what am I going to do on this tiny little bit of land? Or can I even do something? And what kind of flows on from that is, well, what do I actually need? How much space do I need? Do I need 150 square meters? I mean, some people do, but you know, quite often we don't. And you can actually really maximize small footprints, uh, tight spaces.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

Um we're not even talking about the cleaning. Cleaning a smaller house is much better than cleaning a bigger house.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16

We've got 60 squares, run round about 20 on each level, and you know, the little Dyson vacuum cleaner, it is such a breeze. So yeah, I don't know what it's like when um people have the mega houses.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28

Are you looking at me? I'm looking at you. Takes hours and hours, I'll tell you. I miss my I miss my smaller houses, that's for sure. All right, tip number one.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38

So, tip number one, design with purpose and do you really need all that space? So, yeah, so do you need that space? Like so having a really clear list of what you want, but then going, well, hang on a sec, how many times a week do I do this activity? Or do I do I need a specialist music room? Do I need do I need that guest bedroom suite all of the time? And then thinking about that in terms of a flexible space. So, quick example. Our whole downstairs is our undefined flexible space that does three functions. It is a hair salon five days a week for my partner. So he receives clients there, he's got his basin, he's got does colours, does everything there, and so that's its primary function during work hours. In the evening time, we close it off with some curtains and we've got a yoga space. We've also got a piano in the corner for music, we've got some gym rings, and so this it takes on a different life in the evening. And and then if we have friends coming over, we do a bit of a rejig, we shut off a corner with some curtains again, and we've got a guest bedroom. And so, yeah, we've got three functions in one tiny space, and yeah, that is a really great way of reducing your square meter edge.

SPEAKER_00: 3:04

I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 3:05

Tip number two millimeters count and built-in furniture. So, built-in furniture. I mean, everyone knows about built-in furniture if they're watching like tiny home episodes and stuff like that. That's no sort of you know, brilliant like thing I'm gonna say, but it really works. And so, yeah, good design, really maximizing these, you know, like you lose 100 millimeters there, 100 millimeters here. I mean, that's actually quite a bit of space in a small space to use that you can use properly. And so I like a day bed because a day bed, you know, it's built in, it's hard up against the wall. You need less space than standard chairs or couches, and it's a couch for two or three people some of the time. It's a great place to have a nap some of the time. You've got storage underneath it, and when you pull out the dining table, you've got dining seating there as well, all out of this one compact bit of furniture that takes up less space compared to a couch, where you know you're losing space at the front, you're losing it at the back, they're big and bulky. So that's just an example of like, yeah, millimeters counting and using your furniture correctly.

SPEAKER_00: 4:14

Love it. Tip number three.

SPEAKER_01: 4:16

So let your spell space breathe and reducing doors and thinking about curtains or pocket sliders. So I'm just gonna delve into an example. My bedroom is tiny. So our bedroom, like it's it's just under eight square meters, and most people are sort of going, oh, that's tiny. It's also got a really low stud height. I'm just gonna rewind. In the previous subdivision podcast, we talked about how we wanted to like respect the neighbors and stuff, and so we were really squeezing the heist down to make sure I protected everyone's views. And so that played out in the bedroom. It's actually got a really small stud height, and it's a really small space. And so to make it feel bigger, we actually didn't put a door on there. And so, what we've got instead is quite a wide opening, about one and a half meters, and we've got a curtain instead. And so when the curtain is drawn and we're sleeping, it's nice and cozy and luxurious. When the curtain's open, this small seven square meter space, it borrows all the light from outside. The space sort of flows out, and so it doesn't feel pokey anymore. It actually feels like it's just part of a larger space.

SPEAKER_00: 5:21

And so, yeah, I reckon that's quite a and do you have a proper bed there or do you have like just a mattress on the floor?

SPEAKER_01: 5:28

A proper bed, it's quite a low bed, which again helps the space feel bigger. But yeah, no, it's a proper bedroom. And okay, curtains are not perfect for everyone. Like it it works for us because we don't have kids, and I can imagine screaming kids around you want to have a proper door, but maybe a full height pocket slider, for example, is something that can work well where you can open it right up, it slides into the thickness of the door, and you've got the full height so that the space sort of flows out, as opposed to a slightly sort of pokey door that closes everything down.

SPEAKER_00: 5:58

I love those pocket door sliders, they're a great tip. They work well. I've had the few in the bathroom and wardrobes, you know, because then as you said, the the space looks so much better instead of those wide open doors that swing whichever way.

SPEAKER_01: 6:13

And I and I think they actually also work well for living spaces and the like. It gives you that flexibility and they actually disappear and yeah, let the space breathe better.

SPEAKER_00: 6:21

So okay, tip number four.

SPEAKER_01: 6:23

Tip number four. So mirrors. If you use a mirror really nicely, again, full height, they can really expand the space. So in our place, we've got uh a glazed front door and quite a tight entranceway. We have not got the space to do an entry for you or anything like that. So we've got a really tight three square meter space, we've got bikes there, we've got vacuum charging, we've got a credenza for for like random furniture, coats. But to make the space feel bigger, right beside the glazed door, we've got a full height mirror, and the space suddenly feels brighter, lighter, and way larger. And so it's just it's just a feeling thing, but it's just it just works and it makes three square meters feel like six.

SPEAKER_00: 7:07

So you're a wizard. I don't know, Rapid. Tip number five.

SPEAKER_01: 7:13

Five. You had to do a quick count. So windows that work. So everyone's probably seen the Wai Hickey beach house designed by some fancy architect with which it's got glass everywhere. It's basically a glass box. We can't do that all the time. Quite often, it works if you're in the middle of nowhere in a tropical climate. It doesn't work in the middle of Wellington with neighbours looking at you. But what does work is just one or two full height windows or windows that reach the ceiling. And I say reach the ceiling because the ceiling is what kind of caps a space, and by having the window reach that level, the space just flows out. Your cap kind of extends beyond. And so just yeah, we can have a couple of ordinary punched windows, but where it's able to insert this like full height window, maybe that's not that wide, but it just enables the space to feel a lot larger.

SPEAKER_00: 8:15

Nice. But I do agree with you, you've got to be careful. Like at the moment, you know, we had this discussion, we're sitting in a small podcast studio, it's got a door, a window, and a really big window, and it heats up so much, and the sun just feels this room. And it's great in winter, but in summer, I absolutely suffocate. So you've got to be careful as well with what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01: 8:38

Yeah, so we've done that in our bedroom, actually. The the the seven and a half, eight square meter squeezed bedroom that feels really pokey. Um, we've really made the space feel bigger, also, by having this just one window, and it just sort of disappeared. Sides of it disappear, and the space just feels so much better for it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

Tip number six don't compromise on utility and no more teeny tiny basins in teeny tiny bathrooms. You know those ones where you can basically wash one hand at a time?

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

Yep. That's what I have in my big ass house.

SPEAKER_01: 9:11

They're fine for like individual toilets, but if that's the only hand basin you have, for shaving, makeup, brushing your teeth, they just don't work. So I think it's really important to not underestimate the value that getting these small, mundane moments of life all the time, yeah, getting them right. So in our place, our bathroom, we call it the closet bathroom because it is tiny. But instead of squeezing in a shower toilet and a hand basin in there and compromising all of them, we've actually put the hand basin on the landing outside. So it means that in this closet bathroom, we've got a good shower, we've got good space for a toilet, but then having the we've on the landing, we've got a really good-sized basin with space for shaving and brushing your teeth and that kind of thing. And it also means that someone can be using the toilet while someone else is brushing their teeth quite happily. And so splitting up the functions like that and thinking, oh, how can I use a landing which isn't actually used? Yeah, we just popped the hand basin on there. And we've used a really nice one. A friend made it. It's a ceramic basin that we've put on a on a little timber cabinet, and so it's become actually a bit of a you know a feature.

SPEAKER_00: 10:24

Yeah, that's fantastic. You just reminded me, and we're just gonna dive out a little bit, but I went to the doctor's bathroom one time and uh my mind blew because they had this basin on top of a toilet. So it basically you wash your hands and then that water recycles back into the tank somehow and then you flush it.

SPEAKER_01: 10:43

So interesting.

SPEAKER_00: 10:45

Okay, yeah, that really like.

SPEAKER_01: 10:47

I just don't know if I'd want to brush my teeth in that.

SPEAKER_00: 10:50

I know, right? That took me a while, so please don't do that. Yeah, go ahead. Tip number seven. So our final one, tip number seven.

SPEAKER_01: 10:59

Tip number seven. So space mining. So this is really thinking, well, how can I use little corners of wasted space really well? So we've got storage cavities, like in floors, for the for example, like in our entrance, we've actually used the depth of the floor to put in a shoe cupboard. So we've got this little hatch and our shoes slide off, hatch goes down, then you walk over the top of it, and it all just disappears nicely. So yeah, it's just a quite a simple way of using a little bit of space that you don't actually have at your disposal normally. Another one was the space above the stair, which is often, you know, you've got a lot of head height that doesn't get used. So in our place, we've actually put the pantry there, and the pantry has really deep drawers at waist height, so you don't clang your head as you're coming up the stair, but that's it's using that depth of that wasted space to store some food. And then on top of it, we've also got a few pot plants and household appliances and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00: 11:59

So love it. I cannot wait to visit your house, Mike.

SPEAKER_01: 12:03

I've got and a few more.

SPEAKER_00: 12:05

Wait, you only said seven.

SPEAKER_01: 12:06

Oh no, no, sorry, a few more space mining tips. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

I'm just giving you a hard time.

SPEAKER_01: 12:13

We've got a pretty tight spiral staircase in our place. It's also a beautiful feature for the house, but you could imagine walking down that with a with a with a laundry basket could be a bit of a pain, you know, not very easy. So we've just inserted a little laundry chute. It's literally a hole in the floor with a cabinet built around it, and so that's just a way of like making life easier and using a leftover corner of the space smartly. And then one last tip, and this is space mining, but kind of in a different way. So our whole ground floor is underground, uh dug into the hill, not fully underground, but it could potentially be a really dark, dank space. And so to get so what we've done is in the middle floor, we've actually we've actually carved out about four square meters to get a good light well into the ground floor. Now you might say, well, this is a small house. Why are you wasting four square meters like this? Well, if you flip it on your head, on its head, we've taken out four square meters from the middle floor, but we've given light to 20 square meters of the ground floor. The whole ground floor can suddenly be used all the time. And so we've actually gained the utility of 20 square meters by thinking smartly about well, where do we sacrifice a bit here, but gain some amenity somewhere else. So there we go. We've just um hit our seven tips.

SPEAKER_00: 13:35

We've we've covered our seven tips. Michael, you did amazing. Thank you so much. I cannot, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 13:40

I'm actually I'm actually preparing um some resources for people, like essentially covering off some of these podcast tips that we've done. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: 13:48

Where can they find it?

SPEAKER_01: 13:49

So when I finished, um on your website? I'll have them on my website, or you can just drop me, drop me a line on the website and I'll make sure I email them out to you. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: 13:58

There was a shameless plug in from what I know, gosh. That's all good. Love that. Micah, thank you so, so much for coming again and I can't wait to um have you here again.

SPEAKER_01: 14:07

Great. Thanks so for having me.

SPEAKER_00: 14:09

See ya.