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48 H&H SEPTEMBER 2016

to me then. Even Rhoda’s tiny nest in

The Mary Tyler Moore Show seemed

fine to me. No one described the

I Love Lucy apartment as “small.”

By North American standards when

the average family in the 1930s lived

in approximately 1000 square feet

the homes of the ’50s and ’60s

were spacious!

If you were born in the ’70s you got a

little more space but it wasn’t until the

’80s — during the years of Dallas and

Dynasty big shoulders and even bigger

hair — that the average single-family

home ballooned to over 2000 square

feet! J.R.’s mansion on Southfork Ranch

was almost 6000 square feet and that

was considered palatial.

Fast-forward to 2016. Can you guess

the size of today’s average single-family

home? At 2463 square feet it allows

each inhabitant to enjoy approximately

1000 square feet of floor space. But if

you’re looking at the downtown condo

market in any major city the average

three-bedroom “affordable” condo for a

single family is back to 1300 square feet

— exactly the kind of space I grew up in.

And yet these spaces feel much more

livable than the old bungalows and

ranch houses of the ’60s and ’70s.

We’re smarter now. We don’t

waste much space on hallways.

Formal dining rooms are gone and

things like ultrathin wall-mounted

f latscreen TVs tiny Sonos sound

systems window walls and glass

partitions save space and create an

expansive feeling. But beyond that

we’ve learned to embrace “small” as a

virtue and to tailor our lives to having

less and enjoying the freedom that

comes with that.

I think we’ve learned much of what

we know about clever downsizing by

watching how savvy millennials

live and decorate. They don’t bother

with landlines phone sets full-size

printers cameras CDs or sadly books.

They’ve done away with box springs

multiple sets of dishes and cabinets full

of glasses. The right tableware looks

great for everyday and can be dressed

up for special dinners with some clever

layering and all-purpose low-stem

crystal wineglasses which always work.

A beautifully designed modernist chair

makes an elegant statement in a

fraction of the space of an old-

fashioned overstuffed upholstered one.

Thin lamps thin tables thin rugs and

wardrobes that are about seasonless

layering of thin warm fabrics — so

much easier than storing all sorts of

heavy winter clothes. Seating and beds

are much lower and tubs are smaller

and freestanding or nonexistent.

The best approach to decorating

small spaces seems to be a selective

creative use of decorative materials like

patterned tiles wallpaper mixed

woods natural stone and composites.

Hardware is sleek and special — like

fine jewelry — and light fixtures are

sculptural and elegant. We know from

the example of single-f loor London f lats

that a tiny room can be layered up in a

luxe mixture of glossy dark paint petite

antiques lively prints and exquisite

artifacts for a dressier look.

One by one my friends seem to

be leaving behind their big family

homes and moving into condos and

townhouses — customized to

incorporate carefully edited pieces

into a fresh new mix. Every one of them

loves their new sleek effortless space.

There’s something so appealing about

the idea of living in a self-contained

small yet elegant apartment that offers

all the zones of a real house close

at hand.

To this day I still keep a file of

favourite one-room “great rooms” with

a dressy kitchen along one wall and a

comfy sitting room that includes a

round table as a centerpiece. Thinking

back I’ve realized where that idea came

from. I was watching those single girls

in their imaginary apartments in the

’60s and ’70s taking in every detail. My

all-time favourite wasn’t Rhoda’s kooky

Bohemian lair or Mary Richards’

charming attic apartment with the

pocket kitchen and sunken living room;

it was Brenda Morgenstern’s tiny

fashion-forward apartment in New

York. I still remember the pale yellow

wall of art hung salon-style with a white

Parsons table and a wicker fanback

chair tucked in the corner. It was all one

room with a kitchen on one wall and a

round draped table in the centre of the

room — and I thought it was perfection.

I’m guessing ... 400 square feet tops.

What do you think?

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