“A HOME should tell YOUR STORY.  What we live with says something about us.”   -Nate Berkus

As you guys may already know, I moved last summer into a newly renovated flat in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.  This makes my 3rd neighborhood, 4th flat, and at 236 square feet (22 square-meters), it’s definitely the smallest space I’ve ever called home!  In fact, the other day I did some calculations and realized my new home is smaller than my old bathroom in Dallas.  No matter how many times you read that sentence, it will say… new   home   smaller   than   old   bathroom.

Crazy, right?

BUT… living in a small space does have its advantages.  When determining how to decorate the small space, a good friend told me not to settle for anything that wasn’t completely loved or meaningful.  At the time, she was in the middle of building a 3,500 sq. ft. home (you can check out her pool here…  it’s the 5th image) and was having to compromise her preferred choice of back-splash stone in the kitchen, in exchange for some crazy expensive gorgeous drawer pulls in her dressing room… splurging here and settling there.  With only 236 sq. ft., she said there was no reason to have anything but the best.

She then showed me her 500 sq. ft. Christmas storage room.

ANYWAY.  I took her advice and treated the space as if it were a jewel box.  It was great advice.  Having only 8 square feet (or as I prefer to say… one thousand one hundred and fifty-two square inches… sounds like more…) of surface space, affording the best was easy.  Or as my friend would say…  only the best jewels.  Basically, there was no need to buy “filler” stuff to accessorize bookshelves in a room that would never be used.  Everything in this space is very up close and personal, and used or reflected on daily.

Living with less doesn’t have to mean living with less.  I like to think of it as living in a condensed state of being.  Pure and focused.  I share my home with Francois.  Although he still has his own place (aka our very own very expensive high-rise storage unit with a view…) we have successfully found a way to function harmoniously in a very small environment.  It helps we’re both clean and organizational freaks geniuses.

As our relationship continues to take form, so too does our home.  Creating this space together has been a great learning and enlightening experience for both of us.  While we love how walking into our home makes us feel, we both know what makes a home has less to do with the stuff that fills it, and everything to do with the memories of sharing it with friends and even more so, with each other.  That’s home.

If you’d like to see more of our small space, AND YOU TOTALLY SHOULD, check out my post 50 SHADES OF GREY.