Studio Apartment Advantage : Saves You Money And Helps Maximize Your Available Resources
For seniors and families exploring senior living options, cost is always one of the top considerations. Wisely and effectively managing available financial resources is a critical part of any decision to move into an assisted living community. A studio apartment is easily the most cost-effective and affordable senior living option available to seniors and makes a great choice if you are looking for a way to make the most of your available senior living dollars.
Studio apartments feature all the same benefits of larger one- and two-bedroom apartmentspaid utilities, individually controlled heat and air, cable television, and wi-fibut cost significantly less. Depending on the location of the assisted living community you choose, with a studio you could realize monthly savings of $500$700 over larger units. And you will still enjoy the same great features and servicesrestaurant-style dining and meals, social events and activities, outings and transportation, 24-hour monitoring and safety features, and all the other advantages living in an assisted living community offers.
These are only three advantages of living in an assisted living studio apartment. Let us help you explore the countless other advantages of living in your own studio apartment! Our trusted senior advisors are ready and waiting to assist you in right-sizing your living options.
Give Up Some And Get Way More
This is your place and you can decorate it any way you like and there’s no rule that says you must have a dining room. By sacrificing the space that would house your table and chairs, you open up a good amount of floor space for entertaining.
Moving your bed to where your dining table would otherwise go gives you a much larger living room space perfect for having friends over to watch the game or binge on movies or trashy reality TV.
First Work With What You Have And Personalize The Decor
In our post about downsizing, we recommended you plan what to bring from your old home based on the layout of your new space. Hopefully youve done that, and selected furniture, knickknacks, and artwork to perfectly fit your room. You want to make sure your room isnt too cluttered, in case it needs to be wheelchair-accessible in the future.
After your furniture is arranged, you can put out the sentimental keepsakes and knickknacks you brought with you. Consider having shelves put up so you can display the items and photos that mean the most to you. Hang artwork and family photos in coordinating frames, to keep a consistent mood across your walls. If you have a lot of photos to display, you may want to group them as a collage on one wall.
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Maximize A Small Apartment Kitchen
Apartments are notorious for having minuscule kitchens. Take advantage of every inch of kitchen storage by maximizing vertical space. If your setup includes open shelves, place several stacks of dishes on each shelf, arranging like items together. Use the upper shelves for lesser-used items you don’t need to access as often.
Resident Rooms In Assisted Living
Assisted Living Facilities are sometimes called Residential Care Homes, and each differ in living room designs. They range from 100+ beds, 16+ beds to smaller care homes with less than 6 beds. Most are non-medical facilities that provide private or shared rooms, private or shared bathrooms, one, and two-bedroom apartments, couples apartments, condominiums, studios, and cottages. They typically serve persons 55 years of age and older.
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Resident Safety In Rooms
Choosing a facility for a safe living room and residence isn’t enough. Residents need to know that the care facility takes complete safety measures to ensure that a person will not trip or fall, wherever they are in the assisted living community. Falling and breaking a hip is bad news and life-threatening for older adults and the elderly, no matter where they call home.
It’s important for the people who provide housing for seniors to install fall prevention equipment and take other safety precautions when evaluating assisted living safety. Read more about .
Safety attributes in Assisted living rooms and residences
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Doorways, hallways, and rooms accommodate wheelchairs and walkers.
- The floor plan is easy to follow.
- Elevators are available.
- Handrails installed in hallways, rooms, bathrooms, and other rooms within the facility.
- Flooring made of non-skid materials.
- Rooms have good natural lighting.
- Rooms are free of odor and comfortable temperatures.
- Rooms have emergency call systems installed.
- The staff is available to help when needed.
One important device needed in the common areas like dining rooms, hallways, and activity rooms are handrails and ample lighting. The CDC survey also asked residents if their facility provides handrails. In the graph below only 49% of the senior housing community installed handrails in hallways.
How many hallways have supported or grab rails on one or both sides?
Design Goals Worth The Investment
If you own your studio apartment, consider investing in clever built-ins and flexible furniture. Features like these will not only make your space feel huge but may also add value to your home when it’s time to sell.
Here are some design goals to inspire. This studio in NYC’s first micro-apartment building designed by nArchitects features transforming furniture and integrated storage that maximizes square footage.
The built-in cabinet wall behind the sofa conceals a Murphy bed. The unit below the TV provides extra room to keep stuff out of sight. Innovative solutions like the double-duty coffee table and expanding kitchen console create more space for dining or working.
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Keep It Bare Up There
This one may seem counterintuitive but trust us. You don’t need a ton of stuff hanging on your walls to make your room look complete. In fact, oftentimes, people will go overboard with filling their walls with art and photos making the room look smaller than it is.
If you have light walls and low ceilings, consider keeping your walls minimally decorated because it will let more natural light. The more natural light, the larger your space will feel.
Put Your Backsplash To Work
Short on kitchen storage? Put the unused space between your upper and lower cabinets to good use with a rail system. From kitchen tools to tablet docks, its easy to find an accessory for storing nearly anything you can think of. For even more storage, DIY your own backsplash storage system using a pegboard with our how-to, below.
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How To Decorate A Studio Apartment
This article was co-authored by Christel Ferguson. Christel Ferguson is the owner of Space to Love, a decluttering and organization service. Christel is certified in Advanced Feng Shui for Architecture, Interior Design & Landscape and has been a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals for over five years.There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 92% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 132,935 times.
Studio apartments combine the meat and potatoes of a house into a small space by putting a bedroom, kitchenette, and living room in one. Decorating a studio apartment for the first time can seem daunting, but the key is giving every inch of space a purpose. Small areas can seem spacious if you know how to trick the eye and utilize multi-purpose furniture. If you appreciate a minimalistic style, decorating a studio apartment may be just up your alley.
Rethink The Foot Of The Bed
Placing furniture near the foot of your bed is another great way to create a little separation between the living and sleeping areas. You can use a sofa or desk, or both as shown in this bright and colorful micro-loft in downtown Los Angeles.
Does your studio have a hallway entryway? Keep your main living area clutter-free by keeping storage and display furniture in the entryway.
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Use A Bookshelf As A Room Divider
With the openness of a studio apartment, sometimes its hard to establish a defined floor plan. A great way to do this is to carve out an area with a large piece of furniture like a bookshelf. Plus, who doesn’t love some extra storage? Divide and conquer like a pro with our tips, below.
Add Height With Curtains
High ceilings can help a studio fell less cavelike. If you’re not blessed with soaring ceilings, you can fake it by installing curtains as far up the wall as you can. This draws the eye up and creates the illusion of more space.
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Spread Out Your Space As Much As Possible
This is especially helpful if you’re a light sleeper. Measure out your room and put your bed at the furthest possible spot in the room away from the door. Make a design plan to put your sitting area closer to your door.
Installing lighting fixtures or sconces near your bed will eliminate the need for floor-hogging nightstands and lamps that can make the room look more claustrophobic.
Tips For Decorating Your Assisted Living Apartment
A senior assisted living apartment gives you the freedom to get out of the house and live on your while also giving you companionship, amenities, and extra help when you need it. However, decorating an assisted living apartment can be tricky if you are unsure where to start or what will work best for you and your budget. Here are some of the most important things to think about when decorating your assisted living apartment.
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Max Out Vertical Space With A Gallery Wall
Stretching a gallery wall all the way to the ceiling is a great way to emphasize the walls height, making the ceilings feel higher than they are by drawing the eye upward. Want to go the extra mile? Place smaller pieces toward the top to create the illusion that theyre further away. Get our tips for styling your way to gallery wall greatness, below.
Make Sure You Have Adequate Lighting
Your room comes equipped with lighting, but make sure you have a soft light to keep on overnight. If you need to get up for a drink or the bathroom, you need some light so you can avoid falls. Make sure you have a good night light, especially near the bathroom or kitchenette.
Moving to an assisted living community is an ex
citing and difficult change. Decorating your room can help ease the conflicting emotions of downsizing and add some fun to the stressful time.
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How To Know Which Assisted Living Room Layout Is Best
In a survey of residential care facilities conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010, the following types of living quarters were found at most assisted living communities: A studio or one-bedroom apartment was the most popular , while rooms for one person was the next most popular , rooms for two persons and 2 or 3 bedroom apartments came in the lowest on popularity scale at . See the breakdown:
Types of resident living quarters
Gain Visual Square Footage With Mirrors
The four walls of your apartment may be limiting, but that doesnt mean you can’t add any more space visually speaking, at least. Add a large floor mirror to visually double the size of your apartment. This designer trick has been around for ages, so isn’t it time you put it to use in your space? Reflect on this idea with some of our favorites styles, below.
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Make Use Of Multifunctional Furniture
Double-duty furniture pieces are an absolute must in studio apartments. Dont just choose a bed find one that has built-in storage underneath. If you dont have room for a dining table, choose a coffee table thats big enough for you to sit at when you have your meals. Find more of our favorite storage furniture pieces, below.
learn more: Furniture That Doubles as Storage for Every Room in Your House
Turn Your Bed Into A Daybed
If you’re short on space, a daybed may be the perfect solution. This way, you can use your bed as extra seating during the day, but cozy up for a good night’s rest come evening. Not ready to buy? Create your own by placing a twin or double bed against the wall and piling on large throw pillows for a couch-like look. Learn how to build your own lounge-worthy daybed, below.
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Look For Stealth Storage Opportunities
Sara Ligorria-Tramp / Emily Bowser for Emily Henderson Design
If you are lucky enough to have a window in your studio apartment bathroom, you might be tempted to keep the sill bare. But if you need additional storage, adding glass shelving and neatly displaying items in transparent bottles can create a de facto medicine cabinet that doesn’t block natural light.
Sara Ligorria-Tramp / Velinda Hellen for Emily Henderson Design
Conventional wisdom tells us to use light neutral colors in a small space. But if you like it dark and moody, painting your small space in a dark color can also make it seem bigger than it is by creating a sense of depth and tricking the eye into not seeing where the wall ends. Lighten the mood with metallic pieces, lacquered finishes, and decorative mirrors that will bounce light around.
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Identify dead or empty spaces that can be transformed into bonus areas like reading nooks, desk corners, or dressing tables, and decorate them with care and attention, like this cute reading spot from A Beautiful Mess.
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If you are lucky enough to have even the tiniest amount of outdoor space, do not let it languish. Outfit a small balcony with a café table and chairs or an oversize pouf and an outdoor rug. Add plants and outdoor string lights or a portable USB lamp and youve got an extra room for drinks, reading, or contemplating life.
Low Ceilings No Problem
Dividing up space for different uses in a box-shaped studio with low ceilings only seems challenging.
The trick is using the right furniture. This San Francisco micro-loft is decorated with a mix of low-profile and leggy finds. The furnishings don’t take up a lot of vertical space, so the ceiling appears higher.
This easy-to-copy layout places a full-sized bed near a low-profile sofa to create additional seating. A room divider at the head of the bed is the tallest object in the apartment. It carves out a dining nook decorated with industrial-inspired furniture.
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Make Binge Watching Better
Make your apartment feel colossal by creating separate living areas. But how much square footage should you assign to each section?
Consider what would make you happier at home.
Want to invite friends over for Netflix? The person who lives in this NYC studio created a large living room worthy of a binge-watching party by sacrificing some bedroom and dining space.
If you’re not allowed to paint your walls, here’s another idea to steal from this apartment Removable, peel and stick wallpaper. It’s easy to install, and it will dress up dull walls without jeopardizing the security deposit.
Don’t Forget The Backs Of Your Doors
Looking for a space-saving storage solution that won’t eat up precious floor space? Look no further than the backs of your apartments doors. These blank canvases are ready to be fitted with shelves and filled from top to bottom with anything and everything you can think of. Check out other over-the-door storage options, below.
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Give This Furniture Hack A Go
A Murphy bed is a space-saving staple in homes around the globe. Follow the example above and turn your Murphy beds support leg into a shelf. Now when you have guests, your living room can actually look like a living room. Give your bed a flip with our step-by-step guide, below.
Murphy’s Law Doesn’t Apply To Murphy Beds
These beds are just cool and if you talk to your landlord, they may welcome the idea of installing a Murphy bed in your apartment. For the uninitiated, a Murphy bed is one that folds up into the wall and easily stores away behind a bookcase or French-style doors.
There are bookcase designs that allow you to fold down the bed without the items on the bookcase falling over. There are dozens of styles and sizes for every taste and preference.
Plus, if you don’t feel like making your bed in the morning, you can fold it up into the wall.
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