EXTREME 183 Sq Ft Studio Apartment Makeover Retro Mid Century Modern Style

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm Alexandra, and you are watching Studio Fix, the series where I tackle teeny tiny apartments under 500 square feet and show you how to make them beautiful, stylish, and organized. He's clapping, he's clapping, he's clapping. It's a little crooked. Whoa! I just think it's so funny that I'm doing this in my skirt. I look so proud. Stunning. You got a makeover to do, so good luck. Wait, what? I don't recognize it. Oh my God. Let's get started. Before we get started, I would love to ask you guys a favor. It's my goal and my entire team's goal to reach one million subscribers by the end of this year, and I think we can do it. 36.6% of you come back month after month to watch these videos but are not yet subscribed. So if that's you, and if you're watching on your TV, click my little icon, hit subscribe, and just like that, you're in. It's totally free. It helps us make these makeovers bigger and better. Thank you so much. Today I am helping Maya makeover her studio apartment. Let's jump on a call and get to know her, her space, what she's looking for, all the things. Hi, how are you? I'm good, how are you? I'm good. Congrats on winning a makeover. I'm so excited. We are too. This call is really just to get to know you and your space. You live in a studio. What is the biggest struggle you're having right now living in your space? My biggest problem is I have a very strong taste, but I'm really bad at execution, so it just feels very bare in my apartment, and my walls are still pretty empty. I have concrete walls as well, so drilling anything is just a no-go. I have no tools for that. I currently have my guitar hung up literally by a thread in the wall. It's actually horrifying, and my curtains are actually taped on with a duct tape, and it's so embarrassing. I didn't even notice that in your before photos. Oh my God, it's so bad. I love how you've done this divider in between your bed and your living area. Do you want to keep those two spaces as separate as possible? I do like that just for privacy purposes, but then again, if you guys have a better idea and are able to put curtains up properly, then I wouldn't have to worry about that as much. Well, we'll hang curtains, not duct tape them up. Is your preference blackout curtains for privacy? Obviously, privacy is important, but I prefer having light coming in, so I would pick something more sheer. Okay, so I'm guessing then on that note, the divider should then give you a bit of privacy. Yeah, just like a bit. Okay, I got it. Walk me through how you use the space on a daily basis. Are you working from home? Do you host a lot? Honestly, I spend a lot of time in my bed. I watch all my shows. I'm like a chronic eating-in-bed person, and I do work full-time as well, a little bit outside of the city, so I actually end up not spending a ton of time in my apartment, but when I do, it's just being cozy. Got it. In your living room, you don't have a TV, I don't think, and that's because you're watching shows and stuff in bed. Are you okay with that setup? I feel like I'm cool with the laptop thing. I like being cozy with it, so that's super chill for me. I have a small couch right now, but I would be open to two chairs or maybe one bigger, just different sizing, different colors and whatnot. Got it. So you don't necessarily need a sofa? No, no, no, no. I feel like your bed is really the sofa. Yes, 100%. I'm like that too. It's actually, like I get home, immediately cleaned into my pajamas. Yeah. I'm like under the covers. No, literally exactly the same. I get it. I really get it. But then there's the other side of it. In the summer, I do love to host as well, especially in a small space. It's like a little hard, but I make it happen still, like people on the balcony and stuff, but so a little bit of both, but it just depends like the time of year, honestly. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Do you want to move on to your inspo? I'm so excited about it. Walk me through like what your dream space would look like. I love like the idea of just like a chill vibe, like music studio energy. I do love warm lighting so, so much. Anything like hanging from ceilings or hanging off walls. In my apartment right now, I literally have like nothing on my walls because I just can't put anything up, but I do love like a space being filled. We have the tools to hang things in concrete. Are you okay if we put holes in the walls? Yes, totally. Walk me through what colors you love. I love like deep, rich reds so much. Ooh, yeah. Anything that's like, I guess jewel tone, like really rich. I love that. I also just love contrast, like white and black, but also saturation is what I should say in colors. I like texture. I also love like black leather as well, I think looks great. Okay, fun. Are your walls white currently? They are, yeah. In almost all of your inspo images, the walls are white, which I think is kind of nice. Yeah, that's also another thing I like is the contrast of the intenseness of the decor and whatnot versus the white. Okay, cool. I feel like when you said music studio vibes, that's exactly what I get from this inspo. Exactly, and I'm trying to get back into music too a little bit, so maybe that'll make it feel a bit more legit, you know? Love it. Okay, well, thank you so much. I'm so excited. I will meet you on reveal day. Okay, amazing. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much. Okay, have a great day. You too, see ya. Bye. Okay, so here's what I've learned from Maya. She wants a clear separation of space, a space for her bedroom area and a space for her living area. Maya's inspo is so cool. It's giving comfortable, warm, so here's what I'm thinking. Maya said she spends a lot of time in bed, so I wanna get her a really big luxe headboard that has built-in side tables. I'm going to enlist Graham to make an epic room divider. I want something that can open and close, so it gives her the option for privacy. I'm going to get rid of the sofa entirely so I can make more room for her bedroom. She says she spends most of her time in there anyways. Instead, I'm gonna get her a really comfy, cushy armchair that she can relax in. It's also gonna make lots of room for all of her music equipment. We're also gonna switch out her existing closet doors, give her something a little more elevated. In fact, we're gonna head in to day one and start that now. Okay, hi everyone. I walked into Maya's this morning and I audibly went, wait, this is way smaller than I thought. You've been here before. Did you remember it being bigger? Because I did. Well, she had her bed and her couch in here and stuff, so it did seem smaller. Okay. Well, I'm ready to work our magic. I'm feeling really good about this space and this makeover. We are gonna get started by changing these closet doors first. Yeah, what's step one? Oh, that's a you question. Pull up instructions. Let's do it. We use the IKEA Skita planner to plan out these doors. I can't say enough good things about this planner because you can determine how many you need, how much you need to cut down, and just really customize these to the size of your space. The first thing Graham and I are doing is removing the existing old closet tracks. Graham is cutting the tracks for the top and bottom to size. We are now installing the wood pieces that goes around the track. Regrettably, I have to leave the crew because I'm having some sort of allergic reaction on my face. Insert photo here. It's so embarrassing. So I'm gonna go to the doctor and get it sorted before tomorrow. We have a very full day tomorrow. I can't wait to see this come to life. Graham and Nolan are going to finish it off. Enjoy watching them build these closets. Okay, bye. Okay, so we're using double-sided adhesive tape rather than screws because the IKEA instructions say not to use screws. These doors are being hung from the ceiling. And so this track is just to keep them from hitting each other. So this doesn't need to be secured to the ground because it's not supporting any weight whatsoever. And we're just gonna slide it in place. We have the laser line up, which is gonna allow us to make sure this is like perfectly aligned with the top bracket when we install the top bracket, which is the next step. Graham is cutting the top track pieces and now they are installing them. Okay, so we finished the last page of the instruction manual for the track part. So now we can move on to the door part. Since this closet door frame is smaller than your traditional closet, they have to cut the doors down to size. We just cut all the door pieces down to size. And then I open up the instructions and it says we're still on the first step. So we're an hour into building the doors and it's still on the first step, okay. But we can start assembling the door frame and then we can put the panels in place and all that sort of stuff. So we're like very close to being done. 17 steps to be exact. I would really recommend hiring someone to install these doors for you. There's a lot of cutting involved, cutting metal. We're quickly finding that this isn't like a simple swap in, swap out situation. I'd recommend TaskRabbit, they work with IKEA and they are always fabulous. Okay, moment of truth. There. Wow. Two more. Since we have to cut the door pieces, the panel pieces that fit into the door also need to be trimmed down. So Graham is trimming those on his table saw. All right, we're so close to being done. Panels are cut, we're on step 10. So 10 out of 17. Nine, we're on step nine. Let's do it. Now they're placing the panels into the door frame. Graham and Nolan are repeating this process for all of the doors. I'm not looking up yet, I'm not looking until I slip this in. Boom. It's perfect. Wow. That's why you measure twice and double checked that measurement and then cut once and we just yellowed it with all 12 panels. We could have just done one door and seen if it works, but instead we just went with it and we've been blessed, so. Look at this. That is incredible. I guess like after this, we just have to put some covers on the back and put on these things to conceal the top and then we can walk away. Wow. It's all done. I mean, it looks awesome. So that's it for the doors and we'll see you tomorrow. If you've ever dreamed of me making over your space, now is your chance. We have a few spots open for our virtual makeover consultations and here's how it works. You and I hop on a call, I get to know you and your space and what you're looking for and then I take all that information back and deliver you a handbook filled with a clear path forward on how to make your dream space come to life. I give you a clear 3D idea of what your space will look like with my suggestions. You'll get paint color suggestions, products that you can actually shop directly from the package and a detailed floor plan. Our spots are really limited. They fill up quickly. So head to my link down below or alexandragator.com to shop now. You guys, update on my space. I have to tell them because I left yesterday. Okay guys, I actually have my, on my face. No, it's not contagious. So I really appreciate you holding down the fort yesterday because I needed to go to that appointment. You wouldn't have wanted to be here. It was really loud. I had to cut all the aluminum. Oh, I was just. The flakes were flaking like. Yeah. It was a lot. My face was also flaking. It wasn't. It was. Anyways, the doors look so good. Yeah. I feel like this was such a great little change to make to her tiny space. Yeah. Professionally done. By you and Nolan. Okay, we are going to start the day by installing Maya's headboard. I'm so excited for you guys to see what we chose. So let's do it. This beautiful headboard is from Article. I'm loving the red rich tone of it. It goes so well with Maya's inspo. This headboard comes with these built-in side tables. So I'm just going to install those. We are installing the French cleat and this is how the headboard hangs on the wall. I love how this bed is so high quality yet so easy to install. Similar to the bed at Hatley's. There's only just a few screws we needed to install this headboard. And the fact that it comes with hinges on the back. Yeah. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to mount these individually and have them line up? So they have it so it opens like a book. It's so smart. Okay, let's get this on the wall. I can't wait to see it. We didn't make these marks, by the way. No. They were already here. I'm just going to grab some extra virgin olive oil. And if you've got like bad scratches like this in your floor, just do a little drizzle. Not too much. And then you go away. Whoa! God, he really knows all the tricks, doesn't he? Next up, we're going to build the article bed frame. Do you have the knife? I'll tell you what. Look, you can have this one. You can keep it on you all day. But the- And then you never have to ask me for a knife again. It's got a nice color to it. It's a nice little, you just keep it like this. Unless you prefer not to have a knife on you. I like asking you for one, because it really gets you going. Okay, look though. This is cute. Remember when I got everyone their own knife? Can you get this thing off? No, no, no. This looks awesome. It's so cozy. She still has lots of space to get into her closet. Now that we have installed the bed and the headboard, it's time to divide the bedroom area from the living area. So I sent Graham some inspo and he worked his magic. I'm sure all of you watching by now know that Graham has his own channel, at Handyman Graham. So you should, first of all, head over there and subscribe. You like the videos too. Like and subscribe. But you can head over there and watch him build this amazing divider. You're going to install. I'm going to go into the corner, close my eyes, and then you're going to reveal it to me. Check back in an hour. Can't wait. One hour later. I am so excited for this reveal. Okay, well, you tasked me with making a room divider based off of something that costs like $7,500. Probably US, so like 10,000. Yeah. And Nolan and I built this for like 400 and change. In like two days. Yeah, in the count of three, you can open up your eyes. In the count of three? At the count of three. On the count of three? On three. Open your eyes, ready? Okay. Okay, one, two. I can't. Two and a half. No, three. Oh my God. Yeah, so it's pretty much like the exact thing. Pardon? But we made it with plywood rather than with solid wood, which like made it so much cheaper. This is unreal. Like every time you just take it up a notch and blow it out of the water. Thank you. Well, this one, this is really impactful because it's so big. But this looks like it belongs in a hotel. Can you show me how it works? Oh my gosh. Okay, so you can have it fully closed. What? Or you can have it half open. Sorry, what? Oh my goodness me. I know, I impressed myself with this one. I was gonna say, tell me how you did it. But you guys, again, you should go support Graham and his work by subscribing to his channel, liking his videos, watching his videos. And I'm gonna watch it because I wanna know how him and Nolan brought this to life because this is incredible. It's a really fun video. Nolan and I went to the lumber mill, went to Home Depot. Let me give you a little behind the scenes photo I took of Nolan. We really hustled to get it done for this makeover. It's so gorgeous. I feel like Maya's never gonna wanna leave. Can I just go over to this side? Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. This makes the space look so much bigger. Oh, it feels like she's got a proper bedroom here. She's in bed. She's like, oh, is it? What's the weather outside? Oh, yeah, it's sunny. This is when Graham plays pretend, like make believe, and it brings me so much joy. Or it's like, I wanna sleep in a little bit more. It's Sunday morning. It's too bright out. I'll just close this. See? I have to say, I'm shocked at how much bigger this divider makes the whole space. Like, I really feel like this is her bedroom. This is gonna be her living room. It's also darker in here now for her, which I love. This one's really, this one's very satisfying. My mind. What do we have on the docket tomorrow? Tomorrow on the docket, we are bringing the whole space together. I feel like this is such a good start. I feel like it sets the tone and the headboard. It just, it's gonna be so cool in here. So, see you tomorrow. Okay. Hi, guys. It is the day where we pull everything together. I'm gonna start in the living room. I have this really fun zebra rug. This is obviously faux, and it's also from Walmart, link down below. It's very cool. You're gonna start to see all the cool elements. Okay, I'm bringing back Maya's keyboard that she had in here. Now I'm bringing in Maya's mic and her stool. I think in another life, maybe we were meant to be a band. You go like this. You put the one headphone on. Yeah. You plug the other ear. Don't you. And you. Okay, you sing. You sing while I play, okay? We are the world. We are the children. One more time. So before, Maya had a sofa here, and it was making everything really cramped. It was sofa king big. Sofa king big, exactly. So I wanted to give her keyboard a moment and just give her more space, which is why we went with this huge article chair. And Maya said that she doesn't need a full sofa, so I thought that this was a great alternative. We need to play a bit of Tetris because this is feeling weird to me. I'm so excited about this coffee table. It's from Mobilia. It's such a great small little size. So Maya can move it around when she's playing music, if she's having friends over. It's just an easy piece to move around, but it's so beautiful. And I love this hit of orange. It's very cool. I'm just feeling like this configuration isn't working. We use a floor planner when designing makeovers, and usually it's very accurate and translates well, but in a small space like this, sometimes you just have to move stuff around. And I would encourage you to do that. Graham, can I enlist your strong muscles? Okay. Just a slight little angle. This already feels so much better. Yeah. Okay. We moved the mic over here. That's not the mic. And I think, beep. Okay, we moved to the mic over here, and I think it works better. It's tucked away. Now it's time to bring in two poofs. Thank you. Now for some extra seating, this poof is from Article, and you guys, get this, so much storage inside this poof. Also lightweight so Maya can move it around. I'm gonna try and add another one, because we have two, see if it fits, but love how versatile this piece is. I'm gonna put the second stool here so Maya can bring this out when she needs it if she has guests over. More storage. Just a versatile little piece. I'm placing these stools that Maya already had here. They're very cool, and they just fit so nicely. I'm really glad we took the extra moment to move things around, because this is feeling so much better. If you're at home feeling like, my space just doesn't feel right, just doesn't feel good, try moving stuff around. Even if you have a floor planner, and everything fits when you get into the space with all your stuff, sometimes you just need to move it around. I'm gonna hang Maya's light up. I love that we are mixing her pieces with new pieces. I'm going to hang this with a cup hook. So I actually think a cord hanging down is a vibe, especially in a space like this. But to make it look a bit neater, I'm gonna clip the cord using this so it's against the wall. And then I'm adding another one down here. So I pulled the cord taut at the bottom, and it just makes it a little cleaner. I love this little hack. You can find those little clips at the hardware store. What are they called? We think they're called cable clips. Let us know down below if you know what they're called. Cool. Next up, skateboards. That's my cool face, skateboard. I'm hanging this rack for Maya's skateboards. Okay, so I'm hanging Maya's skateboards on the wall. I actually think that this is a good example of how you can take these things that you use every day, but turn them into a moment in your space. Next up, we're gonna add another piece on the wall, her guitar. Sing us a song, piano man. Graham, what song should I sing? Sing a Disney song. No. What song should I sing? Do you know any T-Pain? No. Sing Chapel Run. ♪ Girl, I'm a big bony girl. ♪ ♪ I'm jammed at the club now, mama. ♪ This looks so good. Originally, like early on in the planning phase, I was like, I want this to feel like a little music studio. And I feel like we're capturing that vibe. Okay, so in a small space, you have to put storage wherever you can. I love this unit from Article because it has lots of shelves. It has closed storage, but it's quite narrow. So it's perfect for this hallway. I'm gonna install it, and then I'm gonna hide the cords that were here. Nice. Okay, beautiful. That is solid. So all the cables, modem, all that stuff that was here sitting on the floor, I'm gonna pop in here. Graham drilled a nice little hole, and I'm just gonna feed the cords to the outlet. We are making the bed with some sheets from Shop Will It, a woman-owned Canadian company, and they're beautiful. Linen, of course. No. I think you put the extra height to show off. This is what you. This is what you do. So? Kate. What are you doing? I'm letting it drape naturally. This bed looks like a cloud. Thank you, Will It, for sending this bedding. It's so beautiful. I feel like my cheeks are probably so red, but it is so hot in here. So if I look dewy, thanks. But it's actually really hot. So the curtains Maya had here before were making the space feel really small. Curtains make such an impact when you hang them right. We are not only changing the curtains, giving her new ones, but we're remounting them. We did a ceiling mount, which I always find is great for doors like this. It just covers them better. Okay, wow, that just looks so much better. Just makes the ceilings feel so much taller. Usually my rule is that curtains should kiss the floor, but you can also have them pool when the vibe calls for it. And I think this vibe calls for pooling curtains. I'm hanging a couple pieces of art in here. Now, these are just downloadable prints we found on Etsy. We bought them, put them in a frame, and it's just like the easiest art. How cute is that? Doesn't it? To finish off the day, I'm hanging this full-length mirror in Maya's entryway. To give her a little mirror when she leaves. Let's do it. This is a HomeSense mine, by the way. Oh, that's way too heavy for me to hang by myself. Aw, that's so accurate. Stunning. That's it for me today. I'll be back tomorrow for finishing touches, and I'm gonna reveal the space to Maya, and I am so excited for her to see the space. See you then. Good morning. I am so excited because it is reveal day. I just feel so good about what we've accomplished in this studio. It's vibey, it's cool. I'm gonna start by styling this shelf, and I thought I would walk you through my process when styling a shelf, because I know it can be tricky. Maya has so many great trinkets and books and just things that she left us to style with, so I'm gonna be incorporating a lot of her items. Whenever I start styling a shelf, I just like to start with a stack of books. Keep it simple. Maya has some cool comics, so I'm just gonna place these on top of the coffee table book. I always love to place something on top of the stack. She has this little, I was like, is it a cat? Is it a, what do we think? It's Diego, it's literally Diego. You think? It's Diego. Enter photo of Diego here. So I always love to just pop something on top. We're gonna place Diego up here. I'm doing another stack of books. This time, I'm placing them vertically. You want variety on your shelf. You want layers. I don't always use bookends, but I am in this case, just because I think it adds some visual interest to the shelf. I love incorporating lighting into my shelf styling. It just adds a glow. It creates a mood. You can use a battery-powered light if you don't have a plug source close to you. Great Ikea piece. Art is another really great way to bring layers into your shelf. So I love placing a piece of art and then something in front of it, like this beautiful bowl. This is looking so good. I love adding closed storage to a shelf. It's great to just bring some function into your styling. Okay, and of course, a plant. The drapier, the better. Her name's Fern. Fernie. Like Fergie, but Fernie. And then I always say, put things that you use every day on display. Make them a stylish moment. And that's the shelf. Doesn't it look so good? It's cute. You know what time it is. It's time for finishing touches. I'm placing these cushions from That Cool Living on the bed and adding a cozy throw to finish it off. I'm placing a lamp on one side of Maya's bed and a stack of books on the other. I'm turning on her lamps. I put a low wattage orange bulb in each of these lamps to really set the vibe, just like in her inspo photos. I'm styling this lounge chair with a That Cool Living pillow and another cozy blanket. I'm placing a coffee table book and coasters and of course, lighting a candle. Finally, I'm adding a washable checkered entryway mat. It is time to bring Maya in for the reveal. I am so excited for her to see this space. Okay, I just got like insane butterflies. Okay, ready? Me too. Are you excited? I'm really excited. I'm so excited for you. Okay, can you walk me through what your studio apartment looks like before? I always described it as like, asylum time. Oh! Where it's like, it looks like I started moving in and then I gave up halfway through and there was just like nothing on the walls. Okay, that's a great description. I'm so nervous but so excited. Are you ready? Yes. On the count of three, I want you to open your eyes, okay? Okay. One, two, three. Oh my god. No way, I actually can't. I'm like shaking. I honestly feel like I'm gonna cry right now. I'm like, this is literally my mood board. Oh my god, this is so freaking nice. I'm literally shaking, I'm not even joking. Take it in. Oh my god. It's so, so nice. Like, I actually feel like I'm gonna die. My birthday's coming up too. Really? I'm having all my friends over. I'm so excited. It's gonna be the perfect space. Oh my god, thank you so much. Oh my god. What the? No, wait. This is incredible. Like, I actually can't. I'm so excited for you. Oh, thank you so much. You're welcome. This is so cute. I literally can't. Do you wanna walk through? Yeah. Look at this divider that Graham made. Oh my god, stop it. Isn't that crazy? That's actually insane. So when you go to sleep, it can be dark. You can have privacy, and then you can literally open it in the morning. Oh my god, this is like just more than I could ever imagine. Like, it's just so incredible. Thank you so much. Okay, come into your living room. So we got rid of the sofa. Yes. I know you're a bed gal. Yes. Just like me. This chair is the comfiest chair, though. Okay. So we wanted to give you a space to actually, like, lounge. This is so nice. Isn't it? This is amazing. Oh my god. Isn't it? I actually can't. And then these poofs can easily be moved around for when you have friends over. Amazing. So you guys can all hang out. And my guitar's actually hung up on the wall properly. My lamp! That was like on my mic stand. We also changed some of the bulbs to be orange in your mood board. There's a lot of, like, moody lighting. Love that. I'm literally teething. I can't even stop smiling. Like, it doesn't even feel real. I was like, wow, this apartment's cool. Like, it's cool girl vibes like you. Thank you. I can finally express that in my face. We also changed your curtains so they're not hanging off with duct tape. Very creative. Thank you. But we also hung them higher so it, like, draws your eye up. It makes the ceilings feel a bit taller. Oh, that's so good. I love this. Cute, right? I literally can't. Yay! Oh my god, I'm so happy. Like, literally, thank you so much. You're welcome. Next up on AGTV, I'm making over Natasha's bedroom. Natasha is a member of Team AG. I'm so excited about all the color in this. It's gonna be so fun. Doesn't this make you feel like a star? Oh. Make sure you guys hit that subscribe button, turn on the bell so you know when I next upload, and as always, I'll see you next time. Bye. Can you put your head up? I was looking at your shoes. Oh, do you like them? It has doilies on it. What do you call that? Doilies? It looks like, what's the doily material? Lace. That's what you think it looks like? Yeah. I immediately throw them out. Do they sell men's sizes? Actually, you could rock the lace. I would, yeah. Ready, go. Boo, boo, and Lonnie, Lonnie. I don't really enjoy singing with you. I prefer singing with Carla. Okay, put it up. Let's smell. Let me smell. I'm up. Fresh. But this is it. No, this is it. It's really nice.