$971 Studio Apartment Makeover | Seoul Apartment Goes from Cluttered to Cozy

this makeover took four weeks and about a thousand dollars i'm gonna show you everything we did how we did it what we spent our money on and how we got from this to this [Music] pat you comment on every single video thank you so much it means so much to me and all of you guys comment all the time it goes so far in helping our small channel and our tsd project spotlight goes out to these small medicine bags but never underestimate the power of just getting something as small as your medicine cabinet organized it will make you feel so good and then once you do that you're going to move on to everything else because it is addicting if you want to share any of your tsd projects with me you can tag me on instagram at the suitcase designer so here's a quick look at the apartment and as you can see it's quite large for a studio apartment but it has so many things going on so i want to talk about some of the problems that i saw from the photos that she first sent me the very first thing i noticed were the bookshelves they are right in your face as you walk in the door and they have so many miscellaneous items on them i'm just not quite sure what i'm looking at and it's quite overwhelming for the small space there's also quite a lot of functional elements to the space which i would expect for a studio apartment like a place to dry your clothes a place to hang clothes that are slightly worn but they're not quite in need of being washed a workout space which is especially popular these days with the pandemic going on and lastly it seems like there's not enough space to store some of these larger kitchen items that you might need in a smaller kitchen and having a lot of these out in the open tends to just overwhelm the space and look cluttery and that's the last thing that we want to do especially in a studio apartment this studio apartment is actually quite large but because we have so much stuff going on it makes it feel a lot smaller than it actually is what i noticed most about this studio apartment is that it's not really cozy at all there is the ikea chair off in the distance by the window and that should be a good little reading nook where you can sit drink your coffee and look out at the insane view from this apartment but it's actually being overtaken by workout equipment and laundry she also has a lot of open storage front and center in her space which is an easy way to make a small space feel even smaller i also noticed that she has korean style bedding and i'm hoping that she would be open to more of a western style because i think it would completely change the space but overall the space looks clean which is where i'd always tell you to start if you don't like your space but most importantly there's no crazy wallpaper before she contacted me a design firm actually gave her a ballpark estimate of 20 000 to renovate the space but that's a lot of money and she also knew that a full renovation would be extremely wasteful with materials the tv and sofa need to stay where they are because of the way korean apartments are set up and how the tvs are set up on specific walls here but she wanted to take the time and money to invest in her space she also wanted to keep the existing furniture because some of the pieces were fairly new and that would be wasteful to replace them at this time but she was going to replace the tv stand and the kitchen stand our budget plan was to only spend what was absolutely necessary to transform her space but we did spend about a thousand dollars and i'll show you those prices as we go through the video so let's get started day one is all about decluttering as i said she keeps her space clean so we don't have to worry about that but we are moving on to the decluttering phase and it's important to do these steps in order because remember you don't want to buy something that you just think you're going to need because that's wasteful and it's going to take away from your budget and decluttering is free so save money now there were three items that she purchased before i arrived and that was the kitchen stand tv stand and vertical blinds but i do really like what she purchased so i'm good with those when we got to the closet she said she didn't think we could do much in it but i am the space maker that is a challenge i'm always up for we decided to go through it anyway we went through all of it and i was able to quickly reorganize it even though it's the declutter phase i wanted to give her a small victory in the beginning and show her that creating change in her space was possible and that it would be beautiful and going through it we were able to completely change the look and feel of the closet and we were able to do this by storing away heavy winter items that she wouldn't be needing for the next few months and by doing this gave all of her clothes more space to breathe i was really hoping that i would be able to eliminate a lot of the things on the bookshelf especially by moving all of these books over to the front area where i cleaned off all of the perfumes to me they felt like they were blocking off the room and i wanted to declutter the bookshelves and eliminate one entirely and what i mean by that is just to move it over to the side for a week so that she can feel it out and see if she likes it or not i still believe the open storage should be banned from furniture stores we should never be allowed to buy it again because for me when i see it and for a lot of people when you see it you are so anxious and overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that can accumulate on it so i'm always a fan of closed storage but we didn't want to get rid of these because they're in really great shape so eliminating this one would be the best option and you can see it's already started to completely open up the space we also moved the exercise areas because there were two throughout the house and originally she had wanted to buy a partition to put in front of the bike in front of the window but i just encouraged her to trust the process and wait to purchase anything until after we had finished decluttering because i knew the space would completely change after that process we also went through her vanity near her bedside and this is where you really have to find the right balance that works for you we decluttered items that had expired and things she didn't love anymore and there were still quite a few items on the surface but she honestly didn't mind just by simply moving the position of the dyson tools it opened up her space and she felt like it worked better for her and she was really happy with it we would go back and add one or two small organizers later and swap out the paper towel mat for a clear mat but really getting hyper organized in this area wasn't something that she wanted or needed so you just have to figure out what balance works for you that's going to look different for everyone but find out what works for you and the same goes for the plates and travel pieces she's collected on the bookshelf i asked her if those were something that she wanted to declutter and get rid of but she told me they were filled with special memories to her rather than forcing her to get rid of them i suggested moving them to a different location in the house so they're out of her line of sight as she walks in the door because i am a huge proponent of not having items that are smaller than your fist in a small space because it tends to make the small space feel even smaller but the exception to this is that if you have items that you love and they happen to be smaller instead of getting rid of them place them together in the same location within your house and here we just move them out of the line of sight when you first enter the room which helps create more of a sense of calm in her space and we added them together on the side in the kitchen they're still within view around her house but they're not in her direct line of sight whenever you walk through the door we made a lot of progress for day one and this is the during so it's going to look messier than when we started and that's okay it's all part of the process but her homework tonight is to finish decluttering a few piles that we weren't able to complete things that need more care like documents and continue decluttering as much as she can on her own and examine over the next week how she likes the removed bookshelf and how she likes the new exercise areas and to use our secret shower glass cleaner in her bathroom because she was so eager to transform her space i made an exception to my no purchasing anything until after the color phase rule we ordered new bedding which included a duvet two fluffy pillows and a duvet cover set and a flat sheet we also ordered a pendant light for her new reading nook we're going to make also got a clear mat for her vanity one acrylic holder and a clock all of these items were things i felt very confident in buying for her space i knew they weren't something that we were gonna backpedal on later and change but most importantly i knew buying these things immediately would start to transform her space during this during process of the makeover and within that i gave her multiple options that could serve whichever budget she wanted to hit the total cost of our order was 168 usd but we have to add that to the previous purchase furniture and vertical blinds so that brings our total to 748 for the first day the most cost efficient method to design is to design for what's natural for the space so here we have a lot of korean style furniture we also have an open floor plan studio so functional and korean style will be heavily influenced in our design honestly it's not helpful to create a design plan until after you fully decluttered and organized or often i find a space looks completely different after decluttering and organizing so why would you waste time planning and scheming for an idea that might not work in the end i find that it's better to just be patient wait till after these phases until you start your dreaming and planning and scheming of your space i came back to continue decluttering but also to assess the changes that we had made to the space are they working for her are they functional and this is what i noticed what i noticed was near the window she still needed better placement for those clothes that you're in the process of wearing and she did love how open the bookshelf area was and she loved that she could now see the tv from bed and she actually tried stacking the shelves to see what it would look like and i love it i think she's a true mvp because this totally changed the room because she stacked the shelves and because i got the height i was able to reach all the way to the top unscrew the legs and then it doesn't look like it's a upside-down bookshelf it looks like it was meant to be like that she had also found a good spot for her bike and exercise equipment it's out of the way and not directly in the living room but it's still usable for her and she can even enjoy the view of her space or the tv while riding the most powerful change though was that previously she had woken up in the middle of every night in her space and after opening up the bookshelves she told me after the first week that she had finally been sleeping through the night every night which i just couldn't believe that's the biggest change that i could hope for it's so easy to kind of forget how much our space directly impacts us so this was the best change of all she also wanted a new wall clock to replace this one so we had three different options that were good for the space so can you guess which one we chose i chose this one because it was very simple and i thought it would not add to the busyness of the shelves that we had made the last time and the new bedding completely transforms the space and helps brighten up the room and it looks so much better in this area the shower glass cleaner came through for us once again and the minute that your shower glass gets foggy your bathroom starts to feel smaller and less clean and cleanliness does affect you mentally and because it's much harder to do a makeover in korean bathrooms here it's really important to keep it very clean it's a really great place to start because we're working in a more confined area we went ahead and combined our decluttering and organizing efforts into one day to finish the front closets we were able to declutter and reorganize everything to create a more functional space for her and most importantly we freed up enough space so that she could remove the suitcases from the top of her closets in the living area and put them at the top of the shoe closet so they'd be out of sight and we also took notes on what types of storage and what sizes were necessary for the space so we could get those ordered and then add them to the space next time she did this closet on her own and it looks so good i feel like it's a closet right out of muji i love it and then this is the closet that we have to come back to and add more storage organizers for them later sometimes you're just going to have a closet that needs to be very functional and that's what this was it was operating as her closet and to the right you have this utility closet so we took everything out it's my favorite thing to do make it really messy and then we slowly put everything back in a way that makes sense so we decided to use these bins she already had them so that was great and you can see it's not like this pretty transformation but it's practical and we put all of the utility stuff on the right side so she doesn't have to see it when she opens the door by the end of day two we had completed all of the decluttering throughout the house except for the kitchen we also hung the new pendant light that we got to create this really cozy reading nook for her i love this space i think it looks so good we threw the books in this bookshelf right there i am so obsessed with this reading nook it's my favorite space and the entire is he in the entire apartment her homework for day two was to get the rest of the storage boxes that we need to make the closets cohesive in the front we also need to fake ivy for the bookshelf she wants to get a set of teacups the white ones that i recommended i love those and they really should be included as decor we also want a lamp for her bookshelf some three millimeter velcro strips so that we can use those for the photo gallery wall which included buying more frames and we wanted to get some large plants for the space that total price is 187 usd combined with our first day brings us to a total of 935 dollars moving to day three which is our huge kitchen declutter and organization day but first we need to have a quick day three assessment and here's what i noticed these were a few of our plant options which you can tell they're a very korean style but i was hoping for something more like a fiddle leaf fig because she was worried about keeping them alive and i've had great luck growing these with minimal maintenance i love the plants that she got in the fake ivy that we added to the area i love the new lamp that she got for the bookshelf and it was so affordable from ikea and it looks so good but it's still quite dark in certain spaces on the bookshelf so we're going to work on adding new lighting next time the clothing still isn't working so we're going to add hooks here for next time so you can hang up close but for our day three progress we did come back to label the new storage boxes unfortunately ikea only had the blue ones in stock but we thought it was better to just go ahead and buy them because they're gonna be behind closed doors later so we did finish getting this space organized as well then we went through the entire kitchen i didn't film much of this process because it's very messy but we took everything out and then we put it all back in but we reorganized it so we can maximize the space and we did it in a way so that we didn't have to invest in any new storage pieces the result was a more organized less cluttered kitchen that was still practical for her and gave her a sense of calm we also hung a gallery wall with velcro strips with the photos that were really special to her and we removed the stickers from the previous owner that they had stuck on the bathroom wall they'd been there for 15 years we removed them and it was amazing and we still wanted a big piece of art to go over the sofa but of our options that we could find here the big sizes were over 200 dollars and they really weren't even a great fit for the space and the colors didn't really blend with a space or create that sense of calm that we were going for so instead we decided that we would make our own for a smaller price tag day three's homework was very simple order three led lights for the bookshelf order a canvas and acrylic paste for a total of thirty six dollars bringing our three days total to 971 dollars because she was so helpful and eager during the decluttering and organizing phases we were able to finish all of this within three weeks so that left our last day to do something very special for her space but before we show you that i want to check in on the bookshelves these 10 led lights look so good in this space and they're great because they're just battery operated and you can stick them anywhere but they bring just a little bit of light into your space that's going to make you feel so cozy at night i actually love these so much that i went and bought them after i left her house so i could add them to my space but look how much better that looks and here is the inspiration courtesy of pinterest for our canvas that we're going to be making today i love making textured art for my walls and it's so simple to make at home and you can save so much money doing it you just need acrylic molding paste and a good spatula it is so therapeutic it's kind of like frosting a cake and honestly if you come home from a long day of work i highly recommend it and it doesn't take much talent or skill when doing it you can just go crazy and the more layers you add the better it's going to look but we were able to create this really beautiful custom piece for her space and you feel so much more pride for your art whenever you did it i love what we were able to make and i'm hoping later she can even go back and add a second piece next to it to really fill out the area above the sofa but it just looks so beautiful and it's really on trend right now of april tandy can speak of trends i think this is pretty spot on so i'm really happy with what we were able to make today and before you comment about it we did question if we should put a rug in the room and ultimately together we decided that it wasn't necessary for the space and actually i was feeling like it would make the room feel smaller by sectioning off those areas because it would break up the beautiful long lines in her hardwood floor that's not what we wanted to do we wanted to make it feel long and open so we decided no rug but now it's time for the grand total of 971 dollars and i do want to say that if you are removing trash or decor pieces anything large from your home here in korea you have to pay for it so that was an additional 45 which would bring the total cost in korea to 1 1016 i love the result of her space and we saved a lot of money by waiting to purchase items until after we had finished decluttering and organizing i can't emphasize that enough but most importantly we were able to create a space that she loves that makes her happy a space that she can come home to after a long day of work and relax in and i love that it was a good balance of aesthetic but also functional for her especially when you're in a studio apartment it's all about function i think this makeover proves that you don't have to spend twenty thousand dollars to renovate your space that would always be nice to change everything but that's just not always practical or financially a smart decision for a lot of us and you can create change just by being smart with your space by decluttering it by organizing it by making smart investments for your space i love this nook area it is so dreamy and let me just tell you her view is absolutely insane the best one i have seen in korea yet but the before and after speak for themselves this was such a fantastic space to work on i feel so honored that you chose me to work in your space so thank you so much i hope you guys enjoyed this makeover it was one of my favorites i will see you in the next video

Channel: The Suitcase Designer

Views: 44,911

Rating: 4.943388 out of 5

Keywords: apartment makeover 2021, apartment transformation on a budget, detailed breakdown of apartment makeover, detailed small apartment makeover, renter friendly studio apartment makeover, seoul apartment, step by step studio apartment makeover, studio apartment in seoul, studio apartment makeover, studio apartment makeover before and after, studio apartment makeover on a budget, suitcase designer, the suitcase designer

Id: 3TsJml8lnmo

Length: 21min 42sec (1302 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021