My Life in 80m²

This may be a little dated, but I still find Poliform's “My Life in 80m²” residential interior project completely captivating. The Italian furniture manufacturer perfectly captures how the quality of a living space does not have to depend on size.

80m² = 861.11 ft² for those of us who cannot picture size with the metric system (aka me).

Great contemporary design really speaks for itself, and quality of life within small spaces is especially important for us urbanites who are destined to live in cubby holes. Finding ways to integrate personal space with living and entertainment areas is such a challenge when you don't have the square footage to work with, and this is a great showcase of how such spaces can be separate, yet flow harmoniously as if they were 'one'. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but that's how I worked it out in my head.

As much as I love this project and however inspirational it is, I'm unable to grasp how this would translate into a balance of affordability with great furnishing (the website uses "high design" and "low budget" as keywords to describe this project). Trying to replicate this with IKEA furniture is possible, but I doubt the final product would look as polished. Aesthetically pleasing and trendy items usually mean spending big buckeroos – you can't DIY craft lamps and staircases like these.

Until I can experiment and emulate the designs featured with minimal cost for myself, I will never know. But for now I'm just going to visually enjoy Poliform's interior eye candy piece, and file in it my head as a design blueprint for my future house/apartment/farm/spaceship.

(Source)