Welcome to our 700 square foot 1-bed 1-bath apartment located in the heart of Silicon Valley! Upon entering, you’ll notice our entryway with a console that serves as a catch-all for our keys and wallet. To bring in more natural light, we added a round mirror and a table lamp with a diffused dome. We’ve also incorporated plants, such as a peperomia and a dragon plant, to open up the space. Moving into the kitchen, we keep our countertops clutter-free and have a designated coffee setup. In the living room, our focus is the coffee table, creating an environment where social interactions take center stage. To address the lack of light, we have three lamps, each with a Lifx LED bulb that can change color temperature. With our leather sofa, oversized throw pillows, and walnut-framed lounge chair, the living room is cozy and inviting. We’ve chosen to forego a TV and instead installed a vinyl setup on the sideboard, which also serves as storage for records, games, and magazines. Over in the bedroom, we have a queen-size bed with linen bedding, along with two nightstands adorned with menu lights. The room gets ample light throughout the day, thanks to large mirrors and a window facing eastward. We’ve also added some plants and decorative vases to enhance the tranquility of the room.

We hope you enjoyed this tour of our minimalistic apartment with Silicon Valley vibes. Thank you for watching, and stay tuned for more updates!

Entryway

Upon entering the apartment, you will see a console next to the door that serves as a catch-all. It has become a habit for us to dump our pockets into the console so we never have to go looking for our keys or wallet. The entryway’s only source of natural light is a sliding door on the opposite side of the apartment. To bring more natural light into the space, we added a 28-inch round mirror over the console. Even with the mirror, the entryway still lacks light, so we also placed a table lamp with a diffused dome to supplement the natural light. To further open up the space, we enlisted the help of a couple of plants. On top of the console, we have a Peperomia plant, and next to the console, we have a medium-sized Dragon plant. Next to the door, we have what should be our coat closet, but it currently houses all of my video equipment. To the left of the closet, we have the washer and dryer that came with the unit.

Kitchen

Moving on from the entryway, to the left, we have our kitchen. We like to keep our countertops clutter-free to make food preparation more efficient. The only thing that lives on our countertop is our coffee setup, as we use it every day. Inside our fridge, we keep condiments, produce, leftovers, and some beer.

Living Room

Over the kitchen counter, you can see our favorite room in the apartment, the living room. We wanted to make the focus of the room our coffee table, as we believe it helps facilitate social interactions and creates an environment where you want to put your phone down. To light the room, we have a large source of natural light coming from our sliding door windows. While they do provide a lot of light, the window is east-facing, so light quickly falls off after 10 a.m. To address the lack of light in our living room, we added three lights. We have a floor lamp to the left of the sofa, a hanging lamp in the opposite corner, and a table lamp on top of the sideboard. We populated each lamp with a Lifx LED bulb. Unlike other LED bulbs, these supply 1,100 lumens and don’t need a hub. These lights are perfect for extending daylight but can also change color temperature to provide warmer, cozier light at night.

The room has dark wood floors, so we anchored the room around a 5×7 off-white rug. On top of the rug sits a marble coffee table with solid oak legs. To further create intimacy and coziness, we placed a Lawson Cubist candle holder on the table. This iconic Scandinavian candle holder helps us create moments of hygge. Surrounding the table, we have a leather sofa with two oversized navy throw pillows and a dark grey lounge chair with a walnut frame, both of which are from Article. Behind the lounge chair sits a sideboard that is home to our record player. Since we want the focus to be on the conversations happening around the coffee table, we chose to forego a TV and instead installed a vinyl setup. We also use the sideboard for storage. To the right of the sideboard, we keep games and coloring books for when we babysit our nieces and nephews. In the middle, we keep the records for the record player, and in the leftmost cupboard, we keep our magazines, coffee table books, and cookbooks.

For pictures and art, we have a 4×4 picture of Jennifer and me from our engagement shoot at Ruby Beach, which sits next to the record player. Above our sofa, we have two 18×24 beige watercolor prints to make the room feel more tranquil. As for plants, we have three in the living room. To the right of the sofa, we have an Indian rubber tree. On the sideboard, we have a Chinese money plant, and finally, to the right of the sideboard, we have a snake plant.

In addition to the coffee table, we also have a mobile side table from Hey. This keeps our space versatile as the table works as a side table for the sofa or can be used in addition to the coffee table on game nights to keep drinks and food out of the way of Jenga. While we weren’t initially fans of our living room, the addition of several light sources and some comfortable furniture have created a space that we love to come home to at the end of a long day. We can’t wait to light some candles, play some music, and kick our feet up.

Bedroom

Moving on from the living room, we have our bedroom. The window in the room also faces eastward, but there isn’t an awning above the window, and we have two large mirrors on the opposite side of the room, so the room gets ample light throughout the day. The only additional light sources we added were two menu lights above each of our nightstands. Between the nightstands, we have a queen-size bed. Since Jennifer and I both run warm, we chose linen bedding for our bed. In front of the bed, we have our six-drawer dresser. On top of the dresser, we have a TV for movie nights and office reruns. To the left of the TV, we have another plant and some decorative vases. Behind the two full-length sliding closet doors are where Jennifer and I hang some of our clothes and keep all of our shoes. In our room, we also keep our cordless vacuum, hamper, and some old pictures that we are slowly digitizing for Jennifer’s mother.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our minimalist apartment in Silicon Valley is a reflection of our style and desire for a clutter-free, cozy, and functional living space. We have carefully curated each room to optimize natural light, incorporate plants, and choose furniture and decor that aligns with our aesthetic. From the entryway to the bedroom, every detail has been thoughtfully considered to create a space that feels like home. We hope you enjoyed this tour of our apartment and found inspiration for your own minimalist living.