5 Tips to Make the Most of a Small Home
Architect Brad Swartz gives his best advice on creating a liveable small space.
By
Wed, Apr 20, 2022 4:17pm
3 min
3 min
Brad Swartz and his eponymous architecture studio have garnered a heady reputation for making the most out of small homes. The studio is focused on a sustainable future for city development and works towards reformatting small inner-city dwellings and, simultaneously, removing all notions of compromise attached to present liveable homes. So, here at Kanebridge News, we though who better to pen a guide to designing a small home.
Here, five things to consider maximising your small space stylishly.
Case The Place
When looking to purchase a smaller unit or dwelling pay close attention to the windows and the external aspect. Often what makes a small dwelling feel bigger is what surrounds it or what it looks out to. A small unit with multiple windows — especially on either side — will make it feel larger, bring in better ventilation and better light.
Get Your Priorities Right
Figuring out what matters to you before designing your home is an essential first step. Whether you want a place to entertain, or you need space for an office, or lounging — having a clear understanding of what you want from your home will help you more efficiently organise and design your home.
Find Balance Between Storage And Space
Creating ample storage in a small home is always an uphill battle. The key to creating a comfortable and liveable space with little room is to find the balance between having the necessary storage without comprimising the sense of space. In a nutshell, this means making sure that you can see the full width of the room by not taking cupboards to the ceiling or leaving a gap under cabinets that exposes the flooring for a sense of continuity. These small things trick the eye and when combined with good aspect and lighting can make the home feel much bigger than it really is.
Find Opportunities For Multi-Use Items
Small homes require a sense of creativity, so where possible, find opportunities for things to have multiple uses. Foldable desks that become clothes racks, murphy beds, or screens like the one I used in The Boneca [pictured above] building I used to delineate the two spaces help to add functionality to a room without sacrificing space or light.
Add a Touch Of Luxury
Just because you’re living in a smaller space doesn’t mean you have to forgo life’s luxuries. And, as the spaces are smaller – a little bit goes a long way. Opt for a splash of marble, or other luxurious stone finishes, or build in a drop-down projector — whatever it is is, that’s going to make the home more comfortable and liveable for you. Ultimately these are home and you want to feel comfortable in them and want them to be a space you want to live in.
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A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.
By E.B. Solomont
Thu, Sep 24, 2026 3 min
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For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
