Shades and blinds are too expensive and I'm through with purchasing furnishings/fixtures for rentals. I've had pretty good luck with room darkening Redi-Shades. They look fine from the outside and inside, too. Maybe they aren't so permanent...but they stay looking good for a long time and they come in all the standard sizes (and a few colors). You can customize with a pair of scissors. They're about $6-7 at Home Depot. They also have Redi-Shades that don't darken so much.

I am quite a fan of the Levolor metal blinds. The plastic ones are bad. The leveler metal ones are pretty good. And I think they are about maybe $16 per blind.

Rickler,

Lowes has a surprisingly inexpensive and pretty good selection of shadres and blinds. 

Obviously it comes down to a matter of taste and function, but my preference has always been for cellular shades because they look great, involve very little cleaning which can be done with a vacuum cleaner when necessary and let light filter through when closed (which is key for me).

Last thing: they will custom cut them while you wait or you can do it all online and just pick them up.

This question hasn't gotten any love so I just wanted to throw out that electrostatic painting is a (literally) ancient technique that uses science to paint certain stuff perfectly and it's pretty cool.

I've never actually used it for anything large scale but I have seen it done small scale and the results were perfect.

Really simple explanation is your paint is positively charged and your object is negatively charged and the paint is attracted to it just like a magnet so you get results unlike doing things by hand.

Lights are ridiculously expensive. If you are simply attaching wires to a ceiling then there is no retrofitting. If a plug is involved then all you need to do is change the plug. If there is a transformer involved (low voltage lights) then it's also easy since most transformers are built for 220/110 - but you'd need to make sure.

The only other retrofitting you might want to do is to change the bulb socket if it is some hard to get style of bulb. Again, simple rewiring will do that.

Couple of things to keep in mind:

1. You might want to consider installing an LED fixture because everything is going that way soon/now. They are super cheap to run and only need to be replaced about every 5+ years - and the options are far more creative because the LED footprint is so tiny.

2. It is very possible to rig and LED into just about anything you want and call it a light. So think outside the box, lighting is about to change in a huge way and the idea of single fixed lights hanging from a ceiling will be about as common as candles once were.

Look up LED fixtures to give you some ideas.

Lights are ridiculously expensive. If you are simply attaching wires to a ceiling then there is no retrofitting. If a plug is involved then all you need to do is change the plug. If there is a transformer involved (low voltage lights) then it's also easy since most transformers are built for 220/110 - but you'd need to make sure.

The only other retrofitting you might want to do is to change the bulb socket if it is some hard to get style of bulb. Again, simple rewiring will do that.

Couple of things to keep in mind:

1. You might want to consider installing an LED fixture because everything is going that way soon/now. They are super cheap to run and only need to be replaced about every 5+ years - and the options are far more creative because the LED footprint is so tiny.

2. It is very possible to rig and LED into just about anything you want and call it a light. So think outside the box, lighting is about to change in a huge way and the idea of single fixed lights hanging from a ceiling will be about as common as candles once were.

Look up LED fixtures to give you some ideas.

You don't mention how much living space is available to you upstairs and whether or not this is a reasonable refuge for you while work goes on with the first floor. But however that may affect your plans, some general recommendations are:

Complete the areas that you use the most that are essential to enjoy living in your home, kitchen and bathroom. Because the kitchen is something that is not easy to change on a whim, start there and make it the way you want and then coordinate the other adjoining spaces for color, texture, lighting wise, etc. Your kitchen flooring will probably be different from the living spaces next to it so doing the floor and everything there will be a complete unit and you can select the floor to extend around it later.

The bathroom is an island unto itself and once completed will be a pleasant experience for you both in daily use and a reminder of where you are headed. When in the eventual turmoil and disarray of other construction you will be able to, at least, enjoy a shower or bath in a finished room to decompress.

Get that large screen TV hung up, it can always be dismounted and stored for the short term when working on the wall surfaces and fireplace facade. Meanwhile you have entertainment in place for the in-between time.

Coordinating multiple workmen/individual contractors to take on the whole project may get a bit crazy (without hiring a general contractor to oversee it all) so doing it in some piecemeal order may work out more successfully and you can take it on in the order of how your resources dictate.

Take lots of pictures, before, during and after as you progress. It is a great record of the work. will remind you how far you have come, and may in the future answer a question or two (where did the wiring run in the ceiling for the can lighting?, where are the copper water pipes in the wall?, etc.)

Doing it all at once hurts in living adjustment as well as money wise. You don't want to be living in a house where every room is under construction. It also takes more time with all those projects going on at once (even if you have three different crews working them) with that much stuff going on it is really easy for mistakes or changes you might not have wanted or approved to happen. Whenever someone else is doing stuff you want to have an idea of the changes being made and coridinating all that at once means you're less likely to catch when the new outlets are not on the wall you asked for but on another wall because it's a little less work and materials.
I would highly recommend doing it inshifts. Not only will it be less chaos but if you don't end up liking your contractor it's a lot easier to let them go when you're done with that area than trying to replace them mid way through the whole thing. And you really don't want to not be able to use your kitchen for 3 months while the other areas are addressed. Factor in to your costs the amount of times you will be eating out or convenience food, because that cost alone could tip the decision the other way
It is also a bit hard mentally if there are no places in your home where there is order. If it's one room with plastic up to cut down on dist traveling every where it's easier to still relax and do your real life stuff. If it's the whole house at once you're gonna wish you had anywhere else to go. I've lived in two houses while they were going through Overhauls and it's not fun one of those was right before I moved out for college and the fights my parents were having with the contractor who would listen to what they wanted and just change it or ignore it was so frustrating I moved across the country a few months early. The house was never remodeled in a way that made sense for them. some of it was design changes in the kitchen because my mom spent most time there and was left handed and wanted a more functional for her kitchen. If she wasn't on site every day there was stuff she either had to pay to have redone or live with. With a large crew working on the whole house it was super easy for things not to get passed down to the lower totem pole workers

And I'd say to het the work done before you start buying furniture. First off you don't wanna bring it into a construction zone and second there are always unaccounted for costs that come up weather you're doing the work or someone else Is. You want to have a bubble if you need it and not a really nice couch you can't return because it has drywall dust on it

If you want cheap and impersonal, Bed Bath and Beyond and Cost Plus World Market all have lots of different kinds of bulk wall art, ranging from posters to stretched canvas to wall sculpture.

However, I like Sublevelthree's idea of buying local. Cheers to that.

There are tons of boutique galleries ( every neighborhood has a few) caring mid priced artist wares. West Seattle has twilight, cap hill has the cupcake place that took over blue bottles old space, can't remember the names in fremont and Ballard but this city is crawling with artist consignment stores. How bout spending that money in the community where it can feed/ keep an artist working instead of getting the mass produced ikea-esque prints just to have "something" there.

Go down to occidental park on first thurs and barter with some artists if you're broke or find someone local who might sell you direct from their studio for less, even * gasp* put an add on craigslist. There are people who are selling work way below it's value lately, and while I don't wanna encourage that too much it's better to get something hand made for less than it's worth if it keeps them in studio rent than a mass produced print (and this is coming from a print maker who works with vinyl, I have nothing against either medium, but the places selling them), otherwise you're just throwing money at a big corporation that probably bought the rights to the work for way below what they should have been sold for and are printed digitally by the thousands at the push of a button.
Go to the open houses at uw and Cornish and buy some student work. Go to the vera project and buy some hand printed posters. Go to the fremont street fair for some collage work. Or find some crazy patterned sheets at good will and stretch over a frame If ya wantsome mindless abstraction ( or dig through the thriftstore art for something huge and kitchy for 5 bucks) but combing through Blick's gift area is just supporting a nationwide chain for something you can get anywhere instead of keeping that cash in the city during a time when artists are more kicked down than any other time most of us have lived through. Please support local artists. They really need to be able to keep themselves in supplies and studios, and there are a ton of them trying to scrape by in town. To me it makes way more sense to spend the same amount on a locally made piece than 50+ bucks on a digitally printed piece that costs about 5 bucks in materials, shipping and handling. That's a huge mark up, and even if some of that goes to the artist in roalities it's WAY less than a consignment cut or a studio sale price

The following site has tons of ideas and studio apartment makeovers, should be very useful for you:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

Build your bed to a loft bed. Then use lots of shelves.

I have both a very large dresser (waist height, six feet wide, very sturdy) and a very large bed (queen size) and a VERY small apartment.

I cut some sturdy lengths of... um... they're very thick pieces of wood, I don't remember the exact size, I just went to a lumber yard and said "I want that one!". Those became the supports for the wall side of my bed and the visible side is supported by my gigantic dresser of doom.

I use a step ladder to get up and down (I highly suggest using glow-in-the-dark paint so you can see where you're stepping in the dark) and there is a metric shitload of storage space underneath.

And if you have a cat? "Cave Explorer" becomes their new favorite one-player game.

An additional bonus is that when it's bath time, you know exactly where the little stinker will be hiding.

You do realize how small 300 sq. ft. is, don't you?

I had an apt. once that was 275 sq. ft. and could fit almost nothing in it.

That said, building up will probably be your friend at this point. I agree that you'll probably want to get rid of the loveseat, because there just will be no room to move around otherwise. For your bikes, I would suggest one of those systems where you can hook your bike up and lift it to the ceiling, but make sure you have enough head room too. I don't know how tall your ceilings are. If you are getting a new bed, get one with storage under it. If you already have your bed, then cram as much stuff under it as you can. They have boxes for that sort of thing. Utilize your wall space as much as you can. I know it is a bit of a bummer not to have wall space, but you can always put pictures on shelves or something.

I've lived in small spaces a lot. I have to say that you *might* have to give up on the completely aesthetically pleasing aspect of it if you don't want to get rid of all of your "stuff."

But, here again are my pieces of advice: think vertical AND think multipurpose for everything! Have a way so that if you have a table it can be used for many things. Turn the bed into a couch, etc.

Good luck. I feel your pain!

I'd do this. Looks easy:

Unless you're totally attached to the loveseat, I recommend getting rid of it and using the bed for seating when you have people over (or for your own use). Push it up against a wall lengthwise, and pile pillows on it for back support. If using the bed for that isn't optimal, you could still push the bed against the wall, and place the loveseat in front of it. Putting a screen or bookcase between the two would create some privacy.

One problem with putting the bed on a loft structure is that air doesn't circulate very well near the ceiling. If you're at all sensitive to sleeping in stuffy air, you'd be better off keeping the bed at normal height.

I find Unclutterer's workspace of the week very inspiring for organizing workspaces; if only I had the time and money to fix up my office/craft room. Apartment Therapy similarly has great suggestions for small space living (although perversely, you'll have to slog through a lot of posts about the next great thing to buy).

I always have this problem when I move. I don't know how much money you are will to spend on elaborate storage systems. I'm never willing to spend any but I'm also willing to living in a bit of a cramped and salvage chic environment.

First I would suggest hanging your bikes from the ceiling in an accessible space. I also leave most of my stuff clothes and fabric scarps in labeled, medium size boxes which I keep in a closet. Hardier boxes make a good side table especially with a discard board on top and nice fabric scrap as a table cloth. These boxes should be seasonal or irregular use items of course.

I also use other crap I accumulate to make book cases. I have a lot of house paint, things in coffee cans, milk crates, and old painted boards to use. I just leave a couple of cans of house paint available to switch in when I need to use the ones providing structural support. Then I fill the book cases to the brim so the contents also support the structure. Only use the things you need on the top shelevs the bottom should big milk crates or boxes you can store more stuff in that is acessible. Make sure everthing is structurally sound and more or less earthquake safe.

Finally everything that can be hung should be hung from the wall ceiling or any other place avaible. It saves space and makes for easy access. Use baskets or maybe that pasta strainer you don't use that much to hang from the ceiling and store more things. 

Use everything you can as a rotating storeage place. When it's not in use it holds something else. It's not pretty but it works. Good Luck!

If the celling is high enough, build a frame with 4X4's and 2X6's to raise the bed, put love seat under or sewing machine.
Sell everything you don't need or use on a regular basis.
Shelves, Shelves, Shelves.
Hooks, hooks, hooks.
Utilize all "dead"space
Hang a rod from some eye-bolts in the ceiling and use S-hooks to hang pots and pans.
There are many blogs done by yuppies in living tiny apartments as either a result of living in over priced areas or as experiments in faux poverty chic/simple living. There are some good space saving ideas in there, but some of them are expensive or require remodeling.
From someone who lives in a 320 square foot cabin, good luck and best wishes.

I live in a small house, and I have a shitload of toys and tools. Crab pots, fishing rods, boat motors, golf clubs, bikes, gardening tools, car & truck repair tools, etc.

I've discovered that seasonal rotation is the secret to keep from dying in clutter. I keep things on deep shelves and in boxes, tucked here and there and everywhere, many of which are inaccessible or very difficult to get at. The trick is to rotate the boxes and stuff into the accessible locations when they'll be needed.

Come April, the tire chains and the winter boots get stashed away so deep they're pretty much dead to me. Around that time, the fishing gear comes back out. You get the drift.

Does your stuff follow a similar rotation? I don't imagine you do much camping in December. And I'll bet you do less indoor arts and crafts when the weather's nice in August. And from what I recall from my mother's canning, that seems to be a Fall activity.

Think about what you'll need, and when you'll need it. Then find the places where you can cram stuff out of the way for the seasons you won't be using it. Get creative, even the smallest living spaces are chock full of hard-to-access storage nooks, under the bed, behind the loveseat, in the back of the closet.

Find those out-of-the-way hard-to-access extra square inches of storage space, and cram them full of the stuff you're not going to use this time of year, then rotate as the seasons change.

Check out GORM shelving at Ikea for storage ideas that can also be used for other surfaces for electronics, TV, etc. - very versatile for putting it together to fit your spaces. Paint it if you want some accent color or a more formal look than wood.

Lift your bed on blocks or other risers specifically made for supporting a bed frame so you have storage space underneath.

Hang you bikes from the ceiling and camping gear on the wall, use your wall space as storage sites, think of them as the artwork of how you live your life.

I am thinking of a bench designed for a kitchen table with hinged seats over storage chests for putting the various pots and pans you may not need every day.

Find a space for that loveseat that commands the room and make a good effort to keep stuff from landing on it. That way, no matter how much your space gets a bit cluttered you have a refuge there with space to relax, talk, read.

Don't forget to have one really healthy looking potted floor plant to share space with. You need to share living space with at least one living being.

Just some ideas.

Emily, I hope you'll post here when you find a solution that you are good with? I am struggling with what material- leather nor not-and the same question of cheaper and go through sofas every few years or an expensive one and hope like hell it lasts. The latter one is a real leap of faith for us ($) that's for sure. The family is one thing but roughest on our sofa is and would be our two dogs. Hope to hear back in months to come!

Look for old office chairs from craigslist, value village, etc. Most office chairs have removable arms that could potentially be fastened to the sides of the couch. 2 on each side might be a pretty cool look.

A love seat without arms? I think the problem is not how to secure the cushions, but what do we call this abomination? It's certainly NOT a love seat my friend. A divan gone awry? ottoman on steroids? Miniature armless couch? Or does it deserve a whole new word entirely? Ams are the least of your problems my space traveling friend.

We went a completely different route. Had a classic 60s couch with great lines and great "bones" reupholstered. Spent around $2K. Unfortunately picked out an upholstery that the cats loved to sharpen their claws on. Fucking cats.

I think the best approach is to go for a leather that is already worn-looking so that you don't have to worry about what it will look like when it does get worn looking.

I have friends who have this sofa: 

It is closer to $3K which is mighty expensive, but it seems like it will last forever. They have a dog who is on it all the time and it hasn't shown a bit of the abuse.

We just bought a $1500 leather sofa with reclining ends, it's a Klausner, and the leather on the most used seat is all scratched up already. It actually looks like snags. We have had the sofa for just over a month. I wouldn't buy Klausner again. I wish we had spent the extra couple of hundred dollars and picked the one at the Macy's showroom at Alderwood, I'm pretty sure the leather was a lot better.

This surely isn't natural fiber, but it might fit the bill otherwise and has stood up to our cats. The tight weave doesn't seem to get fur in it and hides what there is pretty well. We've only owned it for maybe a year, though.