At 1,000 Square Feet

Feeling bad about your 500 square feet? Don't. Just make it chic like Manhattan-based designer,Juan Carlos Garcia-Lavin. His minimalist Flatiron loft, featured in January's Elle Decor, is a mere 1,000 square feet.

He wants to live in spaces that are "furnished as an art gallery" (Duh, we'd all be much richer if we owned art over renting overpriced space).

So, what are the tricks-of-the-trade?

1. "Stark white walls"

2. "Lean furniture," meaning less depth and a shorter width.

3. "Fool-the-eye furniture placement," that refers to putting nothing against the wall except a bed, Garcia-Lavin says.

4. Pull furniture to the center of the living room, which "gives the illusion of more room."

5. Open windows that are painted the same color as the walls -- white. (Again, this allows the space to look bigger).

6. Increase the height of the doorways to make the ceilings look higher.

7. Garcia-Lavin constructed symmetrical book shelves --carved into his walls--- to not consume any additional space. The result is a modern, cubical storage mechanism for "hundreds of his art books."

See the abbreviated version online at Elle Decor, but if you want to see all the pictures, you might want to pick up the latest issue.