Meow Meow

Step inside the Los Angeles residence of inventor and product designer Simone Giertz, and you’ll quickly realize this isn’t your average 630-square-foot (58 sqm) home. Forget cookie-cutter designs; Giertz, known for her early career building “shitty robots,” now channels her inventive spirit into solving everyday problems within her living space, creating a dwelling that feels less like a house and more like a custom-built, functional sculpture.

For Giertz, home is a sanctuary, a “house that spoons me,” a cozy retreat where she can recover from her adventurous work life. Having previously renovated and lived on an old tugboat in Stockholm, Sweden, Giertz is no stranger to unconventional spaces. She views living small not as a limitation, but as a “design challenge” that provides “very clear parameters” for creativity, pushing her to make every corner the best it can be. This philosophy is beautifully encapsulated in her mantra: “Everything is awesome, but it’s like everything is custom”. She consciously strives to keep her home “weird” and avoids the dreaded “Home Depot flip,” embracing its imperfect, “winged-it” history rather than striving for architectural perfection.

Her home, which she shares with Scraps the dog, Futs the cat, and Tobin the foster dog, has been a canvas for her ingenious solutions for four years. One of her most notable creations is the thread spool side table, which doubles as storage for knitting yarn and exemplifies her fondness for “big versions of small objects” in a small house. Practicality meets whimsy in her Plamp, a pot-lamp combination where plant leaves form the light cover, creating a living fixture that continuously grows and needs re-hanging.

Addressing a common difference between Swedish and American architecture, where American homes often lack hallways, Giertz ingeniously rebuilt her staircase to the loft, incorporating shoe storage and two cabinets for jackets and bags. Her stained glass window, an ambitious first project, replaced solid doors to flood a room with much-needed light, a personal tribute to a lemon tree she’d accidentally killed.

Storage and multi-functionality are paramount. Her jigsaw puzzle table is a masterclass in versatility, featuring two interchangeable tabletops, integrated bench seating, and ample storage, capable of accommodating up to seven people – a nod to the Swedish saying, “if there’s heart room there’s butt room”. To combat the perpetual issue of too much or too little fruit, she invented a mechanical fruit bowl that ingeniously changes size based on its contents. Even her old IKEA cabinets received a low-stakes modification with routed ridges, giving them a more desired farmhouse look.

Giertz’s bedroom is a testament to maximizing a small footprint. Faced with a cramped space due to a centrally placed bed and tall wardrobes, she built a platform bed that ingeniously hides clothing, suitcases, and even Tobin’s bed underneath. This elevated sleeping arrangement evokes a “treehouse” feel, inspiring a custom headboard with embedded lights and inlaid felt. Her frustration with finding a coat rack led to the development of her Coat Hinders, innovative folding coat hangers that hang half the distance from the wall, now a product available through her company, yet.store.

Her home is a living laboratory, a “constant experiment” where objects are tried out and either become permanent fixtures or are retired. This philosophy extends to projects like her prototype chair with a built-in staircase for Scraps to reach her lap. Even seemingly mundane items are re-imagined, from custom floor vents to a “dedicated toilet paper shelf” that puts typically hidden items on display. For Giertz, design is about purpose, even if it’s not always “pretty.” As she states, “I’d rather have weird than boring and ugly than boring”.

While the workshop, affectionately dubbed the “butthole of the house” due to its purely functional, un-prettified nature, underscores her commitment to practicality, the overall impression of Giertz’s home is one of warmth, ingenuity, and profound personal connection. It is, in her words, the “perfect space” that serves as a “creative canvas” and a “spa for my brain”. Her unique approach to design offers invaluable lessons for anyone looking to make a small space not just functional, but truly their own.