At 225 square feet, Ryan Harris's East Village apartment is solidly part of the microdwelling club, but when he signed the lease two years ago, he "kind of thought it would be temporary." Harris travels a lot for his job as a transit planner with Jacobs Engineering, so he was looking for something small, though this is a bit tighter than he anticipated. "It's not small, it's tiny," he says of his second floor walk-up. "But there's so much character here, I saw the potential." The previous occupant had a Queen-size bed plopped in the middle of the room, but Harris wanted the space to be more functional. He also needed storage; the apartment had exactly zero closets. The solution? A custom-made transforming unit with a Murphy bed, night stand, dresser, armoire, and hallway closet that Harris designed and built entirely by himself.
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