Staircases in these Puzzle Box rooms

This is about a ten minute video and it's about a DIY Sofa for a hotel from a channel called @HomeMadeModern. The description doesn't indicate that the intent of the channel is Mid Century Modern design, but some of the pieces probably fit that aesthetic just fine.

So I watched the above sofa video because I've watched several videos recently like this one (my note says: Except WHERE is the kitchen?) where the video seems to be an illustration of an idea for what I want to call a puzzle box of a room.

Here's a few more under whatever label I gave them while make notes with ZERO goal in mind:


Don't make a Tatami bed (a Tatami bed is apparently low to the floor)





I'm at wit's end with my life. Writing isn't adequately paying my bills and I'm wondering what else I might be able to do that might make money.

As best I can tell, I've removed all photos of myself from the Internet and I don't want to post videos of ME and my face. Sometimes cooking videos focus on the food rather than the person, but I'm not in a position to do cooking videos.

So I'm kind of fascinated by these videos of puzzle box rooms and I'm thinking hypothetically I could make clips like that -- probably not REALLY, but it doesn't blatantly violate certain restrictions I live with -- and that's part of my motive for poking around at "related" videos, like the sofa video up top.

So I watched some number of such clips and then looked to see if I could readily find products for sale online, like the freestanding staircases with drawers in some of them.

They tend to have what I feel is an Asian vibe and some videos have a blip here and there of possibly Chinese characters.The thing is these densely packed rooms tend to be found in densely populated places, like Tokyo or New York City or Paris. 

That's not a criticism. I'm human and like anyone, I can be hooked on eye candy pertinent to my interests that in practice I have no real use for.

Kind of like you sell clothes by putting the cool stuff in the window to get people in the door, but most of your money is made on boring basics.

It's just a reality that these densely packed puzzle box rooms or multifunctional furniture that has a similar purpose has value in places where you are renting a small apartment in a big city and the urban fabric around you is densely packed with amenities and you're trying to figure out how to have a full life when you can only afford to rent a "shoebox" of an apartment.

I like some elements of the designs and don't like other elements. I'm a clean freak and that's not really by choice. I have a medical condition and I need things clean or I like DIE. Minor little stuff like that.

So I have a very minimalist lifestyle and I have had that for a lot of years and the reality is most Westerners at least wouldn't neatly fold all their stuff and stick them in all these drawers.

I'm trying to figure what I like in the videos that might have some kind of practical application for my life or for Americans or something like that.

Americans have this tiny home trend and a lot of us -- me included -- are fascinated by or infatuated with the idea of living in a tiny home, but then you go online and find that people are typically disappointed and frustrated with it if they go that route.

I think that's because in America, we have this suburban lifestyle and you need more space for storage because you probably grocery shop once a week and if you have a social life -- or want one -- you need space for that because there's no Parisian sidewalk cafe around the corner to meet up with friends.

Americans are seeing high rates of homelessness and people living in things like RVs -- that's short for recreational vehicles which are intended for vacations, not intended to be full-time housing -- and we are definitely feeling the financial pinch and moving to smaller spaces, but we aren't there yet so to speak. We aren't really ready for puzzle box rooms in tiny homes because New York City is our largest city and most of America isn't that densely populated.

So I look up the kind of seemingly freestanding staircases I'm seeing in several of these videos, wondering if it's possible to just buy pieces of this concept. At first blush: Probably NOT.

It looks super cool, but most people wouldn't have the skill to do this kind of custom build and for most people in America at least, the cost of hiring someone to create something like this would be prohibitive and they would just drive an hour to the suburbs and buy a more spacious home and fill it with more conventional furniture instead.

So the sofa video was cool and it's a bit less polished looking than these puzzle box rooms, but it's vastly better quality than what came up in my initial searches for staircases with drawers. So I snagged it because it's like a step in the right direction.

For what? I have no clue. My life is in free fall and I'm just trying to look around for something new to focus on that might get me out of my rut or whatever.

I can find staircases with drawers being sold online, but they tend to have a stupidly deep bottom drawer and there are no shelves in the side.

I'm wondering if people in Tokyo can pull up something like that instantly in Japanese and click "BUY" for some not insane price, but I seemingly can't as an American searching in English.

So I dig it, but I'm trying to put my finger on some practical application and I'm not yet finding it.