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Home to ceramicist Ryo Kaneko, this compact rental apartment in a quiet Tokyo neighbourhood reflects Kaneko’s love of pottery, sewing and furniture-making — with nearly every piece in the apartment designed and built by him. Using one consistent timber throughout, he creates a sense of unity across custom shelving, storage walls, furniture and display pieces. In the entrance hidden storage is built into a shoe bench and a former coat closet now holds long tools and DIY equipment. Custom furniture responds directly to his needs: a floating sofa rebuilt from an old shelf, a compact workspace shaped through trial and error, and a bookshelf inspired by Donald Judd. In the kitchen, curtains replace doors and S-hooks keep everyday tools within easy reach, while in the bedroom, the removal of old sliding doors allows light to flow freely through the apartment, creating one continuous room. The apartment works as a living space, workshop and gallery all at once.
00:00-01:39 Introduction
01:39-02:22 Location
02:22-04:38 Entrance
04:38-11:03 Living Room
11:03-14:00 Dining Area
14:00-14:32 Kitchen
14:32-17:46 Bedroom
17:46-18:53 Bathroom
18:53-19:58 Conclusion
To see more inside this apartment https://www.nevertoosmall.com/post/how-a-tokyo-ceramicist-lives-small-in-his-diy-apartment
#smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign
How I Live Small Ep. 15
Owner: Ryo Kaneko
https://www.instagram.com/zakka_ryo/
Produced by New Mac Video Agency
Creator: Colin Chee
Producer: Lindsay Barnard
Director & Cinematographer: Nam Tran https://www.instagram.com/namtran.me/
Editor: Raian Best
Music: Artlist.io
Enyaw and Sitting on a Cloud by Yotam Ben-Or
Wall St and Highline by Duffmusiq
Life Balance by Roie Shpigler
Monkey Clown and Dressy Stuff by Elifas Sonaru
More than Words by Honey G
Chikyuu by macaroom
Insomniac by Ori Kaplan
Nitty Gritty by Ziggy
River Banks by Dor Hadad
Minato and Itabashi by Magiksolo
Capao da Canoa by Amos Ever Hadini
Nut your Business by Randy Sharp
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30 Comments
Hi Ryo! Nice place!🎉
wont consume to much energy for sure….
Love this guy ❤
Great presentation of the living spaces. It felt really personal and you could really feel the joy of making the space his own!
Outstanding home. You are a very creative person and I love that you display all your projects. Your home is bright and cheerful. An escape from the chaos of the outside world.
Delightful
I love his creativity and DIY skills.
Bonus points for recycling those food trolleys used by cabin crews on flights ! 👍
Absolutely delightful! So inspiring. Thank you.
Lots of ingenious little ideas in this apartment – well done 🙂
Wow—I love your apartment!
This is so much fun. I am going to rewatch it with a notebook in hand 😊
I love how optimized for diy/crafting/art his space is. The storage tetris game is real. 😀
What a fun apartment. Love his style.
I love japanese apartments. this is a 37m2 mini apartment, and its surprising to see how much different japanese apartments look in comparison to European apartments. Japanese apartments somehow always look organized in their own way. They like displaying things and DIYing.
Really like this – the plant offering separation between living-bed area is beautiful and genius – owner is a really cute too. —- Dave
so fun!!! i loved it hehe
Yes this is small, but it's not particularly beautiful… I think you should only include things that are actually inspiring. Like for every 100 of your videos it seems only 1 shows an aesthetically pleasing small home. The other 99% is just a bunch of messy houses
His night time ritual is so cute 😭
I love how he separated the spaces in his apartment.🫶🏿🫶🏿
love his enthusiasm and sense of humor. so amazing that he created a space that shows his personality
Who said Japanese people couldn't decorate?
Lovely apartment 😍 I love to learn
Woodcraft for making my stuffs
Wonderful video and great living example of a term I heard many years ago, "beausage" (bee-you-sage). Beauty + usage. It describes the beauty of well-used things. The imperfections are essential. Bravo!
Looks very nice, not to small at all.
Places like Australia need to let renters make adjustments to the walls etc, just like they do in Japan.
I hate that I'm unable to hang a picture frame on the white walls of my apartment. It's depressing to be unable to personalise like Ryo can.
This guy's prepared for even a zombie apocalypse. Very impressive.
This episode stands out for its ideas that can be adapted and applied to other living spaces. Personally, I quite like episodes like this, even if they aren’t particularly unique or outstanding.
Some episodes feature impressive ideas, but creating rooms or houses like those requires a highly skilled architect or a relatively large budget even for small spaces.
(wie)neu ❤
It is interesting to see that kind of designed house in earthquake country.
nice looking place