How a Sydney Couple shares their home as a Library, Shop & Social Space, 60sqm/646sqft

Never Too Small

To find out more about the Eva Slideaway Sofa Bed, Timber Bed Frame and Kino Storage drawers as featured in this episode head to https://eva.com.au/  In the heart of Sydney, artist and DJ Mason Kimber and writer and arts consultant Mariam Ella Arcilla have transformed their compact micro-terrace into Magenta House—a home that doubles as a creative and communal gathering space. Designed by architect Adele McNab, this 3-metre-wide terrace seamlessly blends private and shared living, hosting everything from communal meals and workshops to reading sessions and street parties. Thoughtfully designed storage, modular furniture, and adaptable layouts allow the home to shift between personal retreat and community hub. A curated in-house library invites guests to explore, while the courtyard and DJ booth reflect their love for hospitality, creativity, and social connection.  00:00-01:44 Introduction 01:44-03:00 Location 03:00-05:11 Library 05:11-06:47 Stairway 06:47-09:08 Bedroom 09:08-10:46 Bathroom 10:46-13:05 Kitchen 13:05-14:46 Courtyard 14:46-17:43 Shop 17:43-18:46 Back Alley 18:46-19:14 Conclusion  #smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign   How I Live Small Ep.6 Project Name: Magenta House Owner: https://magentahouse.com.au/  Architect: https://adelemcnab.com/   Produced by New Mac Video Agency Creator: Colin Chee Director & Cinematographer: Nam Tran Producer: Lindsay Barnard Editor: Jessica Ruasol Music: Artlist.io Lets Dream by Vladislav Kurnikov Sensual Hold Muzakby Lance Conrad Itabashi by Magiksolo Too Old to Fly by Skipp Whitman Mack the Knife by Amos Ever Hadani As Much as I Love You by shu By Your Side by Yestalgia Villa Cannoli by Jamie Bathgate Around Everywhere by Vladislav Kurnikov Mulholland Drive by NOOMA Your Glow by Vladislav Kurnikov Direction by Barrell Saturday Morning by Vladislav Kurnikov Mist by Dor Ben Lulu  Magenta House image credits listed by order of appearance: Library Visitor Photo: Mariam Ella Arcilla Filipino Pot-Luck at Magenta House: Justin Cueno  Setting up at Magenta House Shop: Anna Hay Bin Alley Biennale: Anna Hay KANTINE Supperclub by Zosia Cooks & Leonie Bouchet: Justine Hornoy Magenta House Drawing by Library Visitor Hyo: Hyo BEST BEFORE Lunch-Table Gathering: Mariam Ella Arcilla Magenta House Programs Montage: Mariam Ella Arcilla Setting Up the Library: Mariam Ella Arcilla Library Visitors: Mariam Ella Arcilla Exploring Food Recipes at Magenta House Library: Mariam Ella Arcilla Library Visitors: Mariam Ella Arcilla BEST BEFORE Lunch-Table Gathering: Aphrodite Delaguiado KANTINE Supperclub by Zosia Cooks & Leonie Bouchet: Justine Hornoy Fine Print Magazine Networking Day: Mariam Ella Arcilla Filipino Pot-Luck at Magenta House: Justin Cueno Filipino Cook-Up: Mariam Ella Arcilla Oyster Shucking Workshop: Mason Kimber Chef Aheda Cooking Class: Mariam Ella Arcilla Magenta House Programs Montage: Mariam Ella Arcilla Five-Spice Girls Supperclub: Mariam Ella Arcilla BEST BEFORE Lunch-Table Gathering: Aphrodite De

Transcript

00:05When we first moved in we noticed when we would keep the door open there would

00:09be neighbours popping in and going oh my gosh they would want to come in so we'd

00:15immediately invite them over and then we realized why don't we just open this up

00:20to the public. It's both a private space of security and safety and everything a

00:27home should be but it's also a kind of shared space on our own terms. My name

00:36is Mason I'm an artist educator and DJ as well. My name is Mariam I'm an arts

00:41consultant writer and community facilitator. We're currently in our

00:48converted terrace it's also called Magenta House and we use the house as a space to

00:54share and hold events. We run micro workshops, we have talks, we have reading

01:01sessions in the library, we have communal meals, we have a street party with our

01:07neighbours and most recently we also started the shop.

01:16We operate on the ground level of our house we usually don't let people in

01:21upstairs so that we have that boundary.

01:25We moved in here January 2022. We really wanted a space where we could spend all of

01:31our time in the house and we could evolve the rooms and be a bit more multimodal.

01:36Walking into this house the way that Adele McNabb the architect configured the

01:41space it kind of felt like a space that how could you not share. The house is in

01:46Redfern, Sydney, Australia, the inner city of Sydney.

01:51We're city slickers definitely but what we find is even though we're in the heart of

01:57inner city it feels like a mirage like it's just very quiet here.

02:03The terrace here is part of a row of sort of micro terraces so they're about three

02:08metres wide which is pretty small for Sydney.

02:12The custom-made sculpture by Tanika Jalas was created especially for this house by the

02:19architect and what's so funny is that when we moved into this space the postman would

02:23actually start putting the letters in here thinking it was a letterbox and so we had a

02:28letterbox installed just right there to the left. We basically bicycle around the

02:33area to do chores to see friends.

02:36That's your delivery basket for things from the shop if someone makes an order.

02:41And very clumsy so I ended up accidentally breaking this pot plant because I wasn't

02:46used to parking the bicycle so close.

02:49This door is matching the colour of the rest of the house and it creates a beautiful breeze

02:53to the front of the house.

02:54Yeah it allows us to be able to be at the shop at the very end and see if somebody's

02:59coming in to check out the library.

03:05We're in the front library of the house so just as you walk in. When we first moved in

03:11here the bookshelf wasn't here and we had to figure out what were the size of the shelves

03:16according to the different sized books and magazines we had.

03:19In curating these books when Mason and I came together we realised that we had a few similar

03:24books which meant that I knew that we were meant to be. We decided to paint the shelves pigeon

03:30grey or I think it's called bone grey but I say pigeon grey because it's just more fun

03:35to say it. It actually made the books pop a little bit more than say painting it like

03:40a bookshelf white. We've clustered these into architecture, visual art, literature, poetry

03:48and there's a lot of food culture books. We open up this library to the public most weekends

03:54and it's a really wonderful way to soft lodge guests into this room so that they can discover

04:00something new. When we have guests over I find that they usually sit down here so it's really

04:05nice to have all these different height of seating areas to be able to really be comfortable and feel

04:11like you are at a home library and not so much like a school library somewhere a little bit more

04:15formal.

04:17Usually when we have guests over and they wanted to have a quiet phone call or some privacy we just

04:23close off the curtain so that that gives us a bit of a divide in such a small house it

04:30really works.

04:31And then it also blocks or filters the light from the front here so really kind of soft light and

04:36also doesn't kind of interfere with the screen light. When I was a kid I ran a pop-up library

04:42when I

04:43was at school and the library is really an adult extension of that. I grew up in the Philippines

04:50where we had a family bakery underneath my bedroom and so we would always have people coming in and

04:57eating and serving so I feel that creative hospitality is in my bloodline and it's really wonderful to be

05:05able to actually open up the space for strangers or for friends.

05:11So as we come through there's a curved archway that separates the front and the kitchen space.

05:17We've got an amazing spiral staircase which really helps to utilise the small area here.

05:23We use the underneath the spiral staircase as a shoe rack and also a storage area for a trestle

05:28table that peeps out from beneath the back of the fridge. Sometimes yeah Marion puts our bike

05:34helmets hanging here but recently into the hanging plants we're always thinking about new ways to put

05:38the hanging plants. Staircase is this kind of like spiral drill just like reaching up to the top of the

05:45house.

05:47So as we go up we've got an amazing skylight above us kind of carved into the ceiling and once

05:54you see

05:54it it's sort of such a great sculptural feature to the house. And when it rains and thunderstorms it's really

06:00quite hypnotic to watch from down here. You can see the rain and the thunders really clearly.

06:10So one thing about this bedroom is this kind of secret hidden door which actually we only found

06:15out about like months after we moved in here. It was so discreet hidden in the pocket here that we

06:21didn't

06:21even know it was there. We have an Eva bed here which is really great fits well in the space.

06:25It also has some neat little drawers here that pop out and then underneath the bed we have a lot

06:31of

06:31storage which is really cool. I use the drawers here for storing off my video equipment when I need

06:39to do some filming so that's been pretty handy actually. I've got this great phone stand. Oh there's

06:47Marion on the cover there. This is like the Dyson remote and then the Kindle. So I'll be like this

06:54and

06:54just be like shutting my eyes and I'll just kind of like find the spot for it.

07:00The thing that I like most is the double height wardrobe system here. So we've got like two

07:07different rows of clothing. And you'll get to see the personality of me and personality of Mason.

07:12This is what would be called a hyper clash salad of color and Mason what kind of color palette do

07:19you have?

07:21Tone down yeah. But yeah this feature is really cool so it kind of pulls down

07:28and it's so good for just storing things that these are the stuff I don't use as much but great

07:33to have

07:33two levels. And in here really cool drawers as well. Got pants here, socks and things and then bits and

07:41pieces at the bottom here. We have our spirit stash up here which is kind of in a hard to

07:46reach place on purpose.

07:47Which is good, yes. These great little corner shelves that Marion usually styles with different

07:54sculptural objects and different like sort of mementos from times in our relationship and

07:59great for plants too. We do have a lot of mosquitoes they really love outside here so the net's been

08:06working pretty well and we do have a shade blind for the mornings if it gets too intense as well.

08:10Yeah or sometimes we watch projections on the wall so we'll put a projector here and that blackout

08:16blind is really good for that. This whole wall becomes like a screen. The projector's underneath

08:21the bed. I've actually got to make next a little stand for the top of the bed which will fit

08:25the

08:25projector but it actually works perfectly on this wall. Behind here it looks so seamless but actually

08:32this is a lot of the bulk of our kind of laundry storage winter clothes. We pack quite a lot

08:37in here

08:38especially at the top here there's a lot of laundry bags. And my ice cream maker, my trusted ice cream

08:44maker is at the top there and our bike helmets. This is an ingenious way to kind of make a

08:51discreet

08:52laundry space that also doubles as a door to the bathroom. It's a good way to use space and not

08:58take

08:59up space that would otherwise be taken up by a door. We've got this really nice view from the top

09:08of

09:08the neighborhood that sort of overlooks the back studio rooftop and there's a sort of self-sustaining

09:14succulent garden there. And I think Mariam more has baths than I do but when you do have a bath

09:20you

09:20can sit there and sort of look out to the neighborhood. It's a great view. One great thing about the

09:25bathroom

09:25is it continues this spider marble from the downstairs kitchen bench. Above it is just simple

09:31plywood shelving and we've got these mirrored sort of vanity storage areas. This is Mariam's. She

09:39fits a lot on the shelves here. I'm a bit more simple and minimal on my side. How I wash

09:44my face is like

09:45this because I'm quite a bird bath face washer so I try not to get splashes on the sink so

09:51Mason doesn't

09:52have to clean up after me. The ceramic tiles are a great feature. They also carry through these

09:58earthy tones throughout the house and these are heated towel racks. Although we don't really use

10:03the heated function we just use it to hang a towel on top of. Here we are in the kitchen

10:12and it is

10:13anchored by this really beautiful golden spider marble that Adele McNabb had placed in. So this island

10:20is a breakfast bar but it's also a dining table sometimes. We're able to actually use the space

10:26as a stage of sorts so usually we'll have a chef or a teacher be at this part of the

10:33table talking to

10:35the students. The bottom shelf is usually pots and pans. These double height shelves with stands that

10:42Mariam got are really helpful to kind of stack things and we love these spinning containers because

10:46it really helps you access things that are stored at the back. This is a secret little

10:52power outlet that just comes out of the ground so it's perfect for any type of appliance or charging

10:57your phone or laptop. So we've been living in this home for about three years and we only discovered

11:03that this pendant light can actually go up and down. Pretty nifty discovery to be able to find out

11:11after being here. I have hit my head a few times on that. Well now you don't have to. I

11:15can make it

11:16really high now. It's quite a lot of storage up high as well. Some of my vinegars and scobies that

11:21I'm

11:22hiding behind there. I just make just these labels. This is just a way to be able to figure out

11:29what's

11:30all the way up there. Kind of just reminds you of like oh that's the area for this type of

11:34thing. It's like

11:35okay the tea stuff is here. If it's tea related it should go there. And this is the shoe rack

11:40that

11:40I've used for the spices because they look quite cool on an angle. This is a ceramic artwork by

11:49Michelle Bonson-Prowse. It's supposed to be an e-step bottle and I accidentally one time put it next to

11:55the real one and then I pressed on the wrong one and it broke. So I'm sorry Michelle I will

12:01probably

12:02contact you now that everybody knows that this has happened. So this one is a dishwasher. We

12:08actually didn't even know this was here until a few weeks in. We actually don't use it that often

12:14because I prefer to hand wash but it's great when we do have a big like number of guests we

12:18can just

12:19chuck them all in there and under the sink is just like cleaning products and then garbage. This drawer

12:24kind of comes out as well. Stepping into the courtyard from the kitchen we're going to buy this fern tree

12:31which kind of hugs the safari windows so they come up and down on this hydraulic system which is a

12:39great way to kind of also protect the sun and also rain. And the beautiful thing about this space is

12:43it is like a sort of threshold between this pavilion and then the back studio. So it's like a refresher

12:50when you go from one space to the other it's like you're entering another zone. Yeah and this internal

12:57courtyard is where we have supper clubs, communal meals. Even though I'm from the Gold Coast I haven't

13:06really used this shower outside but we just use this to order our plants so they're getting the benefits

13:13of the shower. The tree before the fern tree was a beautiful gaddy grass tree but unfortunately it got

13:21root rot so we're really sad. We had a candle vigil to send off the tree and then we had

13:27to replace it

13:28with this one. But the beautiful thing about this fern tree is the thin trunk so it offers more space

13:33to move around and as Mariam jokes we can fit three more guests for a dinner party. It will hopefully

13:39provide a kind of shade canopy across the whole courtyard. This is the entrance to the second bathroom of

13:44the house so as you open up there's a small sink and toilet there. Another innovative thing about this

13:52house is the double doors that open up so when we are moving furniture in or when we have a

13:59big crowd

13:59of guests for example for a long table we can actually put this out to the back and extend this

14:06table up

14:06to the tree. This is basically where guests come in to be able to browse through our publications and

14:15products and they can also listen to mason DJing as well. We didn't intend to open up a shop when

14:22we

14:22moved in so this was a recent addition. The objects here focus on food cultures, heritage ventures and

14:31experimental practices. So if you come here you eat something or you listen to an artist talk you're

14:38able to take home that experience with you physically. So this is the Ikea shelves which we painted in the

14:46same colour as the bookshelf. They almost match the colour tone of the wall so they feel quite seamless.

14:51These are just similar Ikea shelves that are really easy to pack down so they're very versatile and modular.

14:57There was a flood and a tree fell down and so there were all these branches outside our home so

15:03I just

15:03took one of the branches and made them into a little hanging system. So this is the sliding door for

15:09the other entrance to the bathroom. I really love this colour as well that the door is painted and also

15:16the wood textures in here. Sydney is a very expensive city to visit and so what we found is that

15:22we were able

15:23to invite friends or artists who are visiting Sydney a space where we they can stay here. So this couch

15:29doubles up as a bed and we're able to offer an artist residency of sorts you know. And they can

15:35escape

15:35through the back door without us knowing. Exactly. We've tried so many different configurations in the

15:41house we've just had to figure out ways to make everything modular. I guess the big adjustment is like

15:46thinking about rooms as multimodal rather than a single use. The furniture Tetris was a real thing

15:54as well trying to find the couch or chairs that fit into this three meter wide space without having to

16:00sacrifice walking space. Everything now is small or packable and rather than having like one big chunky

16:07object that kind of dominates the space. When we originally moved into the house this was actually a

16:15TV storage area and then I wanted a place to put my vinyl records and I realised that it could

16:20house

16:21just two levels of vinyl records so I installed this shelf in here and removed the cover and then

16:27it has this amazing wooden bench here which leads into a sink. We put this piece of sculpted material from

16:33my studio to cover it so you can put drinks on top and then that leads into this area which

16:38is the

16:39custom DJ booth that I made and it's got little sort of nooks so this comes out to hide all

16:45the

16:45cords at the back of the mixer and everything's kind of just measured to fit all the equipment I have.

16:50Underneath is just the simple IKEA Kallax shelf. It's just plywood that I stained the similar colour to

16:57the backboard. It almost feels like the places that I DJ are like a small bar but it's inside the

17:04house.

17:08Other exit or entrance to the house through our back alleyway,

17:11it's really great to escape here discreetly if I have a DJ gig or if we have people around they

17:17can have an alternative entrance. This is the back of the DJ records but also doubles as storage so I've

17:25got a little key here and it's quite a lot of things packed in here. I actually use this to

17:30clean

17:31the alleyway if we have guests. And twice a year we team up with our neighbours to throw a street

17:38party in this alley and we've called it Bin Alley Bin Alley because clearly there are bins in this

17:44alley. It's a free get together that lasts all day and we have DJ sessions, we have food stalls and

17:52it's

17:52a really fun way to get to know the neighbourhood and have that social cohesion. Most of my family are

17:58overseas. And I come from a tiny family in Perth. We share that thing of not having our own families

18:04here but we kind of cultivate a different type of family through the house. I like thinking about

18:11ways to store things whereas Marion's more of an accumulator. You'll open the cupboards and things

18:17will fall on me and I'll be like that's okay. The house has taught me a lot to live consciously

18:22in a

18:22small space and be more conscious about what I buy or not buy. The architect Adele has thought about

18:31every single inch or centimeter of his house so thoughtfully that yeah I think like any major

18:37changes would just throw off the whole balance of what she's designed. Yeah it's a surprisingly

18:44adaptive space even though it's a small space. Adele has done a great job with smart design.

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