How A Small Space Coach Maximizes Her 750 Sq Ft NYC Apartment For Family of Four

In a 750 sq ft apartment in Washington Heights, small-space coach Khrystyne Jaspers made one room serve as living room, dining room, office and bedroom, and calls the trade-off her family's best decision.

When Khrystyne Jaspers and her husband went apartment hunting at the end of 2020, everyone told them to find a two-bedroom. She was pregnant with their second child; the math seemed obvious. Instead, a realtor called about a listing that wasn't what they'd asked for at all. She fell for the layout and the light, and the offer was accepted within twelve hours — a New York City miracle, she says.

The family of four is still there, in roughly 700 to 750 square feet "depending on who's counting," steps from a park and the train.

The main room does nearly everything. By day it's where she and her husband work from home, office supplies tucked into a hutch. After hours, the same table becomes where the family eats dinner together. At night, a Murphy bed comes down. Elsewhere, a legless table anchored to the wall gives the kids a breakfast spot without the visual weight of furniture, and a piece of wood she and her brother pulled off the side of the road became a sliding shelf for coupe glasses. A former kindergarten teacher, she dedicated the bedroom to her two children and her play space, prioritizing their growth and development instead of an interior design checklist.

One kitchen cabinet became an art station after she pared down her own storage: supplies in grab-and-go tins, paper in stacking drawers, a play kitchen that folds back into its box. She redid it one summer as a surprise. Her son recently told her it was one of his favorite gifts.

The apartment is a sacrifice, and she's direct about that. But it's what lets her say no to extra work to be with her children, and take them abroad — neither possible with the family's income tied up in more square footage.

"Home really is my family," she says. "If this all disappeared, it would not matter, as long as my family was with me."