An efficiency apartment is often a popular choice for people who live in a city and are looking for a reasonably priced place to live. An efficiency apartment is often confused with a studio apartment, but they are two very different types of living spaces.
What Is An Efficiency Apartment?
An efficiency apartment is built to properly utilize all of the space in a small living area. The efficiency part comes with the efficient use of the floor space available, while offering all of the areas needed to feel right at home. The best way to understand what an efficiency apartment is would be to explain the primary differences between an efficiency apartment and a studio apartment.
Size
While both an efficiency apartment and a studio apartment can have the same number of rooms, the footprint of an efficiency apartment is always smaller. A studio apartment might only have two or three rooms, but the open footprint is huge and allows for plenty of living space. The efficiency apartment have a much smaller footprint shared among a small number of rooms.
A Loft
Some studio apartments come with a loft to help add more living space and give a sleeping area away from the main living space. Efficiency apartments never come with a loft, which means that the bedroom always takes up some portion of the floor space.
A Kitchen
An efficiency apartment always has a separate kitchen, while the kitchen in a studio apartment is usually part of a larger space. With an efficiency apartment, there is always a separate space set aside for a kitchen that would include all of the fixtures and appliances you would expect in a full-size kitchen.
Versatility
Because the footprint of a studio apartment can sometimes be as large as a small house, a studio apartment can be much more versatile than an efficiency apartment. The large space of a studio apartment can be divided up with room dividers or curtains to create more separate rooms. With an efficiency apartment, the rooms are created by walls and there is very little opportunity to make a dual-purpose room out of any of the space in an efficiency apartment.
Where You Live
The region where you live can also make it difficult to discern between efficiency and studio apartments. In some parts of the country, any space with a limited number of rooms and a kitchen area is considered an efficiency apartment. This does not take into account the use of the overall floor space, which can make things confusing for people looking for an efficiency apartment.
Efficiency apartments are often inexpensive to own and maintain, and their small footprint gives them a cozy feeling that people enjoy. If you are looking for a new place to live and prefer fewer rooms, then you should understand the difference between an efficiency apartment and a studio apartment before you set out to look at new living spaces.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!