Never much of a tinkerer, when Max Heinritz moved into the biggest San Francisco apartment he could afford- a 678-square-foot loft shared with a roommate-, he began 18 months of DIY optimization. To convert the space for movie nights, Max added a projector and full-wall screen and created a movable plywood beam with three pendant lights that cantilevers over the dining table for cozy mood mealtime lighting and can be raised and lowered by a pulley when the space transforms. To add natural light to a space lacking in daylight, Max added dozens of convex mirrors to the skylight which bounce light around the room creating an almost underwater experience on sunny days. Wanting a comfortable home office after leaving his job as a Google engineer, Max created his own electrified movable desk from a slab of salvaged Douglas fir. He replaced the ladder to his bedroom with a more comfortable set of stairs (with some help from his retired carpenter father) and a sliding barn door at the top. Max also created much of the lighting in the apartment. The light above his roommate’s bed was made by wrapping corn-starched-and-glued string around a balloon, then deflating it, and finally lining it with rice paper-mache. His latest project is Map Lamps: laser-cut, LED-illuminated maps in the shape of cities etched with streets. Max Heinritz: https://maxheinritz.com Map Lamps: https://maplamps.com On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/coder-finds-diy-analogic-solutions-to-improve-sf-small-loft/