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Project: Rozit Arditi of Arditi Design Location: Brooklyn, New York
As a design style, minimalism often doesn’t leave much room for personality or punch. That’s precisely why designer Rozit Arditi of Arditi Design leaned into a beautiful brand of maximal minimalism in this young family’s Brooklyn apartment, adding pops of color and pattern to a soothing base of warm woods, textural wall coverings, and wool carpets.
“This was the first home the couple owned together after living in the husband’s previous Gramercy apartment for a few years,” says Arditi of her clients, Hillary and Adam. “The goal was to bring together both of their styles and belongings — from the colorful Le Creuset collection to the inherited artwork to the custom-made road bike.”
Blending two drastically different aesthetics is never easy, but a hybrid style like maximal minimalism can offer a happy medium. While Adam embraced bold hues, Hillary was more of a neutrals person. So it was up to Arditi to find colors, patterns, and pieces that would appeal to the couple’s combined sensibility and offer flexibility for the possibility of children in the future (they now have two). That meant seeking out bright, almost unexpected pops of color — red-orange Wishbone chairs and an abstract canvas painted by the clients’ long-time friends in the dining room; pink wallpaper from Brook Perdigon Textiles and a Joybird appletini green sectional in the family room — and marrying them with grasscloth and other natural materials, hits of wood, and neutral Clare paint colors like Timeless and Dirty Martini.
Before they got to all of those fun design details, Arditi and her clients mapped out a plan for furnishing the individual spaces. “We started the project by identifying what each room’s function would be and how we would lay out the furniture for now and for future additions to the family,” says Arditi.
Everything would have a specific purpose and justification for its finish, fabric, or silhouette, and you can see how certain items, from the wooden dining table to the patterned rugs in each space, were selected for their kid-friendliness. Most things that were brought into the apartment had to be both durable and beautiful.
One of the most challenging parts of the process was designing the open plan living and the dining room. “The goal was to maximize the use of the space without compromising the stunning views,” says Arditi. “We eliminated the TV from the living room, instead placing one in the family room and one in the primary bedroom. This allowed us to have a better flow.”
The kitchen, located right off that joint living and dining space, definitely skews a little more minimalist. Arditi turned the glass open-shelving into a display area for favorite dinnerware and Le Creuset pieces, arguably making this area the true focal point of the cook space.
The primary bedroom and nursery, shown above and below, respectively, are true studies in maximal minimalism. Underfoot you’ll find vibrant rugs from the likes of Anthropolgie and Aelfie, but the furniture, bedding, wall treatments, and other textiles are, on the whole, more muted but still visually interesting.
One final element worth noting about this project is how deftly Arditi wove her clients’ existing art collection into the design scheme. While the pieces in the bedrooms were sourced and purchased from Uprise Art, most of the other works throughout the apartment were vintage, gifted, or purchased prior to living here — and you’d never know it from the way they complement the palettes of their immediate surroundings.
Thanks to Arditi, what started as a white box condo is now a deeply personal space that strikes the right balance between maximalism and minimalism — and its inhabitants’ individual design aesthetics. “I think we would all agree that we love the fact that the apartment now represents them both,” says Arditi. “It is really a home they created together to reflect their personalities and styles.”
Danielle Blundell is AT’s Home Director and covers decorating and design. She loves homes, heels, the history of art, and hockey—but not necessarily always in that order.
MOBILE, Ala., Jan. 17, 2022 — In 2017, legendary actress and comedian Betty White gave a tour of her beloved house in Carmel, California.
The 3,600-square-foot property — which White briefly shared with her husband, game show host Allen Ludden — had two bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, according to Realtor.com.
The couple purchased the home in 1978 for $170,000, but now it’s now reportedly worth $2 million, according to the real estate authority’s website.
Watch KineticTV’s house tour above, and read along for how to live large on an average homeowner’s budget. (The following photos aren’t from White’s home; they’re examples of how average homes can enjoy high-end style.)
During the house tour, Betty White opens her door to reveal her “crib” and we see an open layout bathed in sunlight streaming inside from large windows.
Those windows make a spacious home feel even larger when the curtains are open, revealing a patio view. So do hardwood floors that reflect the sunlight, along with a space-saving built-in oven in the kitchen.
You don’t need to be a celebrity to achieve such a warm, inviting look. Just open the curtains during the day and regularly maintain your wood floors to keep them clean and shiny.
And if a built-in oven’s not in your budget, just tidy up the kitchen and declutter to keep spaces clean and clear, and ensure the décor is intentional.
Fill rooms with houseplants to help enhance a room’s design and clean the air. (DepositPhotos)
2. House Plants Soften a Room’s Hard Features
During Betty White’s house tour, the camera passes through a sitting room and we see various house plants on end tables, in corners, and on the mantel.
Growing houseplants adds living décor to any room — green leaves soften the room’s appearance and contrast well with hard features like drywall and wood trim.
Placing houseplants throughout your home is also the easiest way to start gardening, even if you don’t think you have a green thumb.
And there’s a bonus benefit for adding some green: certain tropical houseplants can remove and process harmful chemicals from your home’s indoor air.
While White passes through her kitchen, we see oversized rooster figurines flanking a bowl of flowers and an oversized yellow pitcher on the countertops.
These strategically placed items look great for a reason: they add height, dimension and texture, not to mention a pop of color amid mostly earth tones.
Oversized pendant lights have been trending for years, and you can add oversized décor for instant impact.
In the case of the roosters and flowers, note that if you have two identical or similar items, you can balance them out with a third object.
Design your kitchen with simplicity and strategy in mind so it looks intentional.
These are our favorite takeaways from Betty White’s house tour. What are yours? Let us know in the comments!
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Name:Sophia E. Aguiñaga Location:Oakland, California Size: 900 square feet Years lived in:1 year, renting
When Apartment Therapy first toured interior designer and artistSophia E. Aguiñaga‘s Oakland rental apartment, her home’s design style was best described as “Wild Eclectic Glam,” and it featured seven wall paint colors across six rooms. When she realized she would be moving at the end of 2021, she took it as an opportunity to refresh the apartment before the move, paring down her stuff and experimenting with her style to give the apartment a minimal, organic new look. The mini makeover is a great reminder that anytime you want a new look or feel to your home, it’s within reach. Use Sophia’s refresh as inspiration for your own.
“I consider myself an interior nomad. I love moving. Like, a lot. I lived in 11 apartments in three years before I finally signed my first one-year lease,” begins Sophia. “Since I don’t move apartments as frequently anymore, I love changing up my decor — often and drastically. No, I don’t mean rearranging furniture, I mean selling everything, repainting, starting totally fresh. I love exploring how many unique ways I can express myself in one space, and I don’t ascribe to any one style. Rather, I believe all styles are within me and arise intuitively.”
“One thing I love about design, particularly in rentals, is the practice of building something up and then tearing it all down. It reminds me of the Tibetan Buddhist sand mandalas — the creation and destruction of unbelievably intricate mandalas made from colored sand. Once the mandala is complete, as a practice in impermanence and belief in the transitory nature of material life, the Buddhists will swipe every grain of sand away with a brush. Destroying the image it created and releasing the weeks and weeks of work that went into the process.”
“I’ve always loved this idea — building something up, admiring it, loving it deeply, then deconstructing or even destroying it as a means of release, a practice in letting go, remembering how everything we love and have built in our lives — from careers to relationships and anything material — are all impermanent. So what if you’ll only live in your rental for a year? Speaking from experience, a year of sanctuary is worth the effort and time.”
“The driver for this particular refresh was my plan to move at the end of 2021. I knew I’d have to paint all my walls back to white and I wanted to use it as an opportunity to build something entirely new in the space. I also wanted to pare down for the upcoming move — turns out eclectic maximalism doesn’t lend toward traveling light. So I re-homed almost everything I owned and used minimalism, ease, and traveling light as my guide. These concepts translated into a minimalist wabi sabi design rooted in earth tones. Chartreuse is my favorite color, so I kept that pop of color while drawing in rustic, woody, and earthy colors and textures everywhere else.”
“What I ended up with was a marriage of modern and rustic shapes expressed in earth tones and eclectic textures. Reminiscent of a walk through a meadow filled with trees and tall, bright grass, the space is both grounding and enlivening at the same time.”
This house tour’s responses were edited for length and clarity.
Adrienne loves architecture, design, cats, science fiction and watching Star Trek. In the past 10 years she’s called home: a van, a former downtown store in small town Texas and a studio apartment rumored to have once been owned by Willie Nelson.
A new year is always time for a fresh start — and yes, that’s most definitely the case when it comes to home design trends. For better or for worse, not every look that reigned supreme in 2021 will carry over to 2022. Of course, none of this is to say that any design choices are objectively good or objectively bad. These are just the trends designers think they’ll be saying goodbye to sooner rather than later.
“While open concept design plans were a great idea a few years ago, we now know that privacy is a huge part of any design to accommodate the new challenges we are facing every day. Working from home while the children are attending school from the dining room table can make for a very eventful day at the office with an open concept floor plan. More and more, we are understanding that our homes must fit our lifestyle and be fully functional for years to come.” —Michelle Martel, designer and stylist in Montreal
“Savvy shoppers and DIYers are finding great well-made vintage pieces and reupholstering or painting them to bring them a fresh look.” —Larina Kase, founder of Larina Kase Interior Design in Philadelphia
“Once a hot trend, shiplap is going by the wayside. Unless you live in an actual farmhouse, you may want to consider a faux finish, or better yet, wallpaper.” —Jennifer Markowitz, founder of JNR Designs on Long Island
“In 2022, I believe we will see kitchens trending away from all white, and instead, we will see the addition of more natural elements and color in the kitchen. Even darker colors like a deep green have already been showing up as a trend.”—Marlaina Teich, owner and founder of Marlaina Teich Designs on Long Island
“I think that all gray interiors with no personality are over. People want their interiors to feel welcoming like a warm embrace. They want to see bits of their past and the things that they love. Color and prints make you feel happy, and that’s what we all need for 2022.” —Kerri Pilchik, founder of Kerri Pilchik Design in Ridgewood, New Jersey
6. Minuscule Home Offices
“I think the home office in a closet will go away now that it’s relatively safer to spread our wings and work. With one or more adults who were once working from home heading back to the office, kids heading back to school and workouts happening outside of the home, dedicated offices are back.” —Leah Alexander, founder of Beauty is Abundant in Atlanta
“After a year-plus of living life in yoga pants and ponytails, I think people are ready to feel ‘put-together’ again. Same goes for their homes. I think come 2022, more refined and structured interiors are going to be the thing. Time to polish up!” —Amanda Thompson, founder of ALine Studio in New York City
“Mosaic floors had their moment until people started spending more time at home and opted for creating more consistent, clean, and serene spaces that were low-maintenance and easy on the eyes. Mosaic flooring is being replaced with larger tiles and materials that are easier to clean and blend into the overall soothing and welcoming feeling that a clean space offers.” —Adam Meshberg, founder and CEO of The Meshberg Group in NYC and Miami
9. Waterfall Kitchen Islands
“Waterfall kitchen islands feel done in my opinion. They have seen their heyday and are passing out of popularity because they can often make a kitchen feel too cold and not inviting.” —Kalah Talancy, principal at KT2 Design Group in Boston
“For years, bold metal finishes have been a popular choice to evoke a clean and ultra-modern aesthetic. I recently visited the stunning De Castelli showroom in Milan and was inspired by all the hand-patinated, brushed, and satin finishes, and unexpected colors like blushes, deep rust colors, and even steely blues that give warmth to an otherwise sterile material. I foresee these contemporary metals replacing the harsher finishes of the past and am excited to see innovative applications to accent walls, room dividers, tables, and bar and kitchen cabinetry.” —Sara Ianniciello, director of design at Whitehall Interiors in New York City
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Name:Amy Exton and Presley the cockerpoo Location: Margate, England Type of Home: Three-story town house within a larger building Years lived in: 5 years, owned
Amy Exton creates truly spectacular spaces. The interior and set designer uses vibrant color, energetic patterns, and vintage furniture and accessories to craft rooms that look incredible in person and on screen. She lives in one of those spaces, also known as the Margate Location House. “The house is part of a bigger building, which used to be a tuberculosis hospital at the turn of the 20th century, so it has lots of history and character, which is what I fell in love with when I bought it,” Amy writes about the home she shares with her dog, Presley, and which she also rents out for photoshoots. “It’s a great space with high ceilings, and sits over three stories so it feels really spacious.” Along with two other designers, Amy created the interior design studio Studio Margate to continue designing incredibly colorful interiors.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My Style: I never know how to describe my style to people aside from bright, lair-y, fun, andplayful.
Inspiration: Elvis’s Graceland, Zandra Rhodes, ’80s American interiors, ’90s changingrooms
Favorite Element: My favorite thing at the moment is the HK Diplomat sofa in the kitchen diner — I found it on a Facebook Marketplace really cheap and I still can’t believe my luck. It’s huge and only just squeezed into the room — Presley is a huge fan; it’s his fave sleeping spot.
Biggest Challenge: Keeping it updated and fresh for photoshoots is probably the biggest challenge, as people always want something new and unseen, so I’m constantly redecorating. But luckily I get bored easily so would probably be changing it up all the time regardless. It’s just a good excuse.
Proudest DIY: I do all of the cosmetic work myself so I’m always really proud after I’ve finished a room because such a lot goes into it. Proudest is probably the zebra print floor upstairs, which I painted by hand.
Biggest Indulgence: I’ve always had to work on a pretty tight budget (hence hand-painted zebra floor rather than expensive zebra carpet) but I’ve spent more than I probably should have on individual bits of furniture. The dolphin shelves in the lounge were pretty pricy for what they are — there’s not exactly a huge market for them — but I couldn’t stop thinking about them so had to invest, and they are the centerpiece for that room. They really make me smile; they’re so ridiculous.
Is there something unique about your home or the way you use it? The lounge on the first floor was sold as a third bedroom, but I wanted more communal space so just turned it into a lounge instead. So combined with the seating area in the kitchen diner it makes the house feel a bit bigger, albeit less practical.
What are your favorite products you have bought for your home and why? Speaking as a true millennial, I’d have to say my plants. It’s hard work keeping them happy but they give the rooms life.
Please describe any helpful, inspiring, brilliant, or just plain useful small space maximizing and/or organizing tips you have: Maximize ceiling height — if you’re lucky enough to have high ceilings, make the most of it by getting tall furniture. I got extra tall cupboards in the kitchen — which means I can’t reach some cupboards without balancing on a high stool, but means I have that extra storage space. Aside from that I would say just try to cut back on the amount of things you have. If I had too much stuff it would be a nightmare to clean, so I try not to have clutter anywhere. Makes life easier.
Finally, what’s your absolute best home secret or decorating advice? If you think you might like something just try it out. Don’t worry about whether other people will like it (unless if they live with you). When it comes to using bright color, you can always just paint over it if it really doesn’t work. Also you can make a space bright and colorful with the way you dress it, which is even easier to change than paint.
This submission’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
