by Furnishly | Nov 30, 2022 | Design Inspiration, Style
Name: Katherine Guanche and fiancé
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Type of home: Apartment
Size: 1,000 square feet
Years lived in: 1 month, renting
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Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: Sam is an actor/theater maker and Katherine is a luxury home organizer for The Neat Method NYC.
This apartment is the perfect showcase of our combined personalities, a fun and colorful display of art and memories with every item having its own curated place. It is both functional and pretty, while maximizing the use of the railroad style layout.
I am an organizer by trade but an artist at heart. What attracted me to to New York was its endless possibilities and freedom to express oneself in every capacity and I do my best to reflect that in my home. This Bushwick apartment is both an homage to my colorful Latin roots and the bohemian style that drew me to Brooklyn in the first place. I love positivity and color, and having everything in a place where it can be both used and displayed.
Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Eclectic, Colorful, Organized, Cozy, Cheerful
What is your favorite room and why? While I enjoy every room in my home, the dining room has a special place in my heart. First, the painted stencil wall took me nearly 12 hours to complete and ties the room together in a way that really excites me. This room also features our custom handmade cherrywood table from Fabulous Furniture in the Catskills, while also showcasing our love of games and music on all sides. This is a room where we come together to eat, play, party, and gather with friends and family.
What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? The last thing I bought was a variety of decorative baskets for storage solutions around my home. Since this apartment didn’t come with any closets, I had to be thoughtful about storage and find ways to display items that were previously hidden away. By using variations on the water hyacinth, wicker, and seagrass baskets, I was able to tie all areas of the home together while storing my miscellaneous belongings in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Any advice for creating a home you love? I believe that one’s home should be a sanctuary that you love, from the moment you open your eyes in the morning and a place you long to return back to at the end of the day. Whatever your style is, putting elements together that you truly love will make wherever you live feel like home.
by Furnishly | Sep 13, 2022 | Design Inspiration, DIY, Lighting, Style
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
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Fellow renters, not only does this single change have the ability to dramatically elevate your decor (and relieve headaches), but it may not be as hard to achieve as you think. When my housemate and I realized the flickering lights and strobing propellers were starting to make us feel legitimately ill in our own home, we respectfully requested a change from our gracious landlord (love you, Louise). As it turns out, especially since we were willing to invest in the replacement lights ourselves, it can be a surprisingly quick and painless upgrade. Good tenant tip: See if your superintendent is able to do the installation themselves or your landlord has an electrician (or friend!) on call. Not only did this save us even more money, but being transparent with our landlord and receptive to her thoughts on the whole thing earned us a few gold stars.
My housemate and I were working with a tight budget, but once we agreed that replacing our ceiling lights was a priority for us — an investment in our new WFH set-up, comfort at home, and pride in our space — we began our search for the perfect hardware. But about 10 minutes in, the simplicity of the Mid-century Modern Globe Lights stopped us in our tracks and ended our search early. The style, reminiscent of those cozy French restaurants in cities that somehow make you feel at home, complimented the mix of modern and traditional we already had going on in our home. So, we bought three for under $120, got them the following day (love you, Amazon Prime), and, after 30 total minutes of installation, paced the place in amazement. In less than 24 hours, we’d created a dream apartment.
This mounted pendant light comes in two lengths — we went for the shorter 6-inch length since we have lower ceilings. You can also take your pick between matte black or polished gold hardware and a clear or frosted globe to cover your light bulb. I adore our gold and frosted glass light fixtures and love knowing how easy they are to install and remove even more. While affordable, they’ve lasted three years so far and we could totally take them with us when we move if we wanted to — they’re definitely one of the best home decor investments I’ve made as a renter.
by Furnishly | Jun 21, 2022 | Design Inspiration, Style
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Name: Ben Cuevas, my plants, and my pet tarantula, Thierry Spoodler
Location: Silverlake — Los Angeles, California
Type of home: Apartment
Size: 800 square feet
Years lived in: 2 years, renting
Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: I moved to my home right after the start of the pandemic in April 2020. Immediately, I knew I wanted it to be my refuge — a space that felt soothing and healing yet stimulating with all the things I love. Rich textures like plush velvet, supple leather, and woven jacquard cotton, plus saturated jewel-tones of malachite and azurite all helped give me the sensory dose of dopamine I needed to get through lockdown.
I made quite a few personal changes beyond your average rental unit. I took to heart Amy Sedaris’ suggestion to view your rental deposit as your design fee, and installed a statement bookcase for the living area, filled with all my favorite books and objects. I love to curl in my own little library nook of personal pleasures at the end of the day. I’m an artist and designer, and my home is my workspace as well. I set up my work area by the apartment’s large south-facing windows, so my plants and I can be bathed in light as we go about our day. I changed out all of the light fixtures to give the place a glowing personal touch, and I even re-surfaced the shower surround with removable vinyl subway shower tiles.
Having worked in art and design for many years, I enjoy finding moments of connection in geometric design across objects, styles, and cultures. From my Art Deco stained glass mirror (by local L.A. artist Harpal Sodhi), to my Scandinavian handwoven rug (by way of IKEA), to my natural reed Vietnamese baskets (courtesy of West Elm), there’s a geometric through-line that adds visual excitement and an unexpected kind of continuity. Being a bit of a witch and putting much stock in the flow of energy, I worked with Feng Shui consultant Mark Ainly to make sure the flow and balance were all copacetic. Light balances dark, so that I can move from bright and airy moments, like my white sawhorse desk, to dark and sexy ones, like my bedroom’s emerald green velvet blackout curtains.
Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Modern eclectic meets laidback deco.
What is your favorite room and why? Definitely my living room. To me it’s the perfect combination of luxe meets laidback vibes.
What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? The last thing I bought actually hasn’t arrived yet! It’s a set of gold velvet bolster pillows to add to my couch.
Any advice for creating a home you love? Don’t be afraid to make your space your own, even if you rent! You deserve to live in a space that’s a reflection of you and your style!
This submission’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
by Furnishly | Jun 10, 2022 | Design Inspiration, Style
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Anyone who has ever lived in an apartment is intimately acquainted with the “Landlord Special” whether they realize it or not. It’s when giant globs of white paint coat once-beautiful wooden trim, window blinds are held together with tape, and dust is caked into window ledge corners and floor baseboards. While I can’t help you with the paint or blinds, I do have something of a miracle solution for the dust, which will definitely come in handy now that it’s moving season.
As anyone who has tried to deep clean their apartment the first week of moving in will know, that old dust is especially hard to scrub. It solidifies in a way that stumps science, making it nearly impossible to wash with spray and elbow grease. It turns the grooves of baseboards black, and wedges itself into the tight cracks and corners of window ledges, making it feel like you’re living in a permanently dirty home.
But, when you have something impossible to clean, it might just mean you haven’t found the right product to tackle it yet. If you’ve been battling that caked-on dirt, it’s time to retire the all-purpose spray and reach for Bar Keepers Friend instead.
Bar Keepers Friend is my secret weapon for all things hopeless. From the old penny tiles in my bathroom to the scratched plates in my cupboard, it makes everything glisten like it’s new again. So imagine my delight when I discovered this TikTok video, where I learned that it will also help melt away the years of crud thoughtfully left for me upon moving day.
All you need is the powder form of Bar Keepers Friend, a cup of warm water with a drop of dish soap, and a stiff denture brush. Sprinkle the powder across those dirty corners and gross baseboards, dip your denture brush into the warm, soapy water, and then get to scrubbing.
The stiff bristles will attack and loosen the dirt, while the product coupled with the grease-fighting dish soap will help melt away years of dirt in mere seconds. And since denture brushes are smaller than regular, all-purpose cleaning brushes, you can get into those tight corners and nooks easier, getting every last speck without much hassle.
You might have to do this twice for especially dirty corners, but it won’t take you a full day of sweating and scraping as it would with other techniques.
Marlen Komar
Contributor
Marlen is a writer first, vintage hoarder second, and donut fiend third. If you have a passion for finding the best taco joints in Chicago or want to talk about Doris Day movies, then she thinks an afternoon coffee date is in order.
by Furnishly | Jun 9, 2022 | Design Inspiration, Style
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Name: Megan and David Zietz, their three kids and two cats
Location: Astoria, Queens, New York
Size: 1100 square feet
Type of Home: Apartment
Years Lived In: 2.5 years, renting
I’m Megan Zietz, a content creator and designer living in NYC with my family. We found our apartment after a year-plus long search and initially passed it by a few times because it wasn’t EXACTLY what I wanted but we decided to go for it and make it our own.
We’re located in Astoria, Queens. We’re coming up on our 10th year in this area and love our neighborhood. We are homebodies so we spend a lot of time at home and I wanted to create a colorful and whimsical space that makes me happy when I see it, all.the.time.
As creative homebodies, we do a lot at home: We create home decor, DIYs and tutorials, occasionally dress up, and produce silly lifestyle videos with the entire family. We love cooking together, watching TV as a family, playing board games, and gardening in the backyard. It’s definitely a space that has BIG main character energy for all of the vibrant characters and personalities in the house, including the cats.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
My Style: Colorful, Eclectic, Maximalist
Inspiration: I’m inspired by the ’70s, lots of color, and texture.
Favorite Element: My favorite element has to be our custom wallpaper in the entryway; I love that it’s the first thing you see and it sets the tone for the whole space. It’s fun, unique and a little retro.
Biggest Challenge: Since we’re renting, the biggest challenge was making sure everything we do (and have done) is “renter-friendly.” All of the wallpaper and backsplash is removable and reusable. As far as painting goes, take a weekend and a bucket of Kilz to paint back when it comes to moving out — it’s 100 percent worth it to not look at beige/taupe walls everyday. Other issues we’ve had are the odd dimensions and heights in places like the kitchen counter/island (we had to buy 30″ barstools), closets — our landlord is extremely tall and I’m 5’2″ so reaching hangers in my office closet requires either a jump or a stool. The kids’ bedroom was also tricky; they had glass mirror closet doors that were really hard to open and close so we decided to take them off completely and turned their closet into a “cloffice/workspace.” It really opened up their room and we just put the doors behind our wardrobes in the bedroom.
Proudest DIY: Proudest DIY has to be my pink floor-length fringe mirror in the entryway and black round ball mirror in my office. They were IKEA hacks and I loved giving them new life. I also love our blue IKEA BRIMNES bed and wardrobes.
Biggest Indulgence: Aside from the kids’ bunk bed, which is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in our space, I’d have to say the KitchenAid mixer was my biggest indulgence. I put off buying it for years and finally bit the bullet and have never looked back. It’s amazing.
Is there something unique about your home or the way you use it? Aside from using our space as a backdrop for creating custom content for brands and our social platform, we really have made this our escape from the world. Outside it’s a busy street in Queens but inside it’s a colorful paradise where we have fun and spend time together.
What are your favorite products you have bought for your home and why? In addition to my all-time favorite, Rattan S Chairs (they’re so unique and have held up for six+ years against three growing, rambunctious kids), we just bought a hanging egg chair for the patio and I didn’t know what I was missing all of these years; it’s so comfortable and peaceful.
I also love all of the small details: the hanging metal planters in the living room, the Elnaz Ceramics serving bowl on the sideboard in the entryway, and David’s all-time favorite piece, the lava lamp; he loves it so much he named it Brick.
In the kids’ room, instead of a bulky TV we opted for a roll-down projector screen on the top of their closet so we can have movie nights on the big screen in their room. It saves a ton of space and is such a fun feature in their room.
Please describe any helpful, inspiring, brilliant, or just plain useful small space maximizing and/or organizing tips you have: Storage, storage, storage! With five people and two cats we need all the storage we can get, especially with limited closet and cabinet space. We’ve taken advantage of maximizing additional storage with baskets on top of the wardrobes and fridge, under furniture like the sideboards, and with tiered hanging fruit baskets — we have one at the entryway for masks, keys, and sunglasses and another one under an odd nook under the counter for cloth napkins, ready-to-use cleaning supplies, and other kitchen items. We also try to buy furniture that doubles as storage, like our velvet swivel chairs have compartments inside, as well as the metal drum side table/stools. The kids’ triple bunk bed even has storage drawers to organize their toys. While we are definitely maximalists we do try to avoid having a lot of unnecessary clutter laying around. Everything has a designated home and is organized as possible.
Finally, what’s your absolute best home secret or decorating advice? Don’t be afraid of color and remember that decorating a home is a marathon not a sprint. Take your time and decide what you truly want and need instead of buying something on a whim and being tired of it six months later. When you can, upcycle pieces to give them a new life and don’t be afraid to buy used. Have fun with your space and don’t be afraid to make it your own, whether you’re renting or own.
This submission’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
