Jerry’s apartment in ‘Seinfeld’ is iconic to sitcom fans—but is it actually a well-designed space? Architectural Digest welcomes back interior designer and feng shui expert Julie Khuu to take a closer look at the layout, flow, and design choices of this beloved bachelor pad. From his tiny writing desk to the oddly-placed kitchen, Julie reimagines how Jerry’s apartment could have looked with smarter space planning and better energy flow.
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00:00There are a lot of things wrong with the design of Seinfeld's iconic apartment.
00:03The first thing that sticks out to me is this dining table. It's generally recommended to avoid
00:07having a dining table aligned with the front door. It always feels better to designate your
00:12dining table to a more private area in the home. Having one right by the entryway can disrupt the
00:18sense of intimacy during meals. I understand why the living room was designed this way with a three
00:23camera stage. So I get that they placed the sofa here, the dining table here, so we can see all the
00:28characters. But in real life, this just doesn't make sense. Ideally, the dining area should be as
00:32close to the kitchen as possible. It's just a natural progression of cooking a meal to consuming
00:37it. Feng Shui is all about good design and making your living space as efficient, balanced, and
00:41comfortable as possible. Let me walk you through all the changes I've made to improve the space
00:45according to Feng Shui. The first thing I'll do is move the TV out of the way, creating a dining area
00:54right on this wall. I'll also be swapping out the round table with a rectangular one because it just
00:59really follows the shape of the space. Placing the dining table closer to the kitchen makes serving
01:04and cleaning so much easier, and the shorter distance prevents potential spills and mess. If
01:10you're not seating more than two people at a table, you don't need a round table, especially when you can't
01:13walk around it. Jerry lives here alone, but instead of just placing one chair here, you always want to
01:19balance out a dining table while incorporating even numbers. Odd numbers symbolize that one person is
01:25alone and not supported. It's actually very isolating. I would add another chair in there.
01:30It promotes more prosperity, like you're entertaining and inviting guests into your home. It's a good
01:34feeling. Now let's move on to the living room. New couch, baby! New couch? Why? I love this couch.
01:41You know what the best part about it is? It doesn't fold out so no one can sleep over. He's just not
01:46interested in having guests stay over and I totally get that. I'm going to be redesigning this entire
01:51layout according to his lifestyle. So let's start by removing all of these elements that we don't
01:55need in this space. We just want a nice clean blank slate to start adding in the right furniture. For
02:01single living, I love to create little pockets of joy throughout the house. This space feels very
02:05underutilized with this basic end table here. I feel like this is the perfect opportunity to create
02:10like a really cozy reading nook here. Let's bring in a cute little club chair, a nice comfy ottoman to
02:17kick up your feet. Of course, this reading nook needs to be functional with a little side table.
02:21I can already imagine Jerry sitting here and like reading scripts all day. What I don't love is this
02:26structural column that's kind of in the middle of nowhere. You should never remove a structural column
02:31without consulting a structural engineer. Since I can't remove it, how can we make it work for us and
02:36not against us? I want to make it more functional. Let's start by building out a brand new wall. This
02:40new wall here is going to round out this cozy little reading nook. I want to install like a bookshelf
02:45here. If you are someone who is not tidy, always source bookcases with cabinets and closed doors.
02:51That way you can corral all of your clutter and hide it in plain sight. So this is going to be our new
02:56bookshelf, cabinet on the bottom, a cute little countertop on top, and then maybe like exposed bookshelves.
03:01Moving on to the office. In the show, there's this diagonal bulkhead that runs from the office to this column.
03:08That's so weird. Triangular rooms feel imbalanced because we associate typical rooms with four walls,
03:1590 degree corners. The sharp corners of a triangular room are jarring and particularly hard to furnish.
03:21But I can rezone this area by shifting this structural bulkhead. Once you move a structural beam,
03:26you compromise the structure of the building. I have to erect another structural beam in its place
03:31and balance out these two rooms and almost create a separation of spaces. What I want to do is create
03:36like a really beautiful moment to kind of frame out Jerry's new office. Now we can create a larger,
03:42more balanced office space where it's easier for Jerry to focus. Looks like what you really need is a
03:47decent desk for writing your skits. I don't write skits. Of course you don't. You don't have a proper
03:52workstation. I don't think he needs to update the desk, but he should move it in a command position.
03:57If you're working with your back towards the door, it's much harder to focus and concentrate when
04:02you feel vulnerable to someone sneaking up behind you. The command position dictates that if you're
04:06seated at your desk, you should see who's coming in and out of the entry door. In season six, episode
04:11eight, we're reminded that Jerry failed miserably with his NBC pilot. I definitely believe that the
04:16position of his desk negatively impacted his work. All you have to do is rotate the desk. Now the
04:22desk is facing the entry. You are in command and you're going to feel so much better as a result.
04:26Now let's move into the central core of our space, the living area. In order for me to design a living
04:32room, I always ask the users of the space, what do you do in here? For Jerry, it's probably watching
04:37television. Remember when we built out this wall? Here is where we can mount the new television. I
04:42would mount that on the wall on a swivel so that way you can kind of see it from every vantage point.
04:47You can see it from the living room, see it from the dining room, and now it's anchored against the wall.
04:51I love it. It really just opens up the living room. You're probably wondering why I started
04:55with the television. That's just the focal point of the room. You always want to think about a
05:00hierarchy in a space. Start with the focal point because that is the main function of the room.
05:04The next natural progression is seating in front of the TV. I always like to place the largest seat
05:10in the house for optimal TV viewing. But remember my tip about following the shape of the home.
05:15So instead of just adding in like a plain old boring sofa, why don't we try an angular sectional
05:22instead? That way Jerry can watch TV and I can also add in like a lovely little entry console
05:29so that when he walks into his home, he's not greeted by the back of a sofa. And if you've been paying
05:33attention, you're probably going to be like, Julie, stop right there. The sofa is not in the command
05:38position. It's not. You're absolutely right. But remember, Jerry is living single. He's here alone.
05:44He has a command position from his office. He has a command position from this reading nook. And he
05:50also has a command position from his dining area. In feng shui, you won't win them all. You really
05:56just have to prioritize what's the most important to you. Now let's focus on the front door. The front
06:01door is the mouth of Qi. This is where Qi is invited into your home. Qi is that universal good energy that we
06:07want to permeate the space. So you want to keep it clutter free, bright and inviting. I added this entry
06:13console to welcome Qi. This entry console is going to house all of your daily essentials. Treat it like
06:19your entry valet, a place for you to house your keys, your wallets, your purses, sunglasses. We don't
06:24want to block Qi. So you want to keep that entry console relatively low. If I opted for a taller
06:29console, it would feel as if we erected a new wall here. Opening the front door and encountering a wall
06:34directly in front of you feels cramped. It feels confining and it confuses the flow of traffic. This low
06:40console gives your guests an open and inviting view of the entire apartment. You know, I saw the
06:44previous apartment. I just felt like this corner was really cluttered. So I want to move this bookcase
06:49out of the way and I want to add like a really beautiful floor-length mirror. That floor-length
06:54mirror is going to reflect all of this bright, beautiful energy and bounce it off into the space,
06:58promoting greater positive energy and more Qi in your home. The space feels so much different. It's bright,
07:05it's open, it's airy, it's happy, and bonus points for being able to redirect Qi in your space.
07:12Let's move on to the kitchen. Jerry brought in this new contractor to redesign his kitchen
07:16and it's all sorts of wrong. Jerry. Yeah. What the hell is this? Where are you? Over here. You can see
07:26right through here. What is this? It's like you're selling movie tickets back here. It's kind of cozy.
07:33The upper cabinets block the flow of Qi. The entire configuration doesn't optimize traffic flow.
07:39I mean, he and Elaine can't even see each other. If you have a really good design, guests are going
07:43to know exactly where to go, how your home flows, how to enjoy the space. I mean, this new design is
07:48absolutely horrible. It doesn't work at all. But I do love the placement of the stove because it puts
07:53Jerry in a command position. Now let's demo the kitchen and show you my new design. We're going to add
07:58in our upper cabinetry because of course we're desperate for storage and then place our refrigerator
08:04right back in. This already feels better, but we need to round it out by placing the stove in this
08:09floating island and voila. So the new kitchen design puts Jerry in a command position. Imagine he's
08:15cooking at the stove. He can see who's coming in and out of the entry door. You have optimum flow for Qi
08:20to kind of move and meander around the kitchen, permeate the space. That Qi will flow through the
08:26dining area to the reading nook, permeate the living room, round back out to the office, and now we're
08:33entering the bedrooms. The private areas in Feng Shui that are considered a place of rest. Feng Shui is
08:40all about balance. Common areas are active energy. That's called Yang energy. Private areas like your
08:46bedrooms or bathrooms are resting energy called Yin. You want to balance out Yin and Yang so they
08:52harmonize the space and bring in all that positive Qi. There's not a whole lot that I would change in
08:56this bedroom, but I want to talk about all of the things that are working in this space. I love that
09:01the bed is in a command position. You can see who's coming in and out of the entry door. The entry door
09:06is not on the side of your head because Qi is going to bum brush you on your side. We don't want that.
09:11If your bed was directly in line with the entry door of your bedroom, that is considered the coffin
09:18position. In Feng Shui, this placement is believed to disrupt sleep and symbolizes energy leaving the
09:24body. Just imagine it mirrors how the deceased are carried out of a house and you definitely don't
09:28want that. Feng Shui loves symmetry. So placing two symmetrical nightstands with two symmetrical table
09:34lamps beside a bed really harnesses that positive energy that Qi loves. The bed is anchored with a soft
09:40cushy area rug. If you have a hard surface in your home, placing an area rug underfoot really helps
09:46with acoustics as well. It feels comfortable, soft and cozy and we definitely want that comfortable,
09:51cozy environment in our bedroom. Notice how this bedroom layout is very minimal. There's no clutter.
09:57It feels really good in here and I've never even been in this space. So what do you think of my new
10:00design? Feng Shui just really follows the good rules of interior design. The more you familiarize yourself
10:06with the basic principles of Feng Shui, you'll see a lot of it is common sense. You want to place
10:11furniture and home decor items that uplift you and energize you and just make you feel good.