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This week on Sweet Digs, we tour Crown Heights home of Rayne. She resides in a minimal one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Watch this episode of Sweet Digs to check out her space!

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High rent, small spaces, nosy neighbors — we put up with A LOT of things to live where we love. In Sweet Digs, Refinery29 gets a peek inside the homes of the coolest people we know, from tiny studios to sprawling houses, and ask the real questions like, "Wait, how much is your rent?"

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Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Rain. Welcome to My Sweet Digs, or as I like to call it, my home gallery.
00:04Before you come in to see the art, subscribe below. Okay, come on in.
00:08I'm right on the borderline of Cannes Heights. I love Brooklyn. I'm from Brooklyn, so it still
00:12feels like the New York that I grew up in. I pay $15.70 for my one-bedroom, one-bathroom
00:17apartment,
00:17and it's roughly about 400 square feet. So for me, it was super important to live alone and not
00:21have a ton of roommates, so I was willing to spend a little bit more to get something that was
00:26updated and had a true one-bedroom. First stop, my kitchen. It's updated. It was renovated right
00:32before I moved in, so I'm the first technically to be in here with the appliances. Having a modern
00:38kitchen wasn't super important. I just wanted to have a gas stove because things cook better on gas
00:43heat. My least favorite thing about this apartment is the humidity. The walls get really moist, and
00:50when I'm cooking, the windows fog up, so it looks like a restaurant in here. My favorite thing to
00:55cook in the apartment would be pasta. I love Italian food, and I love bread, and those two
01:01things go together really well. Lasagna, ziti, like it doesn't matter. I'm probably gonna make it.
01:07This is my little dining area. I like to have breakfast here in the morning. I like to keep
01:11it really minimal just so that it feels open. Because I work in e-commerce and we specialize in
01:16furniture and art, I've really taken a lot of what I've learned there and translated into my own
01:21space, specifically with my dining table. It's inspired by a prominent designer, and I think
01:26the piece is definitely timeless and classic because it will work in any space.
01:32The skateboard is like the newest addition that I have. I love Marvin Gaye. It's like one of my
01:37favorite artists. When Supreme did a Marvin Gaye collection, I was like, I need to get something from
01:42there. And then I have that really classic Matisse painting. It's actually covering an electrical box,
01:48and so I think those two pieces of art really draw your eye into the dining area.
01:53My living room was definitely my favorite spot in the apartment because I like to relax here,
01:57watch movies. I love like the just serene kind of environment where I can just relax or hang out
02:01with friends. And the couch is super important to that because I wanted something that was big
02:05enough for you to lounge on. It's super comfortable, but it's also functional, and it was also super
02:11cheap. I got it for $350 on Wayfair, so it's definitely a good deal and it looks really chic.
02:17I got interested in fashion because my mom was always into design and she had great style growing
02:24up and we always dressed really well. She's like, you're representing me when you go out into the
02:29world. So I just grew up that way and seeing her really inspired me pretty much all throughout my
02:34life. Me and my mom have very similar styles. She loves the space, but she hates this chair.
02:39She thinks it looks like an electric chair, which I don't, but I definitely got it because I wanted
02:44something that was different from anything I had in the space and I definitely love it because I
02:47think it draws your eye to that corner of the room. I was definitely inspired by kind of my growing
02:52up
02:53here during like the hype-y Soho Kid era of New York. A lot of that was inspired by Japanese
03:00artists
03:01and Japanese fashion and that translates to the art that I have on my walls. Cause, Murakami,
03:06things that you saw and like BBC and Bait was something that really inspired me and kind of
03:11stuck with me. So the SpongeBob piece is one of my favorite pieces in the space. I grew up watching
03:16SpongeBob. Cause did this really great collection of different like faces and I really love this one.
03:22And then the plates on the wall are for Nesetti. I saw them in an episode of Will and Grace
03:26like years
03:27ago. And I was like, what are those plates? Those are dope because they all have different faces.
03:32And I saw it again as an adult and I was like, I have to have this. During my spare
03:36time, I run
03:37a lifestyle blog called Brooklyn Brooklyn, where I basically talk about how I survive in New York
03:41while maintaining all of this by myself, as well as finding designer items super discounted
03:47and how to shop smart. Having that space where I could just like put it all and just like write
03:52a
03:52little bit was really important to me, kind of like an online diary. I feel like there wasn't a lot
03:57out there of girls that looked like me and that was really important for me. My most expensive item
04:01in the space isn't furniture. It's actually Chanel bags that my mom got me for Christmas about a
04:05year or two ago. I want to say the retail price is probably $2,500 to $3,000. Even though
04:11it's worth
04:12that much, I probably won't ever sell it because it's sentimental because my mom gave it to me.
04:16Right before I moved into this apartment, I sold a Goyard tote bag and used that money to furnish the
04:22space. I sold the bag for $1,200 and that money translated into most of the furniture in this apartment.
04:28I think it's really important to understand the importance of luxury bags because they are
04:34definitely investment pieces when you're buying the right ones. If you do intend to buy and sell,
04:39I would stick with more established brands like Chanel Louis Vuitton because they raise their prices
04:43every year. So you know that you're guaranteed to make a profit if you do intend to sell in the
04:49future and the designs typically don't change. My bathroom is definitely on the smaller side.
04:54I definitely want more space in my next bathroom. I want a soaking tub because it would be nice to
05:01be able to take a nice comfortable bath, but they did update it so it is at least nice with
05:06the size,
05:07but there isn't much I can do to expand on space. And right through here is my bedroom. For my
05:12bedroom,
05:13I wanted to keep it as simple as possible because I didn't have a lot of room to work with.
05:16I didn't
05:17want to sacrifice from the size of the bed, so I definitely took up a lot of the space with
05:22a
05:22queen-size mattress, but I keep the linens white so it feels really serene and hotel-like. For the art
05:28that I have in the space, because it's pretty much stark white in here, I did want to play around
05:33with
05:33some of the similar notes that I have in the other areas of the house. I have a Murakami piece
05:38above my
05:39bed, kind of like a headboard, and I have some Fornicetti art on the walls as well that came with
05:44the plates that I bought in the living room. I wanted to keep the entire apartment cohesive by keeping the
05:49artist the same. In this apartment, I only have one closet. It's pretty large, and I've maximized
05:53the space as much as possible, but it doesn't hold everything. So I do have shoes and books in the
05:59TV
06:00stand, and I have storage bins underneath my bed. Because I got a platform bed, it's about 16 inches
06:05off the ground, I was able to fit a lot of storage bins underneath. It allows me to fit transitional
06:11clothes, shoes that I don't really wear, linens, towels, things like that, so they don't have to be out
06:16in your face. I definitely feel like my adult life is kind of on the track that I imagined it
06:22would be.
06:22I definitely only saw myself being in New York City. I've created a space that I feel comfortable
06:27in, and I can also welcome other people into, but it's really my own space. I think that this space
06:33is
06:34something that I really love to call home, and I don't really see myself moving anytime soon.
06:37Thank you so much for coming to My Sweet Digs. To watch more videos, click here. To subscribe, click here.
06:42Bye guys!
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