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This week on Sweet Digs, we tour the home of Amber Kai, a young woman renting in the Historic Art Deco district of L.A. She pays $1,750 a month for a one bedroom apartment. Press play to explore Amber's serene home!

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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
00:00Hey guys, I'm Amber. Welcome to My Sweet Digs. But before you come in, subscribe below.
00:06Okay, come on in. I live in a 100-year-old Art Deco building in the Miracle Mile District of
00:12Los Angeles. I pay $17.50, which is a little high for my taste, but it's actually pretty relative
00:18for the area. What I really love about the neighborhood is that you can pretty much walk
00:22anywhere, and I'm 10 minutes from Beverly Hills, 10 minutes from Hollywood, and about 15 minutes
00:28from downtown, which is pretty great for me. This is my vanity room. I remember growing up,
00:33my grandmother and my mom always had a really nice little vanity, so this is kind of my version of
00:38that. I really love being in this room because it kind of puts me in the zone before I get
00:42ready for
00:42my day. I have a lot of fun makeup that I like to play with, all of my hair products,
00:47and of course,
00:49my wigs. I have over 25 wigs. I love straight, curly, wavy hairstyles, and it's just fun. I really like
00:56to
00:57sit in here and kind of get in the zone, play some really good music, have a glass of wine
01:01or coffee,
01:02depending on where I'm going, and just get dressed up. So this is my bathroom. What I love about it
01:07is taking long, luxurious baths in my bathtub. The one thing that is my pet peeve is this really loud
01:14fan that won't turn off unless I turn the lights off. So that's the one thing that I could say
01:21is
01:22probably a little bit tricky about this room. One of the main reasons why I decided on this place
01:28was because of this giant closet.
01:33I decided on an open storage solution for this closet, and I had seen a bunch of really cute
01:40things on Pinterest, but I decided to go with this really inexpensive set of drawers from Ikea,
01:45and I like that they slide out so I can kind of see where things are living, and it's very
01:50sturdy,
01:50and it's going to last me a long time. This couch was actually my splurge item for the apartment.
01:55I spent about $650 on this couch. I found this at a warehouse in downtown LA, and I instantly fell
02:04in love with it. My family altar is really important for me to have. I personally believe
02:08in guardian angels, and my great-grandmother is kind of my guardian angel, so I decided to build
02:15something really special that represented her being in the space with me and her kind of watching
02:21over me and protecting me. One of my favorite memories is actually growing up and being kind
02:25of underneath my mom and watching her cook, so having a fun kitchen was really important to me.
02:31I love making pasta with lots of creamy sauces and cheese, all that stuff that isn't good for you.
02:38I like making that stuff because it makes you feel good.
02:40I really appreciate the look of vintage glasses. Whenever I can, I try to buy glasses and pieces
02:47that remind me of a time gone past. For me, that means colored glasses or things with a unique stem,
02:54things that have really unique small details on them. It just gives an extra little elegance to the
02:59space. I bought a bunch of flowers and dipped them in gold paint, threw some little string lights on
03:05there, and I think it came out really cute. Because I'm always working with other people's energy,
03:09I wanted to create a really neutral kind of calm bedroom, not overly stimulating. And that's why
03:16I like it so much because when I'm in here, it kind of feels like very soft and gentle. I'm
03:21a proud
03:21plant mom. I like having something to take care of. I have a peace lily. I think it has separation
03:27anxiety. I won't water it for a few days and it'll be fine if I'm in the apartment, but I
03:32leave for one
03:32or two days and it's completely wilted. I have to take extra care of her. Some of the art in
03:38the place is
03:39actually original. I love to draw and paint. The rest of the art I have bought from this really fancy
03:44gallery called Target. And I love going to Target for art and home decor.
03:53Sorry.
03:54AKA Target. I love shopping at Target for art and easy, fun home decor pieces.
04:01I'm a Gemini and a big part of my personality is being able to have freedom and utilizing versatility
04:08in my space. I love being able to rearrange my furniture. I like being able to add new accents.
04:14I'm always adding and removing things to make the space feel really new to me and exciting.
04:20I realized I was a medium probably about five or six years ago, but I've always had this kind of
04:27weird
04:27knowing that's like freaked my family out. So I decided to kind of learn more about what my abilities
04:34were and now I use them to help other people. I do intuitive readings for people and I also do
04:40Reiki and energy healing here inside my apartment, which is really cool. I really love using my gift
04:47to help other people.
04:48My spiritual journey has a lot of impact on the types of things that I put in my home
04:53and the placement of things in my home. What I really like is finding beautiful objects to put
05:00in different corners of the home, whether it's a stone or a nice photograph. I'm a big believer in
05:07writing down what you want and asking for it. And I remember when I was looking for a place,
05:13I wrote down exactly what I wanted the apartment to look like, exactly where I wanted it to be,
05:18how much I wanted to pay. And I wrote it on a piece of paper, folded it up and put
05:24it away.
05:24And two weeks later, I found this place. I walked right in and I was like, oh my God,
05:30this is my apartment because it was everything that I really wanted in a place and it was perfect for
05:34me.
05:34When I was a little girl, I always wanted to live a different life. I remember thinking about coming to
05:41LA one day and having this amazing experience. One day when I was cleaning my kitchen, I looked up
05:48and I realized that I could see the Hollywood sign and it's tiny, tiny, tiny, but it meant a lot
05:53for me.
05:53It was kind of like my confirmation, my pat on the back that I'm where I'm supposed to be.
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