00:00This 540 square foot apartment in the heart of Chelsea started off with a lot of awkward angles.
00:05There were dropped ceilings, soffits, and some really questionable finishes that really we see
00:10in most New York City apartments. Our goal in here was to ground the space with the right finishes,
00:16create some clean sight lines, and expand the view out into the city.
00:29Early conversations with this client, which was really fun getting to know him and getting to know
00:33his lifestyle. He's bi-coastal and so the version of what New York looked like in his life was
00:39something that we were both discovering together. So much of that conversation kind of poked us out
00:44the window over here where we saw Hudson Yards, London Terrace, and the Empire State Building.
00:50Really, as we started designing the location for a sofa, the bed, where can we take advantage of
00:56these sight lines? How do we make this feel like you're immersed in the middle of the city?
01:00What I like to bring in is mirror. This mirrored wall almost doubles the size of the square footage
01:06in this apartment without literally building extra square feet.
01:11So the way we laid out this space was anchoring the seating across the television,
01:17across a beautiful view with some huge storage. And this millwork piece over here is really the anchor
01:23of the whole room. A light sand color against north lighting. It really wakes it up. It keeps it bright
01:29and cool. And it offers multiple different types of storage. In here we've got AVIT equipment. We've
01:37got open decor. We've even got a radiator in here. And you really would never know unless you start
01:42getting up close and inspecting. This sofa right here, we custom designed it so that when you take
01:49all the pillows off of here, it turns into a full twin size mattress. You can really have someone
01:54sleepover in here, which, you know, all of us have that friend that visits town. And this is right for
01:59them. It's quite comfortable. It's got a feather fill. When you get up close to it, you really got to
02:04see
02:04the sheen go in both different directions. And I really love this square detailing.
02:10You'll start to see this geometry show up through the space. There's a number of different square
02:16objects. We've got this gorgeous Danny Kaplan sconce here on the wall and perforated brass. And right
02:22below it, this beautiful Forbes and Lomax light switch. So we put together this gallery wall over
02:28time. We kept going to different shops and showrooms through New York and LA and started puzzling together
02:33all of these pieces from different time periods. This red chair right here, I think, was the last piece
02:39that came in and turned out to be the star of the show. And it sits right across the dining
02:43table where we
02:44have another painting that also has a dining chair in it. We have this obsession for chairs.
02:50This chair right here, we sourced vintage. It's by one of my favorite designers, Sindrik Halabala.
02:55It's got this beautiful walnut frame to it with this null fabric we put on top. So comfortable. You
03:01could really sit, grab a book, do your work and just really holds you. We wanted to center this around
03:07the coffee table, make sure that the sofa was large enough where a few people can sit around,
03:12watch some TV, hang out, have a drink. But you know, at times you want to throw a party and
03:17we need to make
03:17some space. So this chair was great. We really got to fold it up, get it out of here, put
03:22it in a closet
03:23and open up the whole room so much more.
03:29When we started, this was all filled up. This was one large wall that went through
03:34and we made this conscious decision to make two punctures through it that get you over to the bedroom.
03:40It's a studio at the end of the day. So it's not really a closed bedroom, but what it does
03:44by
03:45keeping this wall here is it offers some privacy. When you're sitting in the living room space,
03:50you're not totally making eye contact with a whole bed. And when you're in bed, there's this really
03:55charming piece of art on the back that's about yay big. And it just lets you focus on something and
04:00feel like, again, you're in a cozy, tight space.
04:14So the idea in here was to have as minimal furniture as possible because there's not really that much
04:20space in here. With the millwork, we're able to build in a dresser cabinet, which stores a significant
04:27amount. And over here on the bed on the nightstand side, rather than having pieces that take up
04:32floor space, we created this floating element. These nightstands are all built into the headboard
04:37and mirror board piece. They are just so beautifully crafted. The way these builders made this is just
04:44so impressive. From the architectural point of view, I really want things to line up where they matter.
04:50I think that these header lines that you see connecting over the threshold, connecting over the
04:56window header. I wanted to bring it into the millwork over here so that you just have a clean
05:00datum line that goes across the whole space. I think it calms the whole space down. And similarly,
05:06in the headboard, you can see we have this line continuing across that then makes it away into the
05:12wall-to-wall cabinetry. Again, it just gives you this horizon line that feels low, it feels grounded,
05:18and it's something that has function to it. I think in any bedroom, we need some good layers of lighting.
05:24Outside of these two gooby table lamps, we built in these nightlights with this beautiful switch,
05:30and they really glow on the floor. They give a little hover at night so that it's not too intense
05:35and your nervous system can unwind. The textiles that we chose to put in here, I love the way this
05:42pale blue plays off of the walnut. It's just got this vibrant boyish energy, which we loved so much.
05:48As I mentioned, these textures of velvet, crushed wool, and this vintage Kaleem that we brought in as a
05:55pillow, as a lumbar pillow, just really tied the whole space together. It gave us some good color that
06:00we were looking for. I'm excited to show you my favorite room in the apartment. Come on.
06:10So this is the coziest room in the apartment. These oxblood tiles really just wrap you around like a
06:16worn-in leather jacket. I just love the craftsmanship that went into here. And so over here we built this
06:22great walnut medicine cabinet. It goes wall to wall with downlight and uplight to really just set the
06:29mood in here at nighttime. And it brightens up the surface. This is the same stone that we use in
06:35the kitchen, Calicutta Viola, on a custom stainless steel base that we had designed out to just keep
06:41it flowing and open. Not too heavy, not too claustrophobic. It's already a tight room, so we
06:47just want the floor to continue and being able to see that I think makes all the difference. In here
06:52we
06:52have the shower separated with this reeded glass, which I really, really love. It just creates this kind of
06:57like illusion you could see back here. We know someone's in there, but we're not seeing everything.
07:01These are one inch by one inch Bouchon tiles by Adderclay. They're typically used for a swimming pool,
07:07so they're really waterproof, wet rated, and they come in a big sheet. So when you're laying this out,
07:14what's so challenging is getting all of the grid lines to perfectly line up and to avoid cutting tiles.
07:20So you'll notice as we go through here, all of these grid lines connect up into the ceiling,
07:25down into the walls, down all the way here into the floor, and they even make their way and wrap
07:31around the curb. The architect in me was completely geeking out. I know it might seem a little nitpicky,
07:37but these continuous grid lines just make me so happy.
07:45I grew up in Queens, in a family and embroidery business, so surrounded by craft my whole life.
07:50My company's named Yali. It's named after my great grandmother. She started our family's hand embroidery
07:56business in India decades ago, and really was the embroidery matriarch of our family. Since then,
08:02my dad brought that company here to New York in the 80s, and being born and raised to be here,
08:07we really got to see this dialogue between the creative sector here and then this incredible craft
08:13sector based in India. We literally had dresses on our dining table while growing up, and my mom's inspecting
08:19them, and my dad's bringing clients over, so the house was always so entrepreneurial, filled with
08:25creative energy, and the most important, I think, is this really, really intimate relationship with craft,
08:32and these makers that are just so talented. So go figure, now I'm in a creative industry,
08:38now I'm working with some of the best craftsmen in town, working with some of the best builders in town,
08:44and I'm telling you, watching the way they work is just so inspiring. We were working with Vision Build,
08:51Bob and Jimmy, and both of them were just so diligent, so precise, and honestly so inviting
08:57of the creative process, which made it that much more pleasant to work on this. The amount of hours
09:02that we spent studying this 540 square foot floor plan will shock you, but it's really what made it so
09:09graceful at the end of the day.
09:15While zoning out the apartment, we really wanted a living room, and we really wanted a dining room.
09:20You can imagine in a studio that's a tight squeeze, somehow it feels so spacious. The spans of the rug
09:28over here stretches out the space. This dining table can fit four people quite easily, and they all play
09:34with the same wood tones. This is all walnut right here as well from both of the vendors we work
09:38with.
09:39And we made the conscious decision of getting a large pendant, getting it kind of low, and swagging
09:44it above the table. It creates a focal point. The layers of lighting really improve the way you
09:50experience the space. This one right here lights up the table so well, keeps the focus on the table,
09:56while behind me this floor lamp really glows across the whole room.
10:00This cabinet right here turned out to be the bar, a little bit of storage, and an entertainment space.
10:06As soon as you walk into the apartment, you see this framed out dining space. My favorite part about
10:12the entryway is the metal door. It's the original historic door that we decided to strip down and
10:18preserve. It's the piece of history in this building that felt important to keep. We used walnut to wrap
10:24some cabinets. There's some shoe shelves in there. At the end of the day, I feel like we really got
10:29in a lot of
10:29function in the space. The apartment's small, but mighty.
10:36So this is a galley kitchen, quite classic in New York City. The walnut hides the appliances in here,
10:42some storage, and in some cases are open cubbies. So it's just quite easy to grab what you need in
10:48such a tight space. If you have a small space, I wouldn't be too worried about embracing the change
10:53of materials. We actually decided to lean into that with this. There's this rule of thirds with materials.
10:58We've got the walnut that wraps out throughout the space, this stainless steel that feels utilitarian,
11:03feels very functional, you could clean it really easily, and then the marble. And this almost invites
11:09you to use the space up. It's beat up, it's got energy to it, it's got a life to it
11:14of its own,
11:14and you're not really afraid to touch and use the counters. I know marble typically gets a bad rap in
11:20terms of how you use it and maintain it. I'm just leaning into it. It's going to age so beautifully
11:25over time. These are undermount cabinet lights, and what I love is they just kind of bounce off
11:32of this. It almost acts like another light source in here. The reflectivity just expands the room and
11:38makes this galley kitchen just feel much more gracious.
11:51As a young creative, getting the chance to work on a project like this was huge for me. I'm just
11:56so
11:56grateful for the teams that were part of this, the client for trusting me with his vision, with his
12:01space, with his home. And really, I have so much joy with the way it's come out because it's really
12:09like proof of concept, right? You get to do this over and over again with different clients you work
12:13with and seeing the look in their eyes the minute they see the space and how it came together. It
12:19just,
12:19it makes everything here so worthwhile.
