00:00Hi guys, my name is Gilly. Welcome to My Sweet Digs, also known as Casa de Senor Gato.
00:04Come on in. I live in Prospect Park South in Brooklyn. I pay $14.95 a month,
00:11which I know is a really good price for New York, especially for like a good-sized
00:16true one-bedroom. This is my first solo apartment. I love being able to decorate
00:21the whole space on my terms, so it's been it's been really great.
00:32This is my kitchen, which leads into my dining room. I'm a food writer, and I
00:37write a lot about home cooking and kitchen tips and tricks, so I spend a lot of time
00:43in my kitchen. Because of my job, when I'm eating out of restaurants, it's usually a
00:47lot of indulgent foods, alcohol, things like that, which are all great, but when
00:51I'm at home, it's a lot of very fresh, produce-heavy food. Because I write about
00:56food and beverages, I'll get sent a lot of liquor, but I actually don't ironically
01:01drink very much when I'm just alone at home, because I'm more of a social
01:06drinker. Unless people are coming over, my booze just kind of sits there and
01:10awaits someone for me to make a cocktail for. This is my living room. I pick up a
01:16lot of things when I'm traveling from my home. One of my great finds were these
01:21Moroccan poofs, which I got in the souk in Marrakesh. They'll actually sell them to
01:26you empty, so you can haul them back in your carry-on, but then it actually takes
01:30a lot more fabric than you might think to fill them. I'm pretty sure I've got like
01:34three old comforters and tons of towels just to fill up these things. When I'm
01:39traveling, I always try to look for local antique stores, flea markets, places
01:44where you're gonna find authentic local pieces. Senor Gato is my lovely framed cat. I refer to him as my
01:51roommate because he's lived with me for like over ten years. I think I got him at
01:55a Goodwill for like a dollar and I just thought like this is the kitschiest thing
02:00I've ever seen and I love it. He lived in my dorms in college and all of my
02:04apartments since, so my apartment gets a snake name after him. The question I most
02:09get about my apartment is where can I get stuff for my own gallery wall and how
02:13can I build it up? I would say just take your time. I love going to thrift stores,
02:17antique stores, flea markets. Whenever I'm traveling, like I said, I like to pick
02:22up a piece of art or something unique from a flea market there that that can
02:27really remind me of a place. One of my favorite things were these two mirrors
02:32above my TV stand. I got them at the Brooklyn Flea from a vendor. One of his
02:37friends is a Broadway set designer and they look like they're very heavy antique
02:43mirrors but they actually weigh like a pound apiece. They're made out of plastic,
02:46really lightweight and affordable and I love them. Definitely my biggest splurge
02:52was probably the couch just because it's kind of the most substantial item in my
02:56apartment. My couch was a little over $800 which was especially a lot when you
03:00just moved into apartment and just had to pay you know your down payment and your
03:05broker fee and all that. This is my office slash closet. This room used to be just a
03:15walk-in closet. I had shelves for shoes and clothing racks. Then I realized it would
03:19be a much more practical use to turn it into an office because I do work from home
03:24and it can get easy to get distracted and not want to get your work done so I
03:30thought it would really help to have a designated space. This is my bathroom. My
03:35least favorite room of my apartment is definitely the bathroom. It's very small
03:40and it's definitely where you see the most age of the apartment. I've tried to
03:43dress it up with a few cute curtains and a poster from one of my favorite bands but
03:49otherwise it's it's not the nicest bathroom in the world. This is the
03:54bedroom. Because the rest of my apartment was pretty busy I wanted the
03:58bedroom to be more of like a tranquil neutral space really calming where I
04:03could just really relax and not think about work or anything else stressing me out.
04:08This is the first apartment where I didn't have control over the heating
04:11system. The first winter when the central heating came on it started making these
04:15loud banging noises and I thought that something was about to explode in my
04:19apartment and thought maybe I should evacuate. Because it is an older building
04:22the windows are very drafty so in the dead of winter gets extremely cold. Luckily I
04:27have a space heater in here that also looks like a cozy little fireplace. I have
04:32tons of blankets and just pile myself up in layers all winter long so I don't get
04:37too cold. I love living alone. I travel a lot for work so when I am in New York I
04:42love having my own space to unwind. I can definitely be a bit of a homebody
04:46especially in the winter when it's just too cold I don't want to go outside I just
04:50want to be cozied up so I love having my own space.
