00:05This apartment has gone through so many different phases and I have messed up so much stuff here.
00:11I feel like once it gets done, it looks like, oh, it was meant to be like that. But it
00:15actually took
00:15me like five takes to get it to that one point. And when I thought my budget was maybe $150,
00:21it ended up being $500. And that is just me learning throughout the process.
00:38This, I feel like it's kind of like the star of my apartment. This was the project that I was
00:45really scared to do. But when I first went to this space, this wall was not even here. It was
00:51just
00:51completely open. But I ended up getting a second dog and he is crazy. So I need to separate myself
00:58from him. Originally, this wall was put up. It was just a white plain wall and it was throwing me
01:04off a little bit. So I literally just got a bunch of cuts of wood, started throwing them on the
01:10wall
01:11and ended up getting some trimming and just like trimming it out. And once I started doing that,
01:16I started to see it come together a bit. And I feel like really what changed it was when I
01:21polyurethane it. That's really what gave it this like glossy finish and made like the richness of
01:26wood come out. With me playing with color again, I ended up just adding this like blue trim around
01:33it. I love it. And I feel like it goes quite well. I had so many ideas for this particular
01:39space.
01:40This area over here actually was my walk-in closet. I was super excited actually when I first moved in
01:46because I was like, oh, I got this space. It's like a walk-in closet. Who gets that in New
01:50York City?
01:51And as you can see, I changed that into something else. I ended up building out this wardrobe. So I
01:56pulled that closet out and brought this over and just ended up doing this DIY project.
02:01Then once I moved this bed into the nook, it just opened the space up so much more. And the
02:06flow of
02:06it just made a lot more sense to me as I love to work out. I love like running. I
02:12love cycling.
02:12I love starting my day with a little workout. I will move my Peloton out. Then I just pop my
02:20treadmill
02:20down and it comes down pretty easy. I love that this treadmill is super quiet and it allows me to
02:30start my day with a clear head and be still super mindful and like in a meditative place.
02:39And my bedroom nook area, I chose to color drench this area just because I wanted to be a place
02:46fully just for rest. And I ended up building out this platform bed and I added some books up here
02:53and some reading lights on either side of the bed just so before bed, I can go back into that
02:59home meditative space and have a good night rest.
03:05Starting out in the space, it was just a completely just white box. I actually started off with a
03:09modular sofa in the beginning, but I moved on to this Sarah Ellison sofa where my friend contacted me
03:16out of nowhere. I was not shopping for a sofa, but I love the color and it was a great
03:20price. And I'm all
03:21about buying things on a bargain or secondhand. It also can be changed into a three-seater, but I love
03:28it
03:29because I just love the warmth of the color that it provides. And I also love the texture of the
03:32sofa.
03:34This is something that's so important to me. It was in our living room. It was a white room.
03:39My parents just didn't want us to touch anything in this particular room. I think this was like
03:43their moment that they like they made it. I feel like for me now to have it in my space
03:47makes me kind of almost feel like maybe I made it too.
03:56I wanted to not hide the TV, but just kind of like maybe highlight the area and maybe add it
04:02to my
04:02design a bit. My original inspiration is going back to a single man. I love wood. And I also watched
04:10Tony Bravo's home and she had this like walnut credenza with this like electric blue inside.
04:16And I feel like that I always geared towards like these warm colors. So I was thinking,
04:21how can I add like pops of color throughout my space? I ended up getting me a bit of plywood
04:26and
04:26some stain and a bit of oil and I ended up putting it together myself. I also do pottery a
04:32bit. So I
04:33made this bowl and it like hides certain things like my Nintendo switch or a remote. I feel like sometimes
04:41it feels kind of wild to think that I even taught myself how to build things and do pottery. But
04:49I
04:49kind of always wanted to be that person that was like, I don't want to be put in a box.
04:53And I feel
04:53like for so long, I've had so many ideas in my head. So to actually now see them all come
04:59to light,
05:00it feels energizing in a way. It also feels like why didn't I do this sooner?
05:11So now we're in my kitchen. It started off as a white box with white appliances. This particular
05:19project of me redoing the kitchen started actually after the windowsills. I love to entertain. I love to cook.
05:27So I really just wanted to make the spaces feel a lot better. It actually has gone through many
05:33different phases. This is probably like its third phase. The first thing I started with was painting
05:37the ceiling. Also another thing with these cabinets. When I first came to look at the space,
05:42there were white cabinets. They were all beat up. They looked a mess. And the day that I came to
05:47move in,
05:48these were here, which I was definitely happy about because they look a lot better. So that's why I
05:53ended up just like trying to add a wood backsplash that kind of just flowed with it as well. And
05:58I've
05:59always loved stainless steel. So I was like, let me just like play around with adding stainless steel elements.
06:07This particular counter also was like a peninsula onto the wall. So I ended up making it an island and
06:13just pushing it out a little bit. And surprisingly, just pushing it out those few inches made the space
06:18feel so much bigger. I was always kind of the guy who had the vision but would hire someone to
06:27do it
06:27instead of me doing it myself. And I reached out to the supers to build this cabinet around my fridge
06:33and they were charging me like a crazy amount of money. So I was like, I feel like I can
06:39throw a
06:39rectangle box together. So after doing this particular thing, I was like, I think I also can build a
06:47cabinet around my washer as well.
06:52I was so happy to have a dining room in my space. This was something that actually I've never had
06:58in any apartment. To have a space where I could sit down and host dinners or even work was, it
07:03just
07:04feels amazing. My dining table and my chairs, I got all of this stuff secondhand. And I also feel like
07:11having anything like vintage adds like a sense of eclecticness to the space as well. So I ended up
07:18finding this at a vintage shop in Bushwick. And then I painted this picture. I sat with a friend
07:24and we both went to paint different like abstract things for our spaces. So we sat down and I just
07:30came up with a few different colors. This particular painting actually stemmed from me going to a museum
07:37one day. And I came across this beautiful painting that I was like, I can't buy it, but I could
07:43try
07:43to make it. I also found a beautiful frame online. So I just took a bunch of pieces of wood
07:49and just
07:49like put them together and then use some caulking just so it looks like one seamless piece. And then
07:55I painted it and then like lacquered it just so it gave like a glossy finish.
08:01I feel like I have gotten an apartment to the place where I truly feel like it's a home that
08:06I truly love. From the start of it, I look back at the pictures sometimes and I'm like, oh my
08:11gosh,
08:11like I feel like when you live in something, you really don't see just how much it has changed.
08:16When people come into the space, they all kind of like, oh my gosh, remember how it looked when you
08:20first moved into here? It allows me to take the moment to really take in what I have done and
08:26what
08:26I've created for myself, especially in a city like New York City. I actually just feel like so good
08:33and so comfortable at home now.
