beautiful NY spaces

Let me clarify that I am mostly not into coveting. If I were into coveting, I would definitely covet the apartment I was lucky enough to hang at today with summa the ladies from my congregation. But I think sometimes it's good for us to look at our reality and say, "hey, I'm a student. I like that I'm a student. But that also means I get to live in a student's apartment." or "yeah, I'm an almost-thirty mom. And that means I have an almost-thirty mom's body." You get the idea. Maybe it's good for us to face reality, accept it, maybe even learn to like it, and just be happy for people who have a different reality right now (with their own assembly of setbacks that come with it. trust me, there are some).

As soon as I walked into L's apartment for ba-runch I started snapping photos. The way she had worked her living space was inspirational in an I'm-not-trying-too-hard-this-decor-just-makes-me-feel-happy kinda way. Let me walk you through the spaces and point out what I love. Also, huge confession, I uploaded each of these photos to Instagram so I could manipulate the images because, as it stands, my plain-old phone camera did not do justice to how it looked in real life.  L was nice enough to give me permission to post these pictures on my blog. Ready--oo!

Walk-in space. First off, I love this brick wall. I love the light highlighting the brick wall. I love the hanging blue bike. The bookshelf is in an accessible, but not obstructive locale. Oh, and she actually has cool books on her shelves. Even better, yes? Something I like about living in New York, with its crazy real estate, sky-high rent, and generally small spaces, is the way people learn to make efficient use of the space they do have. L has really mastered this I think. Way more than that, she makes do with less (this is HUGE actually). Her entryway is used, but uncluttered.

  

Kitchen/hallway. Like so many people here, L has a kitchenette. Which means next to zero counter area and smaller-and fewer-cupboards. She has partially solved this problem by using a small roll-around countertop which I didn't capture here. But you see the way she's solved the storage issue. By using her hallway to hang her kitchen aids.  I love this.

 

 

Living Room. Uncluttered. Functional. Comfortable. Eclectic. Artsy. Interesting. Colorful. Old meets New. Mortar and Pestle on the DVD player? I'm in love.

Living room/ Stairs to rooftop. Winding stairs will get me every time. Especially if they lead to a NYC rooftop. A part of me likes the low-key color, but another larger part of me wants to paint it turquoise. Your thoughts?

  

Roof.  Decked out in second-hand furniture. Bees buzzing (!). Potted plants.  Of course, if this were my rooftop the pots would be full of tomato plants. Oh well.

 

 

View. Can you spy the Cathedral of St. John the Divine down the street? There's also a view of the Hudson if you turn to your right. 

  

A huge plus: L is extremely likeable, which makes it easy to be happy for her for having such a rad apartment. She's an American who grew up in Austria because of her dad's work with the UN. I knew her decor had an international flavor.  I also knew almost instantly that she was some kind of designer. And...nailed it! Graphic design.

So the takeaway from this for me is: declutter. less is more. use space creatively and efficiently. be as colorful and eclectic as you want to be.