New York Times
Decorating a Tiny Apartment, One Shoe at a Time
By Michelle Higgins
When Meg He moved to the Lower East Side from London last year, decorating her tiny rental apartment was the last thing on her mind.
The clothing start-up that she had co-founded was just taking off, and setting up a new office in SoHo left little time to work on her new home, a one-bedroom just shy of 400 square feet.
So she made do with a few pieces of furniture and put off figuring out what to do with her wardrobe and a wide assortment of equipment for her various interests. “There is an upright digital piano, three yoga mats and props,” she said, ticking off a long list of gear, including dance shoes, figure skates, an easel, paints and canvases, a violin, a pull-up bar, rock-climbing equipment and a dog crate for Forrest, her toy-size Australian shepherd. “I also have more than 20 plants, and some of them have names.
By August, when her only closet was completely full and she still didn’t have any shelves on the wall, she knew it was time to take action. The tipping point was when her shoes began to overflow the boxes she stored them in. “I just didn’t know where to put them,” said Ms. He, 29, who was born in Beijing and raised there and Reading, Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. “My first few months, living in New York City was haphazard, focusing on ADAY and with no sense of home. I realized that not having a home I loved was also affecting my work.”
The start-up, ADAY, focuses on style, simplicity and versatility, and Ms. He wanted to incorporate those qualities into her apartment. “I wanted a creative space I could feel balanced in, which inspired me every day to do my best work,” she said. “The space also needed to balance all of my interests and feel alive.”
Working with Megan Hopp, an interior designer in Brooklyn, she used a combination of open shelving, low-profile furniture and secondhand clothing as art to make the most of her home.
The entryway resembles a large, well organized closet, with coats, bags and shoes on display, heels lined up along the shelves. A low two-seater sofa (about $1,700 from HEM Design Studio) and Sayulita chairs ($349 each from CB2) were added in the living area to emphasize the height of the ceiling.
The sofa has no arms, which helps create the illusion of more space, Ms. He said. “It made a huge difference,” she said, noting a couple of other tricks of the trade: “We installed a lot of new lighting, from floor lamps to table lamps and sconces, to give the room depth and character.” A round bistro table (about $600 from CB2) made from stone composite and natural fibers created space and added texture to the living/dining area.
“So often, people push their furniture in a tiny space up against all the walls, and then you’re stuck,” said Ms. Hopp, the designer. “Furniture with curves lets the air in, and can literally shift around the room depending on your guests, task or needs.”
In all, Ms. He spent about $5,000 on furniture, lighting, shelves, paint and wallpaper. To save money and gain some home improvement skills, she not only painted the apartment herself, but also hung the wallpaper and some of the shelves. “The shelves were a disaster and not level, so I paid someone to put up all future shelves,” she said. Her many plants, which dot the shelves and line the windowsills, add greenery.
Special clothing and accessories serve as art: Costume jewelry she wore to the Burning Man festival in northern Nevada, vintage silk scarves from Paris and limited-edition shoes and prototypes from her business are on display rather than tucked away. Forrest’s dog crate, which sits in a corner of the main room, is camouflaged with a hand-stenciled, black-and-white West African blanket, bought at the Brooklyn Flea. A vintage embroidered silk kimono from her mother is displayed above the bed, against an accent wall. Half the wall is decorated with yellow botanical wallpaper ($73 on Etsy); the other half is a striking color that Ms. He likes to change from time to time. This summer it was a cool, dark navy.
“I believe in the evolution of design as we change, so I would expect to make changes every few months, whether that’s adding or removing pieces, or changing colors,” she said. “I have now painted a section of the bedroom a deep ‘millennial,’ salmon pink, which pairs great against dark green plant greenery.”
The result: “It feels individual and creative and me,” she said. “Interesting and vibrant, and definitely non-vanilla.”
