new york apartment redesign: the logistics
it only took me 5 years and two apartments in new york to finally have the perfect space and design! it’s been almost two years since i moved from my last apartment and i can officially say i’m done redecorating…for now at least.
finding my new apartment
the same way i found my first apartment in the city, i found this apartment through streeteasy. because i wanted to stay on the upper east side and was familiar with the neighborhood, i was able to narrow my search down to a 3 block radius. once i found a building i loved (hello elevators, doorman, rooftop, and gym!!), i just had to decide on which unit i would call my future home. i originally looked at a one-bedroom apartment in the building but because it was more on the expensive side, i hesitated on submitting my application. as a result, the apartment was gone by the time i went to submit it. thankfully, the realtor informed me that while the original apartment i wanted was gone, he showed me the next best (and less expensive) option within the building: a large studio. while i was definitely disappointed at the time as i didn’t want to live in another studio apartment, i now see that as a blessing because i don’t think i would have felt comfortable paying the extra money for space i didn’t really need in a one-bedroom.
coming from a pre-war studio apartment that was definitely on the smaller side, i figured i wouldn’t be opposed to looking at this one. the second i arrived to the space i knew it was going to be just right. compared to my first apartment, this one had significantly more light/windows, better flow, more space, larger bathroom and closet, and overall higher quality finishes, i submitted my application within the hour and the waiting process began.
the application process for my building was a little lengthier than other apartments around the city because it’s a condo. so not only did my application have to be accepted by the owner of my apartment, who is based in hong kong, i had a separate application for the condo board as well. basically they just wanted to make sure i wasn’t going to be throwing raging parties in such a family-friendly building. the day my application was accepted i screamed for joy and immediately started figuring out how i wanted to design my new space.
getting the right design help
i’ve never been 100% confident with any of my own interior design abilities so when i moved into my new space, i made obnoxiously safe decisions for fear of “messing up,” …which is so not me, right!? i just kept over thinking every decision and it resulted in me having a white apartment: white walls, white desk, white dresser, white couch, white media stand, white shoe cabinets, white bedding, white white white white weuhfweidjnfsa UGH! i thought i was going to scream! sure i had touches of pink here and there in my carpet and pillows but omg i thought i was in an insane asylum. i decided it was time to call in the professionals. because i had been burned before with a “designer” thanks to my experience with homepolish (i talk more about that in my first apartment tour here but thankfully they are no longer in business), i was going into this very cautiously. i came across shannon claire: an incredible designer thanks to the recommendation of libby who had shannon redo her d.c. apartment a year or so ago (see it here!). after chatting with libby about her experience i knew i would love shannon…and after our initial phone call, i did! shannon completely understood my hesitations about working with a designer and made sure my vision for my apartment was going to be executed properly. after talking through all of her design packages, we agreed that her e-design option would be best suitable for me, especially because i live in nyc and she lives in d.c.
the services included in this package were:
- a complete design package created on a room-by-room basis and sent via email
- questionnaire and phone call with shannon for her and her team to get started
- they use the questions, measurements, and photos of the space to create a custom design tailored to your space
- complete mood board design for the room. this includes all furniture, paint colors, textiles, lighting, art, and decor that shannon and her team suggests
- a clickable shopping list to make sure you get the exact pieces suggested
- a detailed explanation of how to pull the space together yourself (oooor with the help of a handyman haha)
- a floor plan so you know where everything goes
and even with this in the design package, it also includes one revision so if there are some things (or a few) that you aren’t 100% satisfied with, adjustments can be made! and to make things even easier, it was just a one-time design fee! so no more feeling taken advantage of by designers!! yayy!
the redesign inspiration
is “grandma-chic meets carrie bradshaw” a design style? because that’s definitely the look i was going for haha! after our initial phone call, shannon had me fill out a design questionnaire that would help her understand my vision on a more detailed level. this included questions about my style and ideal budget. i relayed to shannon that while i love pink and wanted my apartment to be pink, i didn’t want it to be aggressively pink…aka tacky. people would be like “we get it allie, you like pink *eye roll emoji*” and i definitely didn’t want that. i also emphasized my love of vintage pieces as well as vintage-inspired pieces, mixing prints and textures, and just not taking my space too seriously. she also made sure to go over with me the things in my apartment that i absolutely would not get rid of. for me the “non-negotiable” items were my sharon core cake print above my bed, my storage bed, shoe cabinets, and my gold full length mirror. but that was it! i truly wasn’t married to anything else in my apartment. i also added bonus points if she could keep the anthropolgie dresser that i had recently purchased…but not mandatory.
i then had to measure everythinggggggg. every wall, every corner, and every door of the spaces that she would be working with…that took me about 3 weeks to talk myself into doing because it seemed so daunting. but the joke’s on me because it maybe took 20 minutes haha! after i finally sent over the measurements and photos of the space, i sent along one inspiration photo (i mainly just loved the tones and the overall vibe of this shot). i acknowledge that i didn’t give shannon a ton to go off of but i’ve truly never seen a designed space where i went “YES i want to live in that space!” it was mostly “oh yeah that’s cute or chic” but not for me to actually live in. so after one more phone call, shannon and her team got to work!
the design process
as i mentioned earlier, included in the e-design package was one design and one revision. it took shannon about 2 weeks to get me the initial design board. at first glance i thought it was really cute! but there were definitely a few things that i knew i wanted to change. one thing that shannon was very clear about was to be open and honest with her because that would make for the best end result: and i couldn’t agree with that sentiment more. so after i looked at and lived with the design plan for a few days, i was ready to give her all of the feedback for the revision.
i won’t go in-depth for all of my notes for the revision but the overall feedback was i wanted it to be “less palm beach and more palm springs” and “still colorful but not overly saturated" and shannon immediately knew what tweaks she wanted to make for the revision. i also added a note for the revision that while i did give her an ideal budget i wanted her to hover around, i didn’t want her to feel limited and not show me pieces that she may think would be fabulous - especially smaller pieces like blankets and trays that were high end designers because i could spread these purchases out throughout the process.
from these notes, it took probably another week or so for the revision to come in and to quote my exact response to that email was:
“OH MY FREAKINGGGG GAWDDD at first glance i’m OBSESSEDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!
GAHHHHHHH”
so i think we can all agree shannon nailed it and i just started ordering things within seconds!
i also really loved the itemized shopping lists that came with these decks. not only does she give you direct links and pictures to the products so you know exactly what to purchase, but she also makes sure to list out the size, color, and how many to order along with the price and even explains why she picked that piece and why she feels it’s right for the space. she just made my inner ocd-self so happy! i loved that shannon sourced things from non-traditional and secondhand websites to really make the space unique...charish is officially my new obsession! once everything was ordered, the hardest part was waiting for it all to come in. some things came within a few days but most things did not. the couch took the longest at 3 months and the mirror and pink lamps came in a close second, both taking almost 2 months; but it was well worth the wait once everything started arriving.
the budget
as much as i would like to say i stayed within the budget i set for myself at the beginning, i think we can all agree that that most definitely did not happen. while i knowingly gave shannon the go-ahead to include more higher end pieces, the real budget busting costs were those that i didn’t really think about. for starters, the paint selected was premium. so premium that snl mocked it in a skit this past december! i think my exact text to shannon when i saw the price was “is there gold in this paint!?” what she was right about, though, was how lush and rich it is! i completely understood the hype once it was on my walls! i only used two gallons for the entire room and one gallon for the ceiling and decided against their “special” primer and i think it still turned out great!
not only the paint itself was pricey, getting it on my walls also cost me a pretty penny. any kind of labor in new york is always much higher than anywhere else but i really didn’t want to cut corners with my painter because of all the furniture and accessories i had throughout my apartment that needed to be worked around and protected. so i had the painters in my building do the job because they are familiar with the building and i knew they wouldn’t be reckless with the task. because i was also painting the ceiling, the total came to $1500. but it was something that had to be done because the final look of the apartment relied so heavily on these colors. the other things that added up were the one off jobs like hanging my mirror/other wall decor, converting the pendant to a plug-in, and putting up the removable wallpaper. i tried to do a lot of the projects and assembly myself but after i almost killed my back trying to put my rug underneath my storage bed, i decided to take it easy on trying to be bob the builder. so while i did go over budget slightly because of the added decor pieces, those additional labor costs that i didn’t want to do myself were really what pushed my budget over the edge.
pieces of mine kept in the new design and things i didn’t use in the final design
i mentioned earlier in the post that when discussing the design direction with shannon, there were some pieces that i said had to be included in the final design. those pieces were my sharon core cake print above my bed, my storage bed, shoe cabinets, and my gold full length mirror. i was also excited that shannon was able to incorporate my anthropologie dresser that i had recently purchased before the redesign and we also kept my two gold display shelves, gold kate spade bow table, nightstand, and marble wall shelves that were originally above my dresser that we ended up moving above my desk. i also ended up keeping a ton of other pieces but those were the biggest ones.
when it came to the final design, there were a few pieces that i felt that i could do without. the first being the rose gold clothing rod/display hooks. while i thought they were absolutely adorable, i knew i was just going to need a ton more storage. in the first draft, shannon recommended an ikea armoire (that i actually had used in my first apartment!) but the issue with that was the plugs to my computer and printer would be behind it so i needed an open system and opted for this one here. i also decided against the shower curtain as i felt like mine was sufficient enough as well as the new knobs and plant pot. i didn’t feel like these were crucial and i already had pieces that were similar. shannon also included a shoe storage cabinet to go beneath my entry table but i ended up just putting that in my main closet for ease. one last thing i swapped out at the end were the red lampshades on the pink dresser lamps. once the red lampshades were on, the diameter was so large that it cased them to come out too far over the edge of the dresser and felt as if they competed too much with the hanging pendant above my nightstand. to solve this, i just swapped them out for narrower white ones!
putting on the finishing touches
before i could officially feel comfortable in the space i needed to do some serious cleaning out of my closet and clothes…but like any shopaholic, i have an internal conflict with selling clothes due to my emotional attachment to literally all of them. i ended up taking an entire clothing rack and four plastic tubs of shoes, home accessories, and decor items out to my hamptons house. once those were taken out, it was like i could see my space in all of its glory! from there i started to style the shelves, display cases, and accessorize the rest of the space to bring the whole look together. to say i think it’s perfect would be an understatement…like it’s so perfect i have to force myself to leave on my days off because i just want to sit and stare at it all day haha!
storage and organization
while i definitely think a full blog post needs to be dedicated to my small space storage, i know a lot of people are curious as to how i’m able to fit everything into my apartment…especially all of those shoes! i am an avid believer in seeing everything: shoes arranged in view, clothing hung, handbags on display, etc. otherwise i completely forget that i have them! stuffing things in drawers or boxes has never been ideal for me. so let’s break this down by item type:
clothing - i’m sorry to disappoint but i don’t store sweaters in my stove haha! i am, though, very fortunate to have two closets: one main one for all of my dresses, thick sweaters, jackets, and some coats. i also have a smaller coat closet towards the entrance of my apartment where i’m able to store more of my everyday coats. in order to maximize hanging space in my apartment, i added a double stacked clothing rack from ikea to replace my single bar rack next to my desk. this allows me to store twice the amount of hanging space than i had before. here i hang all of my blouses, skirts and suits/matching sets. i have a dresser where i store a lot of my t-shirts, thinner sweaters, jeans, pants, and some loungewear. my storage bed holds an incredible amount of storage. this is where i store all of my bulky seasonal pieces, scarves, and golf/beachwear. i like to still have the ability to easily access these pieces throughout the year because i travel so often to varying climates that it doesn’t make sense to completely swap out my closet for the seasons. lastly, i store sweatshirts and hats and gloves in my media chest and my storage ottomans contain my reeeeally thick sweaters and scarves!
shoes - i don’t really think it’s a secret where i store my shoes at this point haha but the majority of my shoes are housed inside those glass-doored bookshelves in my living area. those cabinets are able to hold 96 pairs of shoes thanks to the 6 extra shelves i added to each cabinet. i keep my resort sandals in my storage bed with my beachwear, large boots are kept in my coat closet, miscellaneous shoes like sneakers and worn-in boots are kept in my main closet, my cuter boots are left underneath my entry table, and i have a few pairs scattered around my apartment on display. while ideally i would have an entire room dedicated to my shoes…it’s going to be a few years before i can officially do that. all in all i have about 150 pairs of shoes inside my studio apartment!
jewelry - finding storage for jewelry has always been difficult for me. trying to find a storage option that doesn’t take up half of my room or all my counter space yet still allows me to see all of my pieces was incredibly hard to find. while i have cute jewelry boxes and holders around my apartment, i was able to find a wall-mounted jewelry mirror right after i moved in that stores most of my jewelry inside my main closet. shannon also had me get these shadow display boxes that have added a fun new display element above my entry table!
handbags - with a plethora of bulky and novelty handbags, i wanted them to feel like they were a part of the design. i had this gold shelf in my first apartment and ordered a second one to store even more bags and then shannon recommended i add this shelf for even more display storage! so i think it’s safe to say that i live in a retail store now haha! all of the bags that are not on display throughout my apartment are on the shelf in my main closet.
final thoughts
overall this was an incredible experience. shannon truly made everything so simple and straightforward - and the result was a one-of-a-kind apartment that i can finally call home. we started this project june 18th (from our first email together) and the last piece came in mid-december. so from start to finish, the process took about 6 months…really about 4 months though if you don’t count all the time i procrastinated doing the prep work haha! i would absolutely do it again a million times over and i hope to stay in this apartment for many years to come…mostly because i really don’t want to repaint my apartment back haha!
want to know more about shannon and her genius designs? feel free to check out her site here or follow her on instagram here!
are you guys ready now for the full redesign!? head here to see the before and after pictures!