How an Interior Designer Maximizes Her 650 Square Foot Studio Apartment

[upbeat music]

I really enjoy living in this small space.

I feel like it's very practical.

It kind of has everything I need and feels very intimate.

I wish I had a bigger house.

I'm joking. [laughs]

I'm Christie Ward.

Welcome to my 650 square foot apartment in New York City.

When I was studying at Parsons,

I met my now business partner, Staver Gray,

and we then started Ward + Gray about four years ago,

focusing on boutique hotels.

I love designing hotels.

I like how they can be experiential and fun

and you can take a bit more of a risk with them.

When designing this apartment,

I really thought of it as a hotel.

The space is about the same for a large hotel room.

So I thought in the same way,

how do I create rooms within a room?

It is a studio apartment,

but I wanted to have a dining space,

a living space, a workspace,

and creating all those little nooks

was something very important to me.

The first time we walked through the apartment,

every single wall was a different color.

So there were avocado green walls in the living room,

pink and purple walls in the bathroom and in the kitchen.

And I was excited because I saw all this opportunity here.

So I started drawing all these options for the floor plans.

The idea was to bring as much function as possible into it.

[soft music]

This is our living room.

When we first saw this apartment,

one of our favorite things was that

we were just across from two parks actually.

So you get a lot of greenery in the space

and you kind of get a break from the city.

So I wanted to bring that color through

into the fabrics here.

I had Photoshopped this room with a really deep navy first,

but then when I got here

and started putting color on the walls

as test runs,

I saw that the lighter color

just really opened up the space more

and that's kind of what we needed here.

For our chandelier,

we had it made with a glass master

and I pulled that same green that you see from the park

and on the wall sconces into the chandelier

with the light blue that's also in our kitchen.

So it just kind of helped to tie that room together.

The sofa has been with us

through our whole time in New York.

And when we moved in here,

we thought why not keep it?

So we decided to reupholster it

in these really fun and lively colors.

And then we have this credenza on this side,

which is just kind of the focal point of the room

and it kind of showcases the art.

These are fish I found,

they're little ceramic ones.

Every summer we like to go to Praiano

and in their alleyways,

they stick ceramic fish into the stucco walls.

And I always thought that was such a beautiful idea.

And so I've been collecting them

kind of thinking of doing that

for a future project or house.

I love this lamp in the corner as well.

It's really fun because you can kind of tilt it.

If you're reading here, just hanging out.

I thought what was nice is that it just kind of

makes the room feel a bit taller being installed higher.

It just creates a lot of height in the space.

This room used to be a lot bigger

because it was an open floor plan before

for the bed and the living space.

We did decide to cut it off and make it two spaces

so that we had more privacy into the bedroom.

And I think that helped to create

a more intimate space here.

To us, I think making it smaller

actually made it a bit more functional.

[upbeat music]

This is our bedroom.

So we're just off the living room,

which we separated by this glass and metal divider.

We knew we wanted to have some sort of separation

between the living room and the bedroom.

And so I came up with the idea

to do a glass and metal divider,

something I did previously in a project for Soho House.

We were trying to separate there

the bedroom and the bathroom,

but here I thought that was a great solution for privacy.

We are really deciding between a ribbed glass

or a clear glass.

And ultimately I really wanted to get that natural light

when I woke up in the morning.

Sometimes I like to just hang out in bed,

have a cup of coffee on the weekends.

And I wanted to feel like it was morning

and I could see what was happening in the city

without feeling too disconnected.

So that's why we ultimately decided

to go with the clear glass.

This bed I designed with a factory actually in Portugal

and the fabric we custom designed for the bed.

So we've pulled out that green that's in the wall sconces

and used the same color to create this hand block stripe.

My favorite detail of this bed is the fringe at the base,

which is really fun and playful.

The position of the bed was important.

At one point I had moved it over to the side

and played around with a little bedside table,

but ultimately you really wanted the space

on either side of the bed to just free up the space,

feel a little lighter

and not like you're smushed up into a corner.

The challenge I think with living in a small space

is having self-control,

not to buy everything you see in an antique shop

or when you travel,

you just have to know what you need and not over-purchase.

But it is nice to collect.

[upbeat music]

This is our kitchen.

When we first saw this space,

the previous owner had cabinets

that were on either side of us

and we felt like we wanted to open it up.

With this space, we really

wanted it to function as a kitchen,

but also as a workspace.

So we actually cut this countertop in here

to create this little nook.

And we added the bar stools

and this is actually what we use as a little workspace.

And then we added these upper shelves here

so we can just put our little objects.

And then in the cabinets,

we actually used this clear glass on top

so that it felt more open.

And we also had beadboard done at the back of the cabinet

just to add that nice little detail.

The biggest challenge with this space is it's very narrow.

So we had to be really thoughtful

about what we were putting in here.

We knew we had to have a full-size range and fridge,

but the idea to hide the fridge away in this panel

really helped so it doesn't feel like a ton of equipment.

It just kind of looks like nice, thoughtful cabinetry.

And then here we did this marble shelf that's open

and we just store little objects on here

and things we collect.

But I think it makes the space kind of feel

less like a kitchen and more like another room of the house.

There's this painting here by the amazing Frankie Thorpe

and we commissioned her to do it based off Praiano,

a place we go every summer.

Frankie actually included this glass

from our Moncada Home Collection spike

and we named him after our favorite character

from Notting Hill.

We went with Farrow & Ball light blue

for the cabinetry in here.

And we felt like that gave it a very calm feel.

It just feels kind of soft and nice.

And then we use a honed Kura marble for the countertops

and that just lightened everything up even more.

We're really lucky to have this window here

that looks out to a beautiful park

so that brings in a lot of light.

We used a nice linen shear

and I think that just creates this ambient glow.

What I love about this space is it's really multifunctional

so when I'm here cooking or chopping,

my husband can kind of perch on these bars tools

and hang out.

And it's just nice in such a small space

to be able to both be in here

and be doing two things at once, but it still works.

If I could change something about this space,

I might add a door

because we do get some light leakage into the bedroom

mostly because these are sheer curtains,

but I think it's worth it for the nice arch

we get coming into the space.

[soft music]

This is our dining nook.

Previously, this was one big wide corridor.

The old owner had a big cabinet here

and it was kind of overwhelming the space.

It felt very tight.

This was one of the things I wasn't sure

if I was going to invest in.

On the floor plan,

it felt like maybe it wanted to stay a wide passageway

into the living room and bedroom,

but I'm actually really happy I did this

because it created a whole new room within this room.

And it's one of the most used spaces in our house.

We decided to eat into this wall

to create this built-in millwork piece.

We did it in the same light blue

since it's right across from the kitchen

and then added the same bead board details

that's behind the kitchen cabinets.

And this just created a ton of storage for us

so on the right and left side,

we have wardrobes here

and then below the little nook bench,

we also have storage.

When we have people over,

our friends can kind of hang out here,

perch on these chairs,

and then I'm in the kitchen,

but it's very social 'cause there's no door

and so everyone just kind of gets to mingle.

So with small spaces,

I feel like storage is always the biggest issue.

So for us, adding this whole corridor of closets

was really impactful for us.

These were formed by our contractor

and he was using this kind of bendy plywood

that took the corner

and then he hand-plastered over.

This is actually a Art Deco building.

It was built in the '30s

and the plaster was original to the building

so we wanted to make sure we used that here as well.

This is our bathroom.

When we first started doing the layouts for this space,

we toyed with the idea of making the bathroom bigger.

But ultimately, I thought storage was more important

for our clothes and things like that.

I think it was the right decision in the end.

We have so much

and trying to pack it all into a studio can be tough

so I think the storage was a better use of space.

The bathroom is quite tight

so we used this light blue color to open it up

and make it feel a little bit larger.

I couldn't find a 24-inch wide vanity off the shelf

so I really had to custom make this one.

It's a very tight space

so easing the corners of the backsplash really helped

and I think makes it feel less angular

and gives a nice kind of flow.

The mirror has these eased edges.

It's actually a polished nickel

but I thought it just spoke to the rest of the apartment

with the curves.

I used the same sconce that I used throughout the house

with that green just to tie in the colors.

[soft music]

The whole process took us about a year

but I feel like it wasn't that grand moment

when you walk into a space and it was finished

because I little by little was finding furniture and lights

and it's still never really done.

This was the first apartment I have designed for myself.

I think having done it once

now I just want to keep doing it again and again.

The important thing I think in a studio apartment

is just making sure everything is functional

and has a purpose.

I think we've managed to fit a lot in here.

We have our little dining space,

a bedroom, living room, workspace.

I think that's quite unique in a studio

and also I guess our things make it unique.

They feel uniquely us.

[soft music]