Entryway Details in Our Small Space

"The details are not the details. They make the design."
—Charles Eames

After a super-satisfying round of decluttering and finally getting the stroller out of our entryway (our son rarely uses it anymore), I realized our foyer needed some attention. A few purchases and a couple of tweaks have made things feel so much nicer, so I thought I'd share them here:

A designated landing spot for mail. I'm usually a straight-to-the-recycling bin person, but there are days when you've got arms full of groceries, so it's nice to have a spot to dump the stack and deal with it later.
Acrylic tray, $45; amazon.com

A place for shoes. We have proper shoe storage in our clothes closets, and we're not a shoes-off-at-all-times family, but still shoes seemed to gather here. Having an attractive, open-top bin for them neatens up the space.
Market basket, $59; rejuvenation.com

A home for keys—but only those used daily. We had a bowlful of every spare key in our lives. Pairing back to store only my and my husband's keys on the console was a major step towards streamlining.
Handmade Stoneware Farmhouse Bowl, $46; food52.com

A proper charger. We had a too-short cord that was always falling down behind the sideboard. Replacing it with a handsome, extra-long one with its own marble base was a major style and life upgrade.
Night Cable, $40; lennoxandharvey.com

A wonderful smell. I recently reread Deborah Needleman's The Perfectly Imperfect Home (so good, by the way!) and she writes about the joy of opening your door to a scent you love. Like me, Needleman loves Santa Maria Novella's potpourri, and it has the advantage of smelling great 24-hours a day unlike a candle that must be lit and can't greet you at the door.
Pot Pourri Box, $35; smnovella.com

Small, But Not Minimal

Back in 2014, I came across this tiny apartment on Refinery29. I loved it right away because it shows that small-space living doesn't have to be minimalistic or impersonal. Today, I saw that the very same apartment is now for sale (for more than half a million dollars!) Of course, like any apartment for sale, the place has been staged with fewer belongings for an airier look. I thought I'd repost it here as a reminder that small does not have to mean minimalist. This apartment, which was also featured on Curbed.com at the time, really feels like someone's personal home—filled with antiques, collections, and art.

Check out the difference between the staged and unstaged living space below, and my original notes on the design below that:

The "bedroom" and "dining room" both fold away. This view of the living room shows the apartment with the Murphy bed and the dining table both folded away. It looks a lot like any New York City apartment's living room to me, which I like.

See the Murphy bed unfolded below.

Creative Ways to Declutter Your Home

I love a good decluttering. Getting rid of unwanted and unloved things gives me such a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. And the funny thing is, no matter how vigilant you are about keeping clutter out of your life, it has a sneaky way of returning: magazines pile up,  party favors creep in, socks go missing and their mates hang around, pens migrate home from the office, your collection of glass jars and tupperware containers gets out of control. If like me, you are craving a good spring clean out. Here are a few creative ways to start the decluttering process:
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• Timer Method Set a timer for a period of time in which you go through a room looking for items to throw away/recycle/donate, as well as items to be returned to their proper homes. Set it for 25 minutes, and it's officially the Pomodoro Technique.

 • One-Item-A-Day Commit to getting rid of an item a day for a month (or longer!).

 • Gone Box  Place a box in every room that needs decluttering and every time you find something you’re ready to part with, place it in the box. At the end of the month, take them all to the Goodwill or other charity.

 • The 20-20-20 Challenge Locate 20 items to throw away, 20 items to donate, and 20 items to be returned to their proper homes.

 • Photographic Evidence  Take photos of your home to gain a fresh perspective on where clutter lurks. This is a tip that Celerie Kemble shared with me long ago in an interview about decorating. But I found it surprisingly effective for decluttering! Don't believe me? Take a look at what this room above (our old living room) and what it looked like in a photo before we staged it for sale, as it is shown above. At the time, I didn't realize how cluttered our place had gotten!

 • Snowball Method  Get rid of one thing on Day 1, two things on Day 2, and so on until you are getting rid of 30 things on Day 30. This sounds like a lot, but it is possible. I've gotten into the 20s and quit, but one day, I'm going to make it to 30.

 •  Buddy System One of the most effective ways to declutter, choose one of the methods above and agree on a plan with a friend. Then text each other pictures of what you’re throwing away/donating each day. My friend and I have done this with the Snowball Method and it is a magic bullet of motivation.

Toy Creep: A Tale of Three Dump Trucks

My son is 2 ½ this week and he’s more of a little boy than a toddler with each passing day. Along with boyhood comes an onslaught of toys, and I’ve been thinking a lot about their place in his life and in our home.

Before our son was born, I read everything I could on blogs about the intersection between parenting and minimalism. I devoured Rachel Jonat’s The Minimalist Mom. Later, I dove into Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids, an inspiring book that advocates for fewer toys, reduced clutter, and an overall spirit of less. Both books are worth reading and will help motivate parents to get a handle on their kids’ clutter, but neither prepared me for the reality of what I’m calling “toy creep.”

Our son still has many fewer toys than his same age peers, but little by little, his collection has grown, and I can now understand how families end up with the insane amounts of playthings that I find in most homes. Let’s take my kid’s dump trucks as an example of how we all end up with so much.

Dump Truck #1 entered our lives last summer. We’d gone to visit friends at their beach house for a weekend, and I’d neglected to pack any toys. Our son didn’t need a toy (he was having a blast playing with the garden hose), but I decided we’d get him a toy dump truck that we could play with in the sand, partly out of a nostalgic desire to return to the toy store that had been in this town since my own childhood. He loved the vehicle. 

Dump Truck #2 came on the scene over the Thanksgiving break. We were headed home with a four-hour flight ahead of us, and I knew a new toy would chip away at the plane time we needed to fill. Again, he was delighted. He started referring to it as “special dumper” and the new toy went into constant rotation.

Dump Truck #3 was a Christmas gift. My husband’s father observed that his grandson loves trucks, and wisely chose a set of construction vehicles as a holiday gift. When the package arrived in the mail, our son was thrilled to discover the new dump truck.

So, here we are, the proud owners of three dump trucks. Our son happily plays with all three, and they don’t take up much room, so I have no real motivation to insist that we pare back, but I can also see how this is just the start: How long before Dump Truck #4 and Dump Truck #5 turn up? I’m trying to figure out how we begin to cull the less-loved toys, especially now that our boy has developed strong opinions about everything. 

If any parents of older children have advice, I’d love to hear it. And if I have any advice to share, I’ll post it here.  

Pegboard Inspiration

I'm thinking about a future kitchen project (more about that to come), which has had me saving images of pegboard wall organizers. Yes, pegboards have been trending for the last couple of years, but I think they're more than just a passing trend. Case in point: Julia Child's famed pegboard pot rack in her Cambridge kitchen. Plus, the original architectural plans for the kitchen I'm scheming about indicate that a pegboard was to be included in the kitchen (though no signs of one remain today).

Here are a few DIY pegboard ideas that have caught my eye:

Inspired by both Julia Child and the Eames Hang-It-All, Food52's tutorial for this pegboard uses off-the-shelf pegboard and peg hooks that have been dressed up with wood balls to give it the Eames look.

Featured in Est Magazine, an Australian publication, this entryway designed by the architectural firm Heartly is paneled in floor-to-ceiling pegboard that has been painted black.

In this kitchen, a panel of pegboard covers the side of a refrigerator, making clever use of the vertical space. Remodelista notes that the "pegboard hides the gap behind the fridge, which wasn’t deep enough to meet the wall."

Remodelista is also using a shot of a desk organizer pegboard to promote its new site The Organized Home and their new book of the same title.

Read on for even more do-it-yourself pegboard projects:

Our 8' x 10' Closet-less, Bedroom

When we first moved into our apartment we were expecting a baby and planned to use the dining alcove as our son's nursery. That worked well for the first nine months, but as we got close to his first birthday, we realized that we were waking him up after his bedtime.

Because sleep is the holy grail for parents of young children, we didn't hesitate to swap rooms with our baby, taking the smaller room for ourselves. However, figuring out how to make the space work, took a little figuring out. Here's how we've made our teeny-tiny bedroom with no closet or dresser work:

We already owned a captain's bed when we moved into our home, but as luck would have it, my sister was getting rid of her larger queen-sized Gothic Cabinet Craft captain's bed. A bigger mattress was a welcome upgrade, and her bed had drawers on two sides, while ours had only one. The six drawers are quite large and my husband and I have managed to fit all our folded clothes in our drawers plus the extra linens for the bed. I cannot recommend this style of bed enough to city- and small-space-dwellers! For the time being, we continue to hang clothes in the bedroom closet, but we may need to rethink that as our son gets older.

When we first made the switch we had two small side tables that just fit in the room with the bed. However, any time we wanted to retrieve something from the third drawer, we had to move the furniture, which put me on the hunt for a wall-mounted bedside table that would fit in our space.

After considering many options, I decided to invest in a pair of custom-made bedside tables with drawers and a small shelf from Etsy seller Tim O'Brien Woodworks. They were expensive, but they fit our space perfectly and they are beautifully made. Tim also does a great job of including the hardware and instructions for wall-mounting.

Finally, wall-mounted lights free up the surface of the bedside tables. We had a cheap pair in our old apartment, which had stopped dimming probably, and were thrilled when we found these ones second-hand. They are Visual Comforts Studio Classic model, and while I did not pay full price for them, I would highly recommend them. For a less-expensive model, try lampsplus.com and search for plug-in, swing-arm lamps.

The baskets below the bedside table are our laundry hampers. Our main hamper is in our son's bedroom, but we need a place to toss stuff when he's asleep and these baskets are from World Market work great.

For the curious, the linens are a mix of old and new: white Euro shams from Pottery Barn, a set of Painterly Stripe sheets from Schoolhouse Electric, a pair of long-ago DwellStudio pillowcases, and a lovingly patched and somewhat-threadbare quilt from my childhood bedroom.

And you can read about our barn doors here. 

Small Family Spaces in Parents

I've worked at Parents magazine as the lifestyle editor for the past four years, and of all the stories I have produced, I think this one from the March issue is closest to my heart. We didn't have as many pages as I'd hoped, but I am so proud of the ideas that we were able to share, and I am so thankful to all the families who were willing to share the photos of their homes and the stories of their small spaces. Check out the full story on Parents.com.

How to Choose Bed Linens for a Small Space

We recently upgraded to a queen size bed and needed to buy new sheets to fit the larger mattress. Our bedroom can be seen from our living room, so looks were important. For the feel and quality of sheets, we're percale people all the way, and we knew we wanted to buy sheets that would last for years to come. After much deliberation, we settled on School Electric Supply Co.'s Painterly Stripe Sheet Set.

Thinking about my own purchase, I realized that sheets are a big choice in a small space. While it might not seem like your bedding has anything to do with your space optimization, I would argue that it is something that can help improve the feeling of your space, and if carefully considered can save you a storage headache.

PRINT VS. PLAIN
All-white, cotton sheets are classic, and they are relatively easy to care for because you can use bleach and hot water on them, if need be. (Yes, I'm pro bleach, you can read why here.) But learn from my mistake, white sheets with colored embroidered details are not a good idea, as you cannot bleach them and they may become dingy sooner than you might like.

Sheets with an all-over pattern in multiple colors, like a floral, are, in my opinion, what will continue to look the best over many years’ time. I had a set of floral and striped Ralph Lauren sheets that lasted nearly 20 years because the pattern aged gracefully as it faded and any minor stains were hidden by the pattern.

Plain white will make your room feel airy, but a bold pattern with give your room a focal point and make it feel more designed—it’s up to you which you prefer. Personally, I lean more towards the light and airy, but small spaces can accommodate all styles.

QUANTITY
Whatever you choose, if you are short on linen storage, limit yourself to no more than two sets of sheets for each bed in your household: One to dress the bed with and a clean set to have at the ready. No extra just-in-case sheets clogging up your closets and drawers!

PALETTE
I would also suggest trying to limit your bedding color palette for each room/bed, so that the sheet sets can be mixed and matched in a pinch. For example, when we purchase a second set for our bedroom we plan to stick to grey and white. That way, I can easily swap in the duvet cover from one set if there’s an accidental spill or if I'm particularly sweaty one night and want a fresh pillowcases.

Built-In Storage Headboards

I'm constantly thinking about how we can use our space better and how we can accommodate our storage needs (right now we're pretty maxed out). One idea that I love is building out storage around the top end of a bed. The space at the head of the bed is often under-utilized, and adding storage there eats up very little usable floor space. Whether it's a custom cabinetry commission or something built from IKEA shelving, this is a great way to add storage to a small space. Maybe we'll invest in our own someday in the future! 

I've gathered a few images of bedrooms with built-in storage headboards; here the are:

This room from Better Homes & Gardens features built-in storage that goes from floor to ceiling and even covers the top of the doorway. Here the wall behind the bed appears to be padded and upholstered, which is a nice detail. I also like that there's a bit of breathing room between the bed and the built-in nightstand.

In Remodelista editor Julie Carson's bedroom, the storage is actually recessed into the wall--a clever way to pack storage into a space you can't normally access.

Another on from BHG, this is a guest bedroom designed by Eddie Ross appears to have a built-in made from IKEA cabinetry. I remember seeing this one in the magazine, but I can't find the details for the how-to on the site.

Featured on the One Kings Lane blog, this bedroom is in the Whitney Leigh Morris's "tiny canal cottage." Here the built-ins not only work with the bed, but also with windows to the outside. One detail I love here is the cutaways in the shelving that let's the sleeper access the nightstand.

A third BHG space, this room's built-ins are more wardrobe-like--a great solution for a room without closets. The pop of pattern from wallpaper behind the bed is a nice touch.

Last is the bedroom from my favorite small-space apartment, featured in Dwell magazine. Here the cabinetry surrounds a Murphy bed, for the ultimate space-saving bed-and-built-in combo.

On Rediscovering The Library

Moving to Queens has been eye-opening in so many ways—in many ways, I feel like I have a new lease on New York City. One of the many surprising things that changed about my life when we moved to Queens has been my book reading habits: I am suddenly a regular at my local library.

Here in Jackson Heights we have no local bookstore, which is a pity (hey, Greenlight, maybe you want to open a Queens outpost?). However, we do have a decent-sized branch of the Queens Public Library, and it is on my way to the subway or home, meaning it's super-convenient to pick up a book. Plus, our local library branch is open late two nights a week, and day care pick-up has me leaving work earlier than I used to, so the library and I are more in sync in our times than we were when I lived in Brooklyn. 

In addition to the newfound convenience of our library's location and hours, the app for the Queens Library has been a life-changer. If I hear about a book I'd like to read, I immediately open the app and see if it is available from the library—any book! If it is, I put in a request. It is so, so liberating to just get a book because I am mildly curious about it. I've borrowed tons of books that I didn't like, which, if you think about it, is great: I am so glad I didn't buy them. Many books come within days—others, like City on Fire, a newly published novel take weeks to get off the queue. I have explored so many books that I would have hesitated to buy because of this, and I am so glad that I have!

Four other factors have played into my borrowing-over-buying habit: 

1. Cost-savings: This one is obvious, but I have saved a ton of money borrowing books instead of buying them. 

2. Earth-friendliness: By borrowing books, I am creating less waste. And by previewing books I think I might like to own, I am avoiding the back-and-forth shipping energy that ordering from and returning to Amazon.com would entail.

3. Anti-monopoly sentiments: I hate to admit it, but I love Amazon.com: I am a Prime subscriber and I use the site often for household goods I cannot easily find in my neighborhood, and also, of course for books, especially now that we do not live near a bookstore. But with my increased library habit, I'm diverting a little spending from Amazon, which feels good. 

4. Lack of clutter: Library books are wonderful because they don't take up any permanent space in our not-so-big home. 

I have a few other thoughts about the library, if you're still listening. Prior to this new-found love affair with our library, it did not occur to me that I could use the library for non-scholarly books. Now that I have, I frequently check out all kinds of leisure reading, including cookbooks and decorating books. Not to mention, there are stacks and stacks of CDs and DVDs to be borrowed.

Finally, on that clutter note, we have a lot of books—like A LOT. Both my husband and I are book-lovers and we are particularly weak in the face of cheap, used books. Anything I can do to reduce the inflow of books is good, and library use has certainly curtailed my accumulation. If I find something I really love, I could always buy it, but in my year of frequent-borrowing, I actually haven't found a single book I needed to buy after I was done with it. Food for thought, book hoarders, food for thought. 

Digest 1.23.15 - Small Space Edition

A winter storm is brewing outside, I have a cup of nice, strong coffee, and my little guy is lying quietly next to me on the couch after waking up: It's a pretty great morning. I've got so many things bookmarked right now, that I am going to make this round of links all about smalls-space—and include some photos for a change!

This garage-turned-tiny-house in Berkeley, CA is not exactly my style, but oh, it is awfully cute. The inhabitants used all the classic small-space solutions: A Murphy bed, a folding dining table and chairs, and a day bed with storage for a couch.

Erin Boyle, of the blog Reading My Tea Leaves, has a new book, Simple Matters. In conjunction with the book's release, she has 14 tips for small-space living up on A Cup of Jo. I loved seeing how she and her husband reconfigured their one-bedroom to give their daughter the bedroom (a very common move for us New York City dwellers). Here's a link to the same apartment before the swap, if you're curious.

Minimal-chic Japanese brand Muji exhibited a trio of tiny, pre-fab houses earlier this year in Tokyo. Inhabitiat shared photos and information about the project. Designer Jasper Morrison's "Hut of Cork" (above) was my favorite of the three. Wouldn't it be great if these went into production?

Finally, Fast Co. shared a truly micro-house designed by two Polish students. When closed up the mobile, tiny houses measure just 33 square feet. That's a little small for my tastes, but I liked the plywood-clad interiors and the clever use of space, including fold-down elements like a bench and desk.

Ode to a Robot Vacuum

Should I buy a Roomba? Is a Roomba worth the price? I asked myself those questions many times, and now that I have an answer, which I want to share it with you. I’ve been curious about robot vacuums since they hit the marketplace 13 years ago. However, the high price of the machines always deterred me from buying one.

When I saw a used Roomba for sale at a yard sale earlier this year for $30, I jumped at the chance to test it out. (The previous owner said that the Roomba could not keep up with her shedding dog, but I was willing to give it a try.)

Because my Roomba was previously owned, I had a few hiccups with it at first. A little sleuthing on the internet and some helpful YouTube videos helped me trouble-shoot some problems (the brush heads needed to be cleaned, which involved tweezers to remove hair and debris, and later battery charging issues). I have had nothing but good experiences with Roomba since, and I can now say that I think these machines are worth their retail price tag. If my used model died tomorrow, I’d definitely replace it with a new one.

My husband, on the other hand, does not share my affection for the Roomba, which is what prompted me to write this post. His complaint is that the Roomba doesn’t do a meticulous job, but I would argue, that’s not the point of a robot vacuum. It’s never going to get every corner and nook that you could tackle with a broom. What it is going to do is lengthen the time between deep floor cleanings and cut down the weekly maintenance you have to do yourself. If you run the Roomba once a week, it will keep your floors reasonably clean. Up that to twice a week, and you’re in really good shape. It'll also tackle spots you would need to move furniture to reach, like the spaces under beds and sofas.

I usually set the Roomba to work when I leave for work in the morning, since it’s pretty noisy while it runs. When I get home, I’m always surprised at how much dirt the machine has managed to pick up in its travels, and I’m thrilled that it wasn’t me sweeping it up. Confession: I was never the kind of person who swept or vacuumed the whole apartment every week, so the Roomba has seriously upped the cleanliness of my home.

I like using the Roomba for another reason: It forces us to be tidy. To get the most out of a robot vacuum, you need to offer it a clear path, and to do that, you can’t have tons of crap piled up on your floor. When I run the Roomba, I put all the chairs up on the coffee table, dining table, and desk, which in turn means that those surfaces must also be clear of piles of crap. See what I mean? To have our apartment ready to be cleaned by a robot means our apartment must be in order.

All in all, I think a robot vacuum is a great addition to our small two-bedroom apartment. It might not be the best solution for everyone (like the dog owner I bought mine from), but for me, it's been a great way to cut down on my housekeeping time.

Rent This Rustic Island Cabin in Jamestown

This past weekend, we headed up the coast to Rhode Island for a three-day weekend. We'd been to Newport a few times before, but availability (and prices!) of accommodations in peak summer months compelled me to look a little further afield for a place to stay, and I am so glad they did! We rented this adorable cottage in Jamestown, RI from local artists, David and Jennifer Clancy, which we found on AirBnB.

The property is immediately adjacent to the Jamestown Windmill (built in 1787). The Clancys live in the old miller's house and rent out a small cabin at the back of their property (you can see its roof behind the windmill above). The landscape is so beautiful. I cannot stress how immaculate the grounds of their property are: The plantings are thoughtful, the stone walls are perfectly stacked, the lawn is ready for its close up--even the mulch around the trees is even perfectly placed.

The back side of the cabin has wooden decks, Adirondack chairs, and a firepit--plus, an incredible view of the Newport Bridge. To the right in the photo above, you can see the enclosure for the outdoor shower and sink (the bathroom is located in the couple's glass-blowing studio nearby).

Inside it's just a single room with a bed, a table and chairs, and a few conveniences like a mini fridge and a microwave, but it's really all you need for a weekend away. If you're headed up that way in the warmer months (the cabin has no heat), I would definitely recommend staying at this adorable little house.

Jamestown itself is a lovely village, and I preferred staying there to staying in Newport--it felt like more of an escape from the city, which was exactly what we needed.

Rental information on AirBnB. As of this writing, there are a few summer weekends left, if you're thinking of booking a trip.

Small Space Tip: Ditch the Shower Curtain

Our new bathroom is small—one of the smallest I've had in New York City, and that's saying something. When we renovated, everything was chosen to make the space feel larger. However, one of the things that made the biggest impact on the feeling of the space had nothing to do with renovating and cost nothing at all. We've decided to forgo a shower curtain. 

When we moved in, we hung a clear shower curtain liner with the full intention of finding a new shower curtain to dress up the space. After researching options, and realizing a good-looking model wouldn't come cheap, I bit the bullet and ordered Anthropologie's Morning Light shower curtain. It was beautiful (I would recommend it to anyone in search of a neutral, tasteful option), but as soon as I hung it, the bathroom felt claustrophobic. My husband tentatively asked, "Do we really need a shower curtain?" and I realized that maybe we didn't. The curtain went back, and we've been living with just the clear liner.

Since then, I've found that we're in good company. Erin, who writes the blog Reading My Tea Leaves, also decided that no curtain meant the illusion of more space.  While decorator Vicente Wolf used clear plastic liners to dramatic effect around a clawfoot tub in this bathroom that ran in ELLE DECOR.

Designer and shop owner John Derian also has no shower curtain in one of the bathrooms of his Provincetown, RI home. 

What do you think? Would you forgo a traditional curtain? Or do you think a bathroom look too bare without one? 

Apartment Renovation: Barn Door Solution

When it was built in the 1940s, our apartment would have had a foyer, living room, kitchen, dining room and bedroom--a very civilized amount of space for a one-bedroom. When we saw it in 2014, my husband furtively whispered to me, "That one-bedroom is really a two-bedroom." Because really, who has a formal dining room in a New York City on-bedroom apartment?

The sellers had added somewhat awkward double doors (above) onto the dining area--perhaps to illustrate that this room could maybe be a place to shut the door and sleep. However, since the apartment is technically a one-bedroom, it was marketed--and priced--as such. Lucky us.

We knew we wanted to improve the look and feel of the entry to what we considered our second bedroom. Our contractor suggested French doors with glass panes and sheer curtains on one side, which he thought would be more attractive. I agreed that the doors were super-ugly, but what bothered me was the way the swinging doors ate up a significant amount of floor space. Installing custom pocket door was out of the question financially, but I thought barn doors might be an option, though I wasn't sure if the country look would work in our city space.

I'd seen photos of the Dean Hotel in Providence, RI and admired the small space solutions that design-build firm ASH NYC had applied to the rooms. In particular, I love the entrances to their bathrooms that use barn doors with a very traditional style. As I mentioned before, we'd already decided to go with white walls and black doors, so the look was in keeping with what I imagined for the rest of the apartment. 

I showed the contractor these photos and he helped us figure out how to DIY the look. We used two of the HomCom 6ft Interior Sliding Barn Door Kit Hardware Sets from Frugah.com, as it was the cheapest track. (It also had stellar customer reviews.) For the doors, we purchased single panel, solid-wood slab doors (from Liberty Panel Center in Brooklyn) that were the closest match to the apartment's original doors, and we painted them with the same high-gloss black paint used on the rest of the doors.

We're thrilled with the finished results (above), and the doors have been one of the first things that guests have commented upon when visiting the apartment. All told, it cost almost $500 ($215 for the tracks, $270 for the two doors, and a bit for the paint), but I think it was worth the investment. If you have a small space where you're considering barn doors, I would definitely recommend them.

Apartment Renovation: Decoration Inspiration

Our decor won't change too much in our new apartment (the same old stuff came with us to Queens, of course). However, starting over fresh in a new space, definitely has me rethinking our decor a little.

Our new building was completed in 1946, so it has a little bit of a pre-war, mid-century feeling (though there is nothing architecturally interesting about it at all). Both my husband and I find ourselves feeling that some of the antique/traditional pieces we bought for our last apartment don't feel quite right for this new one. Plus, some of them just don't fit the space.

I'm also hoping to apply my aspirations to live with less to our decor. We got rid of a ton of stuff pre-move, which felt great, but I think there will be even more to go as we settle in here. Right now it feels so good to be in this space that is much less cluttered than our old one.

Here are some of the homes that are currently inspiring me:

I can't count the number of times I've turned to Remodelista editor Julie Carson's Mill Valley home (above and below) in the Remodelista book. To me, it's the perfect modern home: It's light, open and spare, yet also lived-in and full of personality.

If only I had the budget to hire Buttrick Won Architects to revamp my little 2-bedroom! One of the things I most admire in Carson's home are all the clever built-ins, which won't be something we can afford to copy. For the best tour of Carson's house, pick up a copy of the Remodelista book, and for a quick tour, check out this slideshow on Refinery29.

Another apartment that is currently inspiring me is Thom Browne's Manhattan apartment, which is as crisply tailored as his clothing designs. I love pretty much everything about it--and my husband does too. You can take a virtual tour on Architectural Digest's site.

Tom Scheerer is my hero when it comes to decor, but many of his interiors are a little more old-fashioned and preppy than I am thinking our new place will be. However, his own Manhattan apartment and office both fit the profile of the modern, urban look I am hoping to achieve. Head to the "town" section on his portfolio site, and click on Gramercy Park Apartment to see more of this lovely space.

Another inspiring home is right here in the new neighborhood! The Jackson Heights home of Jesse James and Costas Anagnopoulos is traditional, yet feels fresh. I'm erring on the side of fewer objets than you see here, but I like the feeling this apartment exudes. There's a full house tour on Remodelista, if you're curious to see more.

Want to see more inspiration? Check out my Pinterest board for the apartment's decor.