Think back to your first apartment out of college. Mine was full of matching birch veneered furniture along with a bed-in-the-bag bedding set and some generic accessories. Now, imagine what your place would have been like with the help of an interior designer mother who spent 10 years working along side Martha Stewart.
Living off of an entry-level salary, Lauren enlisted the help of her mother to help decorate her Brooklyn Heights apartment. Lauren's mother, Suzanne, made a list of criteria to ensure that pieces Lauren accumulated now would have a life beyond her first place. Each piece needed to have a family history, be easily transformed to suit the space and be versatile enough to move from room to room.
Lauren's apartment is a mix of repurposed (top quality) hand me downs, consignment store steals, Craigslist finds and a smattering of IKEA accessories. To see more images and a list of sources, visit Traditional Home | First Nest.
Lauren and Suzanne also have their own mother-daughter blog called Good Bones Great Pieces about "design and fashion and the joy of living with both."
Images: Max Kim-Bee / Traditional Home
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Yowza. We should all be so lucky.
Beautiful. My tenth apartment (which was in Brklyn Heights, btw) looked nothing like this. I do have those Ikea curtains now though. Love them.
Wow.
Yes, lucky girl. Love all those dusty blues with the little pops of yellow.
Love it! You did a great job on the cand-sided chair - the velvet piping is very nice!
nice! where is the black chair (with casters) from in the third snap? it's BEAUTIFUL!
I love the gray blue round tables. Where can I get them?
They are adorable!
I love the drapes with the little leaves all over them, Are those from ikea?
Love it. Especially love the Balenciaga in the 2nd photo.
Pooh, I read their blog a few days ago and it said the chair was a craigslist find and they repainted and upholster it..I know I love it too.
lovely. lovely. lovely.
This is very very nice! I love it when apartments/homes look like someone actually lives in them. The gorgeous mirror next to the bed with the Polaroids taped to it, is easily my favorite.
Where's the gray lamp from? I notice there's no source, but it looks almost like a Spitzmiller.
A lucky girl indeed! That is just about one of the cutest apartments I've ever seen! I'm so impressed by the way the entire apartment just comes together-- so light and airy and comfy and homey feeling.
I want to live there! So bright and friendly. Lov eit.
It's so refreshing to see a tasteful, cohesive and grown-up space filled with quality items and created on a budget.
I don't really get a sense for the apartment as a whole, but these vignettes are very nicely staged and photographed.
I kind of hand the same reaction as peahen - yeah, they may be hand-me-downs, but if your mum works with Martha Stewart, they're going to be greaaaat hand-me-downs.
I mean, my first apartment is decorated with things from the dumpster. And hand-me-downs.
That being said, my comments spring more from rampant jealousy than reason, because this is a fantastic, very cute apartment! I especially like the mix of old/new with the wood furniture and the lucite bench. And the accessories are flawless.
I noticed the gray blue round tables right away !! My mom has the same tables but the brass fretwork trim around the marble top makes them look much more dated. They look better without the brass trim, maybe I'll do a touch-up on those old lady tables next time I visit her.
I adore this apartment and I just posted about it as well! Everything is done JUST right and I recognize many of the pieces, as there are similar antiques in my family.
Also, sure...it's easy to be jealous because her mom worked for Martha and she got a job at Teen Vogue just outta college, but that doesn't make the pieces in her place any less obtainable. I see versions of that cane chair on craigslist weekly, same with similar dressers, lucite items, occasional tables, etc. All it takes is some searching and DIY elbow grease. Go for it.
http://mylittleapartment.blogspot.com/
Where can I find that adorable navy feather pillow??!!!
Like ch8r, I would love to get my hands on that pillow. The article says "owner's collection."
This story was shot for Domino and scheduled to run just before that wonderful magazine was sadly shuttered. The interior lacks a good overall because the whole apartment itself was very small (12'x20' including the nondescript kitchen) - Suzanne McGrath and her daughter Lauren, and the small crew stood out of shot either next to the fridge or in the bathroom while the living room was being photographed.
true what others said about the bankroll...however, this being an apartment with well thought-out pieces leaves a heck of a lot of room for inspiration....such as the creme and black together, so modern and classy...with spindles and curves on other pieces...wish i had a mum to hook it up like that. well done.
Gorgeous, this girl has amazing style (which I'm sure her mom had a lot of help with) but it's a cool, mature apartment that also has a touch of fun.
I really like their blog, I've just spent the past 30 minutes getting lost on the first page :)
First apartment? so not fair.... it's gorgeous- I love the mix of styles and the branch mirror is fab. Cute blog.