See How This Couple Lives in a $2,300-a-Month, 300-Square-Foot Brooklyn Apartment
See How This Couple Lives in a $2,300-a-Month, 300-Square-Foot Brooklyn Apartment
Before NYC-based interior decorator and full-time nanny Amanda Heald found her current home, she and her husband, Josh Hull, were living in a two-story duplex with a basement-level bedroom. “The lack of natural light is what incentivized us to look for a new place,” Amanda says. “As the bedroom was in the basement, not waking up to sunlight was pretty depressing. I could easily sleep until noon if allowed.”
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But her frustration with the duplex wasn’t just about the dark bedroom. “We had only two windows in the entire apartment and they were both blocked by our building’s garbage pails,” she says. “The tenants would often pile garbage up so high that the lids would need to be propped open against our windows — obstructing what little sunlight our apartment got and deterring us from opening our windows to let air in because of the smell of garbage and risk of rats getting inside. It was time to move.”
Fortunately, the “classic charm” of this prewar 300-square-foot apartment grabbed Heald’s attention. “The high ceilings with huge bay windows that drenched the living room with sunlight were my selling points, as well as the outdoor space the balcony had to offer, which is so rare in NYC within our price range,” Amanda continues.
“It wasn’t in great shape, which is why we could afford it, and it certainly wasn’t decorated with intention at the time of viewing, but I saw so much potential. Josh needed a lot of convincing that we’d be able to make this 300-square-foot apartment work after living in a space twice its size. Looking back on it, I can’t believe he actually agreed to take the leap, but I’m grateful that he did.”
Their apartment might technically be a one-bedroom according to the floor plan, but Amanda says it actually “doesn’t meet the criteria for a legal one-bedroom because the window in the bedroom leads to the living room instead of outside. For this reason, our bedroom is quite dark, which is why we left our previous apartment, but because we lofted our bed to be parallel with the window, we can now wake up to natural light if we want to.” (We have more ideas for brightening a dark space.)
Resources
ENTRY
- Peel-and-stick floor tiles — Amazon
BEDROOM
BATHROOM
- Peel-and-stick floor tile — Amazon (FloorPops Rigel Peel & Stick Floor Tiles, Black
Thanks, Amanda and Josh!
This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
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