See Inside a Calm 315-Square-Foot NYC Studio Apartment

This 315-Square-Foot NYC Studio Uses Strategic White Decor and a No-Drill DIY to Feel Much Larger

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About this tour

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Home Type

Studio Apartment

Location

Murray Hill, New York, New York

Style

Cottage

Traditional

Bedrooms

0

Square feet

315

Sq ft

315

Writer Macey Phillips was looking for the right city. She had been in Nashville, Tennessee, and had her eyes on Charleston, South Carolina. “I really wanted to move, so I moved all my belongings into a storage unit in Charleston and stayed with some family while I looked for a place to live. It turns out, I wasn’t really loving Charleston — it’s a beautiful place but something felt off to me,” she begins.

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But then a friend called Macey with a hot tip: A friend of a friend was looking for a sublet for their NYC apartment. “I asked for some more info, saw one video of the space and, with no idea how I was going to make it work, said yes!” Macey admits.

Credit: Erin Derby

Macey says that "people always want to know how I hung the curtains, and I love it when I tell them I didn’t even use a drill and it’s completely renter-friendly!"

A couple of months later, Macey snagged her stuff out of storage and made the big move to the Big Apple. “I never saw the apartment in person until the day I moved in. It was the best decision I ever made, and a year later, I am incredibly grateful that this door opened for me,” she writes.

“My favorite thing to say when people ask me why I moved to NYC is ‘because someone offered me an apartment.’ NYC was always a dream, and this apartment made it a reality. So it holds a very special place in my heart,” she continues.

Credit: Erin Derby

Because New York City can sometimes be an overwhelming place, Macey’s goal for her special place — this 315-square-foot studio in Murray Hill, built in 1900 — was for it to feel calm, peaceful, and cozy.

“NYC can be really overstimulating, and I wanted to come home to a space that felt the opposite,” she writes. “I have a lot of white and light furniture, and not too much on the walls. Also, because it’s a studio, it can feel crowded quickly. So I have tried to be really picky about what I bring in, and everything pretty much has to serve more than one purpose — stylish, have storage, and small.”