New York And Tours

Rachel Schwartzmann, the author of “Slowing,” lets her Brooklyn Brownstone’s historic details — like moldings, wood floors, and fireplace — shine thanks to her minimal decor style.

After decluttering and downsizing, Matthew Jeffers embraced this small studio’s natural flow to create a personal retreat — what he calls “functional tranquility.”

Sydney Fazende says it took a lot of trial and error with furniture arrangements (and custom pieces) to maximize her small SoHo apartment.

Dalton and Dave transformed their blank, white shoebox of an apartment with art and vintage treasures.

These first-time homeowners worked with pros to renovate a worn-down Brooklyn house originally built in 1910

Teju’s rental came with typical NYC apartment challenges like old infrastructure, window issues, uneven floors, and weird walls.

Renter Aviv Grimm describes her home as “warm, calm, and artistically inspiring all at once.”

See inside Gina Fuchs’ small Brooklyn studio apartment that’s full of color, tchotchkes, small-space design ideas, and perhaps most importantly, a ton of fun!

“I know it might sound silly to pick an apartment because of its bathroom, but finding an apartment with a decent bathroom is really difficult in NY,” writes Jhenene.

The moment Chyelle Milgrom walked into the apartment her eyes watered because of the smell of “rotting cat piss, frat-house boys, trash, and food so moldy it burned your eyes.” She signed that day.

It’s the perfect place for entertaining.

“We decided to lean into the industrial/brutalist style and outfit the space with lots of stainless steel, mirror, chrome metal materials, but also contrast it with softness using plants and vibrant, abstract-shaped wool rugs.”

There’s also an incredible 3D-printed coffee table, gorgeous wood moldings, and a neat art collection.

Fernanda Clark landed THE vintage orange couch used in Jeremy Allen White’s viral Calvin Klein ad.

Ariel Sun and her husband describe their 600-square-foot rental apartment as “colorful, energetic, curated, eclectic.”

When Sofia Marcogliese and her boyfriend, Oleg, moved in together for the first time into this 950-square-foot rental apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, they weren’t expecting their existing furniture to go so well together. “But what really ties everything together is my mother’s oyster painting,” Sofia explains. “She’s a Montreal-based artist, and my sister, Laura-Michelle, curated and digitalized her work through her online gallery, Glasshouse.

“My home is my sanctuary,” renter and mom of three kids Lisa Miller says.

Interior designer Mariellas Urrutia worked with organizer (and fellow small-space dweller) Rachael Harvey to pack stylish storage into every inch of this home.

There's a brilliant cat litter box solution in this small Upper West Side studio apartment too!

Honestly you'll forget you're even in New York City thanks to this apartment's chic floral pattern mixing.

Maria-Elena Stellas and her husband have rented this 800-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in New York City for one year.

Designer Dan Mazzarini “inherited a real ‘before,’” with this apartment that needed major structural and system updates. “Plumbing, electrical, lights, kitchen, bath, floors, closets … really everything.”

And it's packed with chic but renter-friendly ideas to make any space look stylish.

This couple was able to fit a dining area, coffee bar, TV and gaming zone, conversation area, bar, office, and music space all in their home’s living room.

The large home might be over 100 years old, but the husband-and-wife team did a beautiful job with the restoration, adding bold personality to the rooms but also respecting the home's history.

When designing their space, Scott Csoke follows a Dorothy Draper quote: “If it feels right, it is right.”

Evoking a sense of warmth and serenity in their condo was priority number one for designers Oyin and Jeff Antwi.

Tour chef and TV host Will Coleman’s Brooklyn apartment that’s spread across two levels and showcases color and art.

See inside Cosmopolitan’s Digital Creative Director’s incredibly cool, chic, and contemporary NYC loft.

Jake Poser is an interior designer and visual artist, and the apartment he shares with partner, August, is transitional, classic, inviting, elegant, and quirky.

See how an architect and an interior designer were inspired by designers when decorating their Ditmas Park rental apartment.

Tour this 1100-square-foot condo designed for a high-powered banking woman who loves to travel.

Justine Requa and Alex Moy’s Brooklyn apartment has a ton of windows, a gorgeous sunroom, lots of plants, and actually used to be a daycare.

Megan Krieman, a photo stylist, has called this small Manhattan apartment (and stunning terrace) home for 20 years.

This small Fort Greene apartment fits a couple, their huge art collection, a fossilized dinosaur femur, and a tank full of shrimp. (Yes, shrimp.)

See how professional stager Jason Saft reimagined his 475-square-foot studio apartment without fully renovating it.

See inside food influencer Beryl Shereshewsky’s Murray Hill apartment that she fully renovated.

This family of three’s Brooklyn apartment has been totally transformed with smart small-space solutions, including an incredibly cool lofted home office and nursery.

This two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment is a perfect example of how you can turn a bland and "renter-grade" space into a personalized home with some creative DIY projects and hacks.

See inside this rental shared by a soon-to-be family of three that’s stylish and functional despite the teeny size.

Jenny Davis and her husband, Cory, have rented this one-bedroom, 650-square-foot apartment for 15 years. They share the home with their three kids, their cat Leo, and their bearded dragon, Rexy.

When muralist Maggie's rent was going to increase $1200 a month, she knew it was time to move. After looking everywhere, she found an affordable spot in Greenpoint, spending the past six months adding tons of color AND creating her own closet storage.

Maitri Mody, also known as @honeyidressedthepug, decorated her one-bedroom Brooklyn Heights apartment in a renter-friendly, budget, colorful way.

Ashley Watson’s beautiful and cozy apartment is the ultimate retreat from the chaos of New York City.

This homeowner’s style muse is Keely Jones from “Ted Lasso” and Barbie.

Layered wall art and limewash walls make this 700-square-foot rental apartment pop.

There's an orange-yellow living room, a light blue kitchen, a bold blue bedroom, a pink dressing room, and more in this interior decorator's beautiful Queens rental apartment.

The top floor is bright and airy, while the downstairs is perfect for a good night’s rest.

"Everything I changed in the apartment is renter-friendly and can be un-done," explains Zoe Wetherall, an architectural and landscape photographer. "The biggest challenge was working with such a small space — making sure I could fit everything in and have enough storage."

Julie Finn has done tons of things to make her small space work, from a hand-me-down daybed to couch transformation, an easy TV-hiding hack, and creating as much smart storage space as possible.

Thanks to the studio apartment's high ceilings and huge windows, as well as Leecy's brilliant small-space styling and organizing skills, her home feels much larger than it actually is.

Photographer and interior designer Natalie Bird shares this 1000-square-foot, open-plan rental apartment in New York City's TriBeCa neighborhood with her husband.

Rachael Harvey, Assistant Membership Director for a synagogue in Manhattan, moved to this 275-square-foot, $1,800-per-month Upper East Side studio apartment eight months ago.

Alex Bass is more than just an art collector, she's the founder of Salon 21, an art advisory and design firm. And the small home she shares with her boyfriend not only shows off her art curating skills, but also plenty of renter-friendly ideas.

"The space had a modern aesthetic and we used the green kitchen as a jumping-off point for leaning into color and modern details," writes Mark Goldwell, the founding partner and executive creative director of Zero Studios.

Designer Kim White has transformed her cozy Brooklyn rental apartment with smart DIY projects, like using banquette seating to build a custom sectional sofa, using mirrors to make the space feel larger, and more.

Since this is Mindy’s first time owning a home, she was as involved as possible in the renovation, like knocking out the old kitchen and taking off the bathroom tiles, all to build the minimal and modern small home of her dreams.

Shelby Vanhoy of Pretty in the Pines and her husband made their small Manhattan rental apartment a peaceful family haven by bringing in nature-inspired colors and timeless prints and patterns while highlighting 1930s architectural details.

Christina Goldschmidt, Head of Product Design at Etsy, lives in an 859-square-foot condo in New York’s Battery Park City.

New York Times bestselling author Sarah Knight’s husband, musician Judd Harris, used to say that she wants to live in an opium den and that he wants to live in a spaceship. “Eventually we settled on what we call ‘funky mid-century modern,’ which gives him a lot of clean lines and me the ability to accessorize with color and texture.”

Caity Birmingham, a production designer for movies and TV and a prop stylist for commercials and photoshoots, loves color and fits a TON of it into her 680-square-foot Brooklyn rental apartment.

Lisa’s rental home might only be 350 square feet, but the location is unbeatable and an “outdoor” space makes it feels much less smaller.

Brigette Muller, known as @hummusbirrd on IG and TikTok, may only rent her 560-square-foot NYC apartment, but she’s invested in her own happiness by designing and renovating it to fit her style.

Kate and her husband loved this small unit's natural light, original details (like molding and inlaid hardwood floors), and location, despite not having been updated in many years. "We knew we wanted to keep as much of the original charm as we could, while also updating it to bring in natural elements and modernize the space."

It was small, the kitchen was basically nonexistent, and the bathroom wasn't pretty, but Irene Shamas saw the potential in this studio unit. She worked with Luki Anderson of Studio Officina and EDR Construction to transform this small one-room apartment into a space that can be a living room, dining room, bedroom, office, and more.

Ana shares this tiny studio apartment with her boyfriend, and while there's technically only one actual room for the entire home, her simple but successful room-dividing solution helps make the space much more usable.

Even though Laura Mullaney’s rental apartment is small, she knew the layout had a ton of potential when she first moved in. “I was also super impressed with the amount of storage for such a small space.”

Aaron's favorite "room" is the entire apartment, "because it is a studio that has been designed with intention to give each area a specific use and vibe. Although it is one open space, each section serves a different purpose."

"I filled my home with objects I made, and furniture I gave a second life to (i.e., with paint)," writes Kira. "I worked hard to create a curated environment with a lot of personality on a budget."

When Carissa and her husband moved to NYC from Florida, they had to downsize from a 1,500-square-foot home, so they "had to really process not only the functionality of objects, but also their significance."

Designed by Rosario Candela in the 1930s, Isabel’s apartment building has a rooftop terrace with 360 views of midtown and the East River. But that’s not what sold her on the apartment. “I fell in love with the classic black and white foyer tile marble the instant I walked in the apartment,” she writes.

Monica Johnson is a psychologist and the host of the podcast, Savvy Psychologist, and has infused this apartment with color and different elements that inform their identity and interests as a person.