This Renovated Brooklyn Apartment Has the Most Gorgeous DIY Kitchen Tile Floor
Name: Diana Farberov, my husband, and our poodle puppy Cleo
Location: Brooklyn — New York City, New York
Type of home: Apartment
Size: 750 square feet
Years lived in: 5 years, owned
Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: My husband and I share our one-bedroom home in South Brooklyn. He was lucky enough to grow up in the neighborhood and purchased this corner apartment five years back. I work in interior design and he has a background in engineering and dabbles in home renovations so we did a minor face lift (primarily to the kitchen) before moving in.
We did a lot of the work ourselves and Allen built a handful of the furniture pieces himself. We were smart about the areas where we invested money into timeless, essential pieces and paired them with antiques and more affordable items to create a nice contrast.
Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Warm, timeless, cozy, functional, unpretentious.
What is your favorite room and why? Our bedroom is a real sanctuary space. It all started with the perfect shade of blue that we selected for the walls—Urban Putty from Behr. It has a really neutral feel while adding depth and coziness to the walls and catches the light from our windows in the prettiest way—sometimes adjacent walls look completely different because of the angles and light on the color. Ironically, we both had the same IKEA platform bed at our parents’ houses so when we decided to move in together, we symbolically created this initial union by literally stacking our beds for additional storage. Long beige linen curtains add a soft glow from the windows and a velvet chaise and white chair fill the rest of the room with additional lounge seating. During quarantine, it’s doubling as my “office”!
What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? Urban Outfitters has an amazing home section with something for everyone’s taste at a great price point. We have a number of items from UO Home in our apartment including several light fixtures, but most recently I purchase this unique rattan vase and a blue/green storage container as little decorative objects.
Any advice for creating a home you love? Don’t be afraid to mix and match. Buy pieces that you love and collect functional souvenirs when you travel—like vases and art. Focus less on fitting into one distinct design style and instead consider palette and tone to ensure objects work well together in a space. Rearrange! If you’re in a space for a long time, live with an arrangement for a few years and then move things around. It makes you appreciate your home from a brand new angle and doesn’t cost anything to do!
This submission’s responses were edited for length and clarity.