House Tour: Giulia’s ‘Fantasy Girl’ Formula
Name: Giulia
Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Size: 900 sqft, one-bdrm co-op
Years lived in: 1.5 years
Designed to be every ‘girl’s fantasy’ Giulia’s new home is a much more accurate reflection of her taste and preference than her last living situation.
Giulia does public relations for Harper’s Magazine and is writing a memoir with recipes due out next year. She is a wonderful host and takes etiquette seriously. I arrived and was greeted with hot apple muffins! The one exception, according to Giulia is “when people come over for dinner, I show them my closets and it’s wrong.”
When Giulia found this apartment and moved in, much of it was already upgraded to its current painted wood, streamlined state. Giulia replaced most of her previous apartment’s contents but kept friends’ art and family heirlooms. She bought the type of furniture and accessories she had always imagined owning. Whether the pieces came from Target, ABC Home, JC Penney, or DWR, together the look evoked what Giulia imagined as the ultimate home that served her every need.
AT SURVEY:
Style: Eclectic affordable
Inspiration: My childhood fantasies of what a grown-up apartment should be.
Favorite Element: The unexpected sunlight
Biggest Challenge: Lack of a place to put a broom and mop.
What Friends Say: No one can help being impressed, but that may just be because I expect them to be and they are good friends.
Biggest Embarrassment: Sometimes my oven goes on fire or develops a smoke condition, this always happens when I am entertaining.
Proudest DIY: My wireless speaker system: I can listen to the same music simultaneously in the living room, bedroom, and kitchen. Men can’t believe I was able to hook it up all by myself.
Biggest Indulgence: The roman shades in my bedroom. I choose my bedroom paint color to match the shades that were left by the previous owner; it didn’t. The shades I bought cost more then it did to paint the entire apartment.
Best Advice: Only date people who don’t own anything of their own. You don’t want to end up living with someone with a lot of possessions that will cloud your carefully-conceived vision. I look for Marxists, or the homeless who have no more than a rucksack full of stuff.
Dream Source: The Paris Apartment on East 1st Street.