A Born-and-Raised New Yorker Turned This Upper East Side Rental Into Her Dream

A Born-and-Raised New Yorker Turned This Upper East Side Rental into Her Dream Apartment

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Home Type

Apartment

Location

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York

Style

Art Deco

Eclectic

Bedrooms

1

Square feet

900

Sq ft

900

A born-and-raised New Yorker, Alana Resnick (@alanamichelle.r on TikTok) shares that she’s “seen and been in homes of many kinds” before landing in this one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side she’s been renting for two years with her boyfriend, Miles Ronbeck.

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Credit: Kiritin

Their vintage MCM credenza was purchased for $500 from a vintage dealer in the neighborhood, and is one of Alana's favorite elements. "It feels like the perfect mix of Mad Men and a grandma’s house. In a small-world story, when they delivered the credenza, I showed them a set of 1950s Fritz Hansen Ant chairs that I got for FREE on Facebook Marketplace. They were in bad shape, so they offered to take them to their restoration team to fix up and I got them back within a few days fully rejuvenated and refinished for $300!"

“I grew up in Tudor City, surrounded by stunning pre-war, Art Deco buildings. I went to school on the Upper East Side and have always considered it a second home,” she explains of why the couple stuck to this neighborhood.

Credit: Kiritin

"I think it’s important to include childhood photos in your adult home. Your parent’s house shouldn’t be the only place where you can honor how far you’ve come," Alana writes. "Photos are usually a central piece that make your childhood home feel like home, so why not bring that to your adult home? I have a ton of childhood photos of myself and my partner scattered throughout, along with childhood fridge magnets, and photos of my family when they were younger (black and whites, photos from the '60s, Polaroids). It’s such a great way to personalize and honor them."

“Our building is more ‘modern’ than the true pre-war charmers that you can find on the UES, but we wanted a comfortable space with lots of natural light, as well as room to create an office area for WFH days,” she writes of the space they found.

Credit: Kiritin

Alana started a virtual design services business earlier this year, Uptown Archive Studio, and is "having so much fun helping friends and followers with their homes! I’m so glad I can share my passion (and vast knowledge of online shopping) with the world in this way."

“When we first moved in, we were both hybrid and valued work/life separation. While originally looking for two bedroms, we fell in love with how large the living space was and knew we’d be able to get creative with an office space.” Alana is being humble. The couple didn’t just get creative, they got clever: They installed a flex wall to “carve out a closed-off, cozy, library-style office.”

Credit: Kiritin

"I have an antique (likely 1800s) Chippendale secretary desk in our foyer," Alana begins. "I was completely fixated on having a secretary desk somewhere in this apartment. I found this one on FBM for $300 and it came with another small-world story. My boyfriend is from Long Island and we were planning to visit one weekend so, naturally, I set my FBM location over there. This desk came across my feed and I knew I had to have it. Turns out, the seller is part of the family that founded the town my BF’s family lives in, and it had sat in their home for years and years. It’s now a little piece of home and history in NYC!"

“We had a construction team come in to put up the flex wall and ensure it was structurally sound,” she explains. “Even so, it is renter-friendly and can be removed (although who would want to?).”

Credit: Kiritin

Another one of Alana's favorite element is the "rich green paint color we picked for the office, along with my collected and very vintage gallery wall that snakes up the corner and back wall."

Alana’s 9-5 is at an influencer marketing tech company, but she’s spent years studying design and says it’s been a passion since childhood, so she also offers virtual design services (Uptown Archive Studio). Her design expertise is on full display in the home, which features tons of her renter-friendly DIY projects.

“I painted both bathrooms, used peel-and-stick tile in the kitchen to create my dream harlequin tiling, put wallpaper up in our ‘faux’ hallway, and hung battery-operated sconces and art all over. We painted the office space ourselves, and I DIYed a ‘built-in’ look using an IKEA Billy bookcase and IKEA shelving,” Alana lists.

Credit: Kiritin

Another favorite element of the apartment to Alana is the "golden-hour sunlight that seems to stream into only our apartment and being able to see a sliver of the East River and planes coming in and out of LGA from the corner."

With the mix of beautiful DIYs, the incredible closet space the unit came with, and the views and light that streams in through the windows, Alana describes the home as a “safe haven in the sky.”

“Overall, this apartment is exactly what I dreamed of as a kid growing up in the city,” she writes. “This is the first apartment where I really trusted my instincts creatively and is the first time I’ve truly felt like I created a home that reflects every version of me: creative, nostalgic, entrepreneurial, and deeply sentimental.”

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Credit: Kiritin

Something guests to the apartment ask about is the doorman phone! "It’s really smack dab in the middle of the wall and instead of just living with it, I decided to frame it and turn it into a seamless part of a gallery wall. Consider it my framed 'peep hole' a la Friends."