This modern and artistic apartment is full of farmhouse accents, crafty DIY, and unique art pieces collected during travels. Renters Dan and Yves have created a magical home that is both inviting and artful with lively green plants that conjure notions of secret gardens and relaxing lush metropolitan parks.

Our Style: Contemporary mixed with touches of farmhouse chic…so eclectic, I guess? Worldly would be another word to describe it because we like to bring back pieces when we travel.

Inspiration: Yves: I get inspiration from so many places! I really like looking around whenever we are out walking around the neighborhood or travelling. A lot of inspiration comes from the lobbies or rooms of boutique hotels to the windows of a cute little shop in Savannah, Georgia or simply flipping through a Pottery Barn catalog and seeing how the stylist arranged specific pieces together.

Favorite Element: Dan: I really like our buffet and coffee table. I also think the “star” we placed on the buffet is a really cool geometric feature.

Yves: Anything gold and shiny! I have so many…but maybe the buffet as well. I love how we ended up styling it and the mix of metal and different wood tones.

Biggest Challenge: SPACE! We are a couple living together for six years at this point and we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. Sure we have a small storage unit, too (who in Manhattan doesn’t), which we use to rotate seasonal items and things we don’t need immediate access to (like ski gear). Yves is also a master of organization — I think we own every type of container that the Container Store sells at this point.

What Friends Say: “Can you help me with my apartment” is something we get a lot. From Dan’s best friend: “Chic as shit with moss covered everything”

Biggest Embarrassment: It’s not something we really have control over, but I would say the popcorn ceiling. I hate it.

Proudest DIY: IKEA hack on Helmer drawers, where we replaced the drawer handles with strips of saddle leather and gold hardware — it took that furniture piece to another level!

Biggest Indulgence: Probably the bed; we had it custom made from a store near Dan’s parents house in Princeton, New Jersey but it was worth every penny. I mean one does spend about 33% of one’s life in it… maybe 40% for us because we both love to get a good night’s sleep.

Best Advice: Yves: Make sure to always take into account balance and scale. Whether it’s arranging furniture in a room or items on a tray to create a vignette. It will help you create focal points despite using same décor element.

Dan: Start small. Don’t feel like you need to do everything all at once. As Yves mentioned, start with vignettes and let them blend into each other.

Dream Sources: ABC Carpet & Home, Jonathan Adler, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and Pinterest of course!

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