17 Americans on Where (and How) They Live Right Now
Anyone would agree that 2020 has been an extraordinary—as in literally beyond ordinary—year so far. In the U.S., it’s been weird, painful, scary, hopeful, and a myriad of other adjectives. In many ways, it’s been a year like no other we’ve had before. It’s also been a year of having to face decades- (and centuries-)long issues that have never been resolved.
And almost everyone in the U.S. has had to do that from their homes. We want to show you some of those homes and the people who live in them. America’s greatest resource has always been its melting pot of people, cultures, perspectives, points of view, and design styles. This post is a celebration. It’s hope, illustrated.
As much as Apartment Therapy’s content—and our house tours—is about interior design, it’s actually about people. The people who live in small homes and tiny houses and newly constructed condos and historic houses and everything in between. Our unofficial tagline for house tours has always been “real people, real homes.” We’re here to celebrate the ingenuity and the beauty of how real people deal with the real issues facing us in our homes and beyond—in this crazy year, and in the future.
This year, our homes have become much more than just the place we sleep. They’re now our home offices, Zoom backgrounds, places of worship, places of self-care, and more. Below, 17 Americans share a little about their home, their neighborhood, and how their lives have changed this year:
Lowe Saddler – Koreatown neighborhood in Los Angeles, California
Who do you share your home with: It’s just me and my various busts and statues here!
Occupation: I’m an editor by day and an avid Facebook Marketplace stalker by night
Type of home: One-bedroom apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? This year has been a whirlwind (and far from a comfortable one) for all of us. It’s been a little scary too, I’d say. I’ve been forced to think a lot more about how privileged I am to have a home—a place where I feel relatively safe and usually happy. I’ve also made a deliberate change to my shopping habits for sure. I freaking LOVE to shop. But I’ve been buying from more BIPOC creators, and I’ve also been more intentional with the large businesses I support. Do they support causes I believe in? Do they ignore matters that are important to me and people that look like me? Do they deserve these coins? If the answer is no, then I’m pulling my coins away.
Tiffany Brown-Barino – Rahway, New Jersey
Who do you share your home with: My husband, daughter and son, as well as my fur baby
Occupation: I am a paralegal who happens to work in finance right now, but interior design/decorating has been my hobby since I was a teenager
Type of home: We live in a colonial and it’s a new build so we were the first family to live here, which I really like
Do you rent or own your home? Own
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? Being that I now work from home everyday, I’ve had time to really look around and figure out how the entire home functions for us. The guest bedroom also serves as a home office. Funny enough, when I first set up the space for the office, I felt silly because we didn’t have any use for a home office and always thought people were being so pretentious when they said they had one. Well… I had to eat those words this year!
I love a home that smells good, so I try to keep up with my cleaning (I’m a bit of a fanatic) and there has been a heavy use of candles and wax melts in these parts! More so now because we’re here and want it all to look, smell, and feel good. I have also turned my attention to bedding because again, we’re home more, so we are also relaxing a bit more than we were able to in the past. I have slowly tried to incorporate the best linen and bedding that I can afford into our master bedroom. The husband doesn’t know it yet, but I have big plans to overhaul that space next.
Ellie Rojas – Schenley Park in Miami, Florida
Who do you share your home with: I share my home with my plants, 17 and counting. Each with their own personality!
Occupation: Frustrated attorney with a passion for interior design
Type of home: Two-bedroom bungalow built in 1955
Do you rent or own your home? Own
Tell us about how and why you chose this home: I grew up in a pastel pink country villa built in 1911 on the north side of the Escambray Mountains in the heart of Cuba. My fondest childhood memories are of that house—the giant marble staircase, arched hallways, ornate Spanish tile flooring, and a front porch that led to a tree-lined boulevard. Leaving that house and my small town for opportunities in the U.S. was difficult, to say the least. When I was finally ready to take the leap into homeownership years later, a little bungalow nestled beside a tree-lined boulevard felt like fate. It even had an arched hallway! I was lucky enough to snatch it and customized it to my liking. I added patterned tile to the front of the porch, gray marble as the backsplash in the kitchen, and painted my front door pink.
Every time I walk into my little casita, it feels like I have a small piece of my childhood with me. I’ve lived in the home for one and a half years now. I look back at my history, my roots, and I know this house is a culmination of hard work, sacrifices, passion, and goal-setting. An immigrant’s aspiration to make a better life. At 30 years old, this Cuban is so proud to own her home and be able to hold on to the nostalgia of the first home she ever knew.
Rain Bloomfield – Lawrence, Massachusetts
Who do you share your home with: Right now, my friends whenever they are visiting New England
Occupation: Product and Operations Specialist
Type of home: Loft Apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? This past year I’ve seen establishments pop up and some that weren’t able to withstand the effects of the pandemic, and that’s unfortunate since I enjoyed one of the restaurants now closed. Living alone in Lawrence, 31 miles from coworkers, good friends, the city life of Boston, and being 200+ miles from my family can sometimes feel a bit gray, but I’ve always been able to turn my free time into “me time”. New habits began to form that helped my pursuits of becoming a better version of myself and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come for me. I dove head first into veganism post-lockdown, and won’t be looking back at animal product again!
Abigail – San Francisco Bay Area in California
Who do you share your home with: I have all 415 square feet to myself!
Occupation: My day job is merchandising in the beauty industry and my side hustle (Kut from Kente) is turning living spaces into stylish sanctuaries—on a budget!
Type of home: Studio Apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? Today is a great day to pause and reflect. In the midst of a pandemic that disproportionately affects Black people, my community continues to face injustice. In the wise words of my good friend, Lea (@poet_breathenow), “At the heart of decorating your home is the effort to feel like you’re safe and secure in the familiar of your own taste—a hodgepodge of what you grew up with and what you’ve grown to appreciate.”
Still, despite these efforts, carving out a safe space for myself has proven difficult because of the murder of Breonna Taylor. Maybe she picked out curtains for her window or watered and nurtured the plants on her window sill—the little things that made her feel safe. Yet, despite these efforts, her home wasn’t safe—not even as she was sleeping. That has been difficult to grapple with this year. #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor
Kaviya Ravi – The Highlands neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky
Who do you share your home with: Husband Guru, pups Zorro and Spock, and many many plant babies.
Occupation: I am an artist and my husband works in IT
Type of home: We live in a 115-year-old single family home
Do you rent or own your home? Own
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? What a year it has been thus far! Louisville has always been such a wonderful and welcoming city. People are so nice here and nobody passes you by without a smile or a little talk about the weather, ha! I envisioned moving to a bigger city to experience big city life but Louisville won me over and this is home. With the pandemic and then with the protests, it feels like we are in the cusp of something. I don’t know what that something is. I would like it to be something positive, that my city and its people come out of it stronger, better educated, inclusive and tolerant of all our collective differences. I have hope!
We have made so many changes at home to better suit our lives right this moment and not focus on things that we may need in the future. For example, my husband works from home now. He had a pretty little desk in the corner of our guest bedroom before quarantine, but that just does not work anymore. So we got rid of the guest bedroom, which was very beautiful, but we used it maybe for about two weeks a year. We turned that into a full fledged office/personal space, which he uses every single day. I also have a little studio space reserved just for me. We have realized that personal spaces are so important when people spend so much time together… and so is using every single square footage you are paying rent/mortgage on.
Our kitchen, however, has become the star of our house. We (and the pups!) always end up spending the most time here. Us for the delicious cooking, and the pups for the scraps. We always wanted to cook more, but with work and excellent restaurants nearby that wasn’t always the case. But now we have rediscovered our love for cooking and we enjoy hanging out here. Besides all the pots, pans, and gadgets, we have also added an island and some seating since this has become our new “living room.” It has become a huge part of who we are, two people that are traveling all over the world through their kitchen, getting by one day at a time and having a blast while doing it together.
Leah Nixon Fitzgerald – Rapid City, South Dakota
Who do you share your home with: My husband, our two dogs, and my parent’s dog. Also lots of orchids!
Occupation: Illustrator and co-owner of Tiny and Snail
Type of home: Historic home
Do you rent or own your home? Rent (Actually renting from my parents who own the house)
Tell us about how and why you chose this home: I was living in my friend’s backyard in a super tiny house that I had designed and built on wheels and I worked full time as a construction worker for Habitat for Humanity. August 14, 2018 a telehandler fell on me at work. I lost part of my right leg, and my spinal cord was severely damaged, leaving me paralyzed from the armpits down. We were trying to figure out where I would live when I finished with rehab. My dad and aunt went looking at houses and they found one that was in my dream neighborhood, and it was one floor with wood floors. It had an interesting personality with built-ins, archways, and beautiful light. So without me even seeing the house, we bought it. Though, it needed renovations to make it accessible for my wheelchair, so we renovated the bathroom, brought the washer and dryer upstairs, and we are currently making the kitchen more wheelchair friendly.
Laurel Bristow – Virginia Highlands in Atlanta, Georgia
Who do you share your home with: My cat MoonPie and my Axolotl, Rose
Occupation: Infectious Disease Researcher
Type of home: Apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? I just recently signed my lease again and decided to celebrate by hanging more art and nesting a bit more. I love buying art but a lot of it ends up in packaging waiting for some wall space. I think this year I’ll just hang it all. Blank space serves no purpose and art is meant to be admired.
Laquita Tate – Memphis, Tennessee
Who do you share your home with: I share my home with my husband of 23 years and one of two grown sons. I also share my home with over 40 plant babies.
Occupation: My full-time career is an educator. I am an elementary school principal, and I am the principal stylist for Laquita Tate Interior Styling & Designs.
Type of home: We live in a two-story house.
Do you rent or own your home? Own
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? I am more intentional about how I live in my home, especially now during this season. My decor definitely changed in the bathroom and I am currently updating my patio space so that it can be an extension of the inside. Most recently I’ve been purchasing items for that area such as a new outdoor rug, baskets, and outdoor plants. This year has affected me personally by being an elementary school principal and trying to navigate learning for our scholars through this virtual platform. It was a challenge for many of my scholars who don’t have access to technology. It has all been very interesting, but I’ve also kept busy with my interior styling business.
Daniel and Griffin Carrick – Haymount neighborhood in Fayetteville, North Carolina
Who do you share your home with: My husband, Daniel (currently deployed), our three children, Frances, 9; Teddy, 5; Benjamin, 1, and our Border Collie Maggie
Occupation: Artist
Type of home: Colonial Revival Single Family home
Do you rent or own your home? Own
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? I am an artist, trained as an interior designer, and I stay home with our three children, so not only do I spend most of my time at home but I think a lot about making our home as livable as possible. COVID-19 and my husband’s deployment, now extended, have intensified the experience of being home this year. The normal activities like trips to the park, visits to museums, as well as other outings, and time spent with friends and family (in person) that we normally rely on during deployments are not available to us, so making our home life as enjoyable as possible has been on the top of my mind.
I broke out the bouncy house we were gifted a few years ago, invested in a big inflatable pool, and have tried to relax when it comes to letting the kids jump on the furniture during dance parties and games of “floor is lava” to give them some more novel experiences while being home every day. I have also made a point to maintain my art practice during the quarantine. The time I spend in my home studio is less predictable, but by being flexible to dive into the work when the time presents itself and accept that interruptions are inevitable (and frequent), I’ve been able to keep taking commissions and work on some more ambitious personal projects that have actually been inspired by this increased time at home.
I’m working on large scale quilled paper doilies that explore how homemakers, mostly women, through much of our recent history, have invested a lot of time and skill into making decorative objects that enhance the beauty and enjoyment of home life. These objects, like the lace doily, hold little monetary value and are no longer “on trend,” but the immense creative labor invested into them by their maker is certainly worth celebrating. While it is a luxury to have the time to make these items, I can attest to the fact that it is also essential both for the maker and for the making of a home.
Shane Humphrey and Taylor O’Brien – Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota
Who do you share your home with: We share our home with our two-year-old wirehaired pointing griffon, Barley!
Occupation: Shane is a consultant and Taylor is a photographer.
Type of home: 1922 Craftsman bungalow
Do you rent or own your home? Own
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? So much has changed with our extra time at home. We’ve started cooking meals at home, Taylor has picked up gardening and bonsai, and we both are training for marathons to get out of the house and keep our sanity. This time at home has allowed us to finish up all of our decorating and home renovation projects. Taylor loves hunting for incredible vintage pieces and has found that with people organizing their homes and purging years worth of stuff, there is a TON of amazing vintage for sale on Craigslist and Marketplace. His notable purchases are a mint condition 1970s plaid couch and loveseat for $60; a pair of 1960s crocodile skin embossed calfskin and brass cantilever arm chairs; and the weirdest 1980s hand spoon-carved dining table. The amount of time Taylor has spent on Craigslist and Marketplace during this global pandemic is embarrassing, but the finds have been worth every minute!
Erin Shirley – Washington, DC
Who do you share your home with: I share my home with my 7-year-old dog, a Cockapoo named Aster, my cat, Szutt, and 10 plants! They all have different personalities.
Occupation: Pet care
Type of home: Apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? I have definitely changed the decor in my place just a bit by switching out a rug, adding things in, and moving furniture around. With the pandemic going on, I was very grateful to have my space to work in; it’s a place I can stay in forever!
Jackie Bevilacqua – Field Club Neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska
Who do you share your home with: Currently living with my pup, Mabel, and my cat, Rex
Occupation: Marketing Account Executive, Freelance Interior Decorating
Type of home: This is a brick craftsman house built in 1915
Do you rent or own your home? Own
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? As with most, I found that my home and the areas within it became absolutely crucial to my well being and productivity. I worked from home for about two months and found that having a specific area to work during the days was important. As the days passed, I looked forward to finding new areas to work for a change of scenery. My patio and porch became extensions of my office. My dining room table offered areas for me to spread out. My kitchen became my mental break where I could make pasta or homemade scones. This year has changed much, and not only with COVID. I also went through a separation this year and decided to keep the home. While this house has always been connected deeply in my heart, I have found that the last year this home has brought me more focus and peace.
Miki Carter – Pasadena, California
Who do you share your home with: Me and my ghost (the ghost hasn’t told me its name yet!)
Occupation: Production Lawyer
Type of home: Studio apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? In the simulation that is 2020 (uggggh), I’ve been extremely fortunate to still have a job. However, I’ve gone from working in an office to working from home. I’m still in the process of updating my office corner. So far I’ve rearranged some chairs and bought a computer monitor and printer. It’s not the most visually attractive set up, but I’m hoping to get a longer desk eventually. I’m still waiting on the perfect desk to find me! Until then, I’ll be drafting contracts at my kitchen table, on my couch, on my bed, on the floor…
Jamon Johnson – Columbia Heights, Washington, DC
Who do you share your home with: My home was featured on Apartment Therapy in February 2018. I was living here with my beautiful partner at the time. We are no longer together (although we still love each other dearly), but I have remained in the space
Occupation: Home goods and fashion accessories designer. I also started a brand with my brother and two other partners called Journacy (Journey/Legacy) to create a community for Black Fathers to receive support, resources, and inspiration while on their individual journeys.
Type of home: Loft home
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? Over the past few months with the spread of COVID, my home was redefined. Previously, I consistently opened my home to artists, musicians, and creatives to host pop ups, concerts, dinners, etc. My home was in a state of constant repurposing to fit the needs of the event. It has been nice to have it just be my home again. While I love connecting with other creative people and appreciate seeing people visit and be inspired by my work and the energy here, it has brought a certain peace to the space that I think it needed as much as I did. I began to paint more and create different types of art from what I traditionally had created.
Esi Agbemenu – Downtown Brooklyn
Who do you share your home with: My dog, Turkey
Occupation: Attorney
Type of home: Studio apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? This year has seen huge change for basically every community across the country. My neighborhood has been an incredible hub of protest—with many taking to the streets to express the need for real change as America yet again grapples with its past and present of racial injustice and police brutality. This Fourth of July, rather than the usual BBQs and celebrations, I’ll be reflecting. Reflecting on how to celebrate a country that doesn’t celebrate all of its citizens and residents, and reflecting on all the opportunities we have to force meaningful systemic change.
Tola Akinbiyi – Ravenswood Neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois
Who do you share your home with: My beautiful cats, Célene and Maximus!
Occupation: Founder of Bon Femmes
Type of home: Apartment
Do you rent or own your home? Rent
What has changed about how you live in your home this year? This is the most I’ve actually “lived” in my home so it has been very interesting. I’ve learned working in bed is not fun at all and if I’m laying on my sofa for more than 10 minutes an unwanted nap will happen (I can’t take naps, I wake up confused about what time, day, and year it is). Decor is constantly changing. Previously the focus was more on aesthetics but now I’m very focused on comfort and functionality. I’ve had to change the layout of my bedroom because I’ve had to make room for inventory and a packaging area.
Thanks to everyone who participated!
These responses were edited for length and clarity.