Learn One Designer’s Secrets to Making a Studio Apartment Feel Grand
When interior designer Peter Sandel set about updating his own apartment in New York’s West Village, he wanted the space to reflect the best of the neighborhood: comfortable if slightly quirky, and strongly informed by art and what he calls “objects of interest.” The apartment, located in a landmarked prewar building, is a rental, but features classic inlaid hardwood floors, high ceilings, a working fireplace, arched entryways, and built-in cabinetry—the perfect starting point for Peter’s update that mixes old and new.
“My first priority was maximizing space and then enhancing cosmetic finishes,” says Peter. The two-room studio has a separate dining/cooking space that doubles as a workspace, while the larger room is reserved for living and sleeping. The apartment benefited from a new paint scheme in “muted contemporary neutrals for the ceiling and walls,” with “edgier hues to highlight newly surfaced baseboards and trim,” he explains. Then Peter began to layer in textures, patterns, and materials on the walls and furnishings to add depth and personality to the spaces. He placed cork wall covering in some areas, and brought in a combination of new and vintage lighting to brighten up the space.
In the living/sleeping room, Peter felt that the two areas needed to feel separate, and he used the fireplace as both a focal point and a divider between the two zones, removing layers and layers of paint to reveal its original texture. To further emphasize the two distinct spaces in the room, Peter put a rug under only the living-area furniture, and then placed an oversize mirror between two windows so that it would open up the space upon entering.
When it came to furniture, Peter went big and bold: “I prefer using larger furnishings in a small space to create the illusion of a room with grandeur,” he declares. The large sofa was a custom piece, while the tall four-poster steel bed frame emphasizes the room’s high ceiling and draws the eye up. He intentionally left the walls around the bed devoid of artwork to keep them from feeling too busy, and arranged floor and surface lighting throughout to provide extra visual interest. All the lamps have dimmers to help set the mood and avoid unwanted overhead glare.
Next to the compact kitchen and entry area is the dining space that doubles as an at-home office, especially in recent weeks as Peter has transitioned to working from home full-time during the coronavirus pandemic. With storage at a premium in the studio apartment—and only one walk-in closet—he knew he needed to find extra space wherever possible, and so he designed the dining banquette to incorporate under-seat storage. For the upholstery, he balanced a high-performance, easy-to-clean Kravet fabric in a darker tone with a more design-forward channeled backrest, emphasizing the horizontal lines in the space.
Even in the bathroom, where Peter couldn’t make major changes to the plumbing fixtures, he embraced small changes that had a big impact, like updating towel bars, replacing the medicine cabinet, hanging black-and-white photography, and custom-fitting a sisal rug. His goal for the room “was to keep it clean, organic, and crisp,” he says, and even in this particularly tiny space, you can see his self-expression that blends texture and art, mixed finishes and fabrics, and the balance of custom-made pieces with more affordable, off-the-shelf items.
Go one step further when it comes to finishes One project that Peter undertook was the refinishing of the wall bases in the apartment, which were coated with dozens of layers of paint and in poor condition. Rather than skimp on the repair of the baseboards, he spent a little extra money to have the wall bases repaired and skim coated, and added an extra piece of molding to give the rooms the finesse they needed.
Create zones In multifunctional spaces, it can be helpful to separate—even if it’s just visually—the different uses in a single room. Peter used existing features like the fireplace to “serve as a natural divider,” but you can do this with different finishes, color schemes, or even a simple rug under a group of furniture to make this visually clear.
Let neutrals lead the way “In creating a sophisticated base palette of neutral tones, I’m allowing focus to be placed on the integrity of furnishings,” says Peter. The neutral walls, floor, and ceiling allowed him to be more adventurous with other aspects, like fabric choices and furniture from all eras that might otherwise look incongruous together.
Embrace the eclectic Whether it’s art, vintage furniture, or a unique combination of finishes, Peter likes to see budget limitations as an opportunity to “source and reimagine vintage or antique pieces.” In his own apartment, he mixed reupholstered vintage pieces with new custom furniture and art from across the globe to create a space where art, objects, and furniture together “become a focal point and inspiration for color, contrast, and conversation.”
