Welcome to my 375 square foot apartment
in Crown Heights Brooklyn [Music] Hi Apartment Therapy I'm Kayla. I lived in
a lot of different apartments throughout my time in New York City being a native so
you know I've seen it all from basement apartments to just apartments that generally
just wasn't really getting a lot of light, so when I walked in this apartment I knew that
the place had a good energy and I knew that it had the bones for me to do anything that I wanted to
creative wise. So this is my living room this is probably the most energetic place in my apartment.
I play music, it's really an entertainment space. I think that's why it was really important for
me to lay out the couch the way that I did is because it allows movement around this area and
also separate it from the rest of the apartment that might need a bit more relaxed energy.
My biggest challenge in this apartment truly is the layout. I flipped and switched and
revamped this place a thousand times before I settled on the layout that truly works for
me; and I would have never honestly thought I was a terracotta girl. It was originally white
and then I painted it gray, but I knew that the gray just wasn't me because I needed something
a little more spicy and warm; and I actually was in the process of having a paint partnership with
a company called Lick. I went on the website and I found this really awesome warm dusty orange
color and I did one wall and never looked back. Style is I think it's in my bones. It's Brooklyn,
like Brooklyn has a certain je ne sais quoi and if you've been here your whole life you
definitely just embody that and so simply. The rug as well as the chandelier
came from a company that I used to work for called Lulu in Georgia.
My dresser is a Thomasville dresser. I scoured Facebook Marketplace and I found this dresser
for a hundred bucks the coffee table also is a Facebook Market fine and I love it because I don't
have all the same type of monochrome colored wood, so it's really important because this kind of
shows every piece of wood. It's also marble and glass which helps bring out a lot of the
textures that actually show up in this apartment. My bike was also a gift from a black community
organization called Goodco Biking Club. And then next to it is also my plant that I found in Bed
Stuy she's grown almost close to 10 new leaves since I've had her so she's definitely
flourishing I think she's really happy. So my kitchen AKA the most interesting DIY and
the smallest, most-used space of my home has been a project to say the least. I was a bit
nervous when I moved in that I wasn't going to be able to function in this space the way I want
to and caused me to eat out; however I've made some of my bombest meals and fried chicken
meals in this apartment. It really carries a lot of soul and it makes me feel powerful
because I can do so much in such a small space. So over here is my bedroom and I really wanted to
create a simple, cozy nook in the apartment. It's the hardest wall in my apartment where
I probably could never drill holes in; however that's the perfect place for a bed in the
language of feng shui. Your bed should never face the door and it should always be on the most solid
wall in your apartment, so I had to really think about about the way I wanted to feel when all the
lights off are on this apartment and how safe I needed to feel in the corner of this room.
My light fixture is an Ikea lantern; it's a paper disposable one and I needed it to feel
more like warm uh unique lighting so I decided to bring in the scarf that I wasn't using that
often and really add color and warmth to this picture and it became one of my best DIYs.
The name of the wallpaper is strawberry Thief it really acts as like a bind for
all the other colors in my apartment as well. It is from Lulu in Georgia, but
the collection is William Morris and Co. When creating this work space, I do work for
my desk every day Monday through Friday nine to five, but it's important for me
to keep a simple space to work from. I intentionally make sure my screen isn't ever
facing my bed because I never want to just have that energy flow into the same space. The
desk comes from Facebook Marketplace and it is kind of like a lacquer shiny top,
so it does get scratched quite often, so I lined it with this wallpaper from a Walmart
collection that Apartment Therapy actually had. I believe it was the Drew Barrymore collection;
so I put it on my desk and it definitely helps from protecting from scratch and scrapes.
My workspace is simple — it's a desk it's, a chair it's, a lamp and I can turn
off my work life whenever I need to. Through this apartment I found a greater sense
of community. I lean into my neighborhood harder, my neighbors and I have a group chat and we really
just keep each other grounded. We share a lot, if I don't have a vacuum or a drill that I
could just ask my neighbor. It goes back to like generation of ancestors and how we leaned
on each other for resources, you know, and Crown Heights is also just that special place for me
too. Another challenge when I first moved in here was definitely storage. I do have one closet and
it could have been a drawback but, like I said, I'm a girl with a loves a challenge. I have a good
eye for hiding clutter in the secret places under my bed. I have like six cans of paint under there,
I have two large 32 pocket shoe pull out under there. One of my favorite not-talked-about enough
parts of my apartment is my bathroom bathtub. I'm a person, I love bubble baths on a Sunday after,
like, unwinding from a week's worth of movement. So one of my other really secret sauces in this
apartment for organization is my over-the-door closet. I saw it on Apartment Therapy
"Shop Talk" and it has been a game changer. When does designing this apartment, having
a dining room table was something that was a non-negotiable for me. I love sitting down and
eating with people; I feel like it's one of the most intimate moments that you share with people.
So behind the table, you'll find that it's basically the front door. So this apartment
doesn't really have an entryway and that is something that I was a little fearful for when
I first moved in, but I knew that I would just have to really find the right pieces. This table
is from the 1930s and it originally was used, from an artist called Olivia Khan, so it was
really important to me to leave this piece the same, because I hope that this piece
just brings me good luck in my creativity and that her soul lives in it forever.
A sacred place in your home for me is a place that makes you feel like you exist in the
world. It's a place that you can go back to when you need to remind yourself of who you are and
the impact that you've had with other people and the impact that people have had on you.
I have a few crystals, I have a small Buddha, I have my bib from my first race that I ran and
one of my favorite quotes in the world that I've had with me for a long time. The quote is by
Barack Obama, "Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition.
It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than
yourself, that you realize your true potential." If I can offer you one piece of advice, it
would definitely be to lean into your story. Growing up, I was adopted from a very young age,
so a lot of my life I experienced a wide array of housing insecurity; and entering homes where the
home was temporary, or entering home where you couldn't be your best self, you had to condense
and make yourself really small. So, I knew when I had the opportunity to, when I grew up, that I
wanted a home where I can truly unleash and just be whoever I wanted to be — whether that's
like get up in the morning and put a wig on, or get up in the morning and make an elaborate
breakfast just for myself with no one telling me I couldn't do something. So, being told "no"
a lot in your life makes you really wish and long for the moment that you can make a "yes" for
yourself. My adoption is my superpower. It's why home means so much to me. It's why I give myself
the space to be. I's why I enjoy living alone, because I truly have gotten to know myself
more than I ever have in my entire life. So, home means three things to me: it means
safety, it means stability, and it means soul. [Music]
