00:11Even though this apartment is just 330 square feet, I feel like I can fit my whole life into it.
00:20This main room is the dining room, it's the living room, it's the guest bedroom,
00:25it's a music studio, somehow a gym as well.
00:38I'm Phoebe Cutt, I'm the designer.
00:40And I'm Anton Fredrickson, and this is my 330 square foot apartment in Manhattan's Chinatown.
00:57So both Phoebe and I are from Vancouver, Canada. I was actually based in Vancouver when I received
01:02a unique job offer to come back to New York City. Finding a place in New York is tough,
01:06especially when you're not here already. I mean with the budget I have, everything was
01:09on the smaller end. I was more solving for location. Living in New York City, it's an incredibly
01:15dynamic place. We're at the intersection of a couple different neighborhoods. Sometimes it feels like
01:20a bit of a box suite with these windows and I can just stare out and see kind of all
01:24the action
01:25happening. So this building was built, I believe, 1899, 1900, turn of the century. Served many purposes.
01:32I have a photo here actually that we found looking at some New York City archives when they were
01:37constructing the subway and you can see there's a hat maker and actually in the space where we are
01:41right now it was a dentist. The apartment instantly you can see there's so many great architectural
01:47features. There's the high ceilings, exposed beams, there's the egg and dart motif kind of
01:53surrounding the window trim. When you showed me the space we definitely knew we loved all the
01:57architectural details but it was really important to keep everything multi-functional and multi-purpose
02:02in such a small space. Because working with a more limited budget, we tallied up all the costs at
02:08the end it was just under five thousand dollars. Facebook Marketplace is a great place, a lot of DIYs,
02:14and some other second-hand things that we bought. We definitely wanted to have different zones and
02:19this would be kind of your workstation, your dining, eating. There you can sleep and lounge and chill.
02:26But we also made sure to keep the space open because it is so small. Then you can make it
02:30really
02:30convertible. So even the coffee table we chose, it can be set up on the side like a little drink
02:35table
02:35for one person. It can be flipped down and then that way you can put all your snacks and whatever
02:40for
02:41people. Yeah, everything definitely has to be very multi-purpose in a small space.
02:54Welcome to the room. We are in the one and main room here which is the dining room, the music
03:02studio,
03:02the gym, the living room, the guest room, the library. What else? The washing machine, the laundry room.
03:12Just a multi-purpose space really. Multi-purpose space, yeah. So for every item that we brought in,
03:16we had to keep in mind the scale of the space, the proportion, the cost obviously. But we wanted to
03:23have things also to be very timeless. For example, this is a tulip style table but we actually found it
03:30off a second-hand marketplace site and I think it was a few hundred bucks. But it's still real stone
03:35and yeah, we definitely saved some money there. So this couch really fits perfectly in the space.
03:42We went with something that was modular and it's from Borough. It actually also turns into a little
03:47sleeper couch. Yeah, so what I'll do when I have guests is I'll move these two over here, move this
03:52module there so you can stretch it out over, create a twin bed or a business class seat if you
03:58will.
03:58These flip up, you roll out the mattress on top, the little mattress. Then these couch cushions act
04:03like a mattress and you can just put the sheets over. The two most expensive things in the apartment,
04:08probably the headboard and the sofa, but we still found ways to kind of keep the cost low. Then there
04:14was actually a site where I could purchase the returned item. So someone had already opened it and
04:20then returned it but they couldn't sell it again in the store. You can get it at a discount and
04:25was able to
04:25assemble the design I wanted using the kind of the secondhand market. There's even space under the
04:31couch for more books and books hidden and every kind of nook and cranny. Every inch counts in a small
04:37space. Everything has to be used. Book overflow zone and even this piano at one point was a couple
04:43skyscrapers of books as well. We found this piano which perfectly fit this space on the wall. Yeah,
04:49grew up playing piano and like composing my own music and this is a way for me to de-stress
04:53after
04:54a long day at work. So I've done a lot of research on the exact model of piano that would
04:57work as a
04:58console as well. Quite expensive online but was fortunate to find it on Facebook Marketplace and
05:03there was a couple looking to get rid of it quickly and I think I got it for about $150.
05:08And then it can
05:09also turn into a mini home gym. Draw this here. Put the bench there. Okay. Lie down. Hey Phoebe,
05:16can you give me a spot? Oh my gosh. So even though everything is multi-purpose, it was really important
05:21that everything still feels curated and timeless. For example, this lamp we got. There were a lot of
05:29different options we were thinking about but we settled on this lantern because it kind of echoes the
05:34bay here with the flower petals. Isn't it a kid's lamp too? Yeah, it's from Pottery Martine. So I think
05:40you were looking for this place maybe nine months? And I was actually about to give up. I had to
05:44drop
05:44some criteria along the way to open up more possibilities. What really helped in the search
05:48was giving up on the in-unit washer dryer but was able to find a portable option concealed under this
05:56nice skirt that Phoebe created. A little DIY. But actually we'll pull this out, put it into the bathroom,
06:02connect it with the shower hookup, and then do a load of laundry like that.
06:13The kitchen is surprisingly usable. You got a full stove, an oven, even a little dishwasher.
06:19And then I like this kind of tea and coffee nook that I have here. Some more storage up top.
06:26Even a place for suitcase and ironing board and all that. Every storage space has been used
06:32so the apartment came with a lot of great storage already. And most of that storage sits in the
06:37kitchen. So you'll see there's a lot more than just kitchen items being stored here. Yeah, there's
06:42like a skateboard up there, speed skates. What else? We got a basketball above the olive oil. Anywhere
06:48where I could find a little bit of space I've used. Because there's no closets, there's really nowhere to put
06:54tall items like a broom or a vacuum. So we kind of just have to hide things also strategically. So
07:01the broom
07:01usually goes there.
07:09This is a bedroom. This is where I spend most of my time sleeping. This is a queen-size bed
07:14and
07:14there's just enough room to walk around the edges. And these floor-to-ceiling built-ins store mostly my
07:20clothing, shoes. There's actually a generous amount of storage for a small space. And the mattress for
07:26the guest bed lives in the attic right here. The bedroom started off as kind of a small white box.
07:32So to add a focal point, we started with the headboard first and we didn't choose a bulky platform
07:38bed or anything because we really wanted to keep the walkways clear. That's also why we chose the
07:43sconces on the wall. I think we saw in some designer thing, took screenshots of it, reverse image searched
07:49it, found cheaper alternatives online. I think the sconces were about $30 each. And then just to add
07:54some movement and color, we did this little DIY bed canopy. That also feels like you're camping in
08:01there. It's very cozy. Because we kept everything pretty low cost in the bedroom, then we could really
08:06have a focal point moment with this headboard, which was about maybe a thousand dollars. So we built
08:12off of that. And the canopy was only about $80 that we did. I did a little DIY video showing
08:19people
08:19how I made this canopy with the help of Anton, obviously, because it's very high up. But basically,
08:25we just got two cafe curtain rods, hung them up, just draped the fabric over and the fringe,
08:30I just sewed it by hand.
08:43As many New Yorkers can relate to, I always had roommates before. So there were usually
08:47larger common areas. I knew I wanted to live alone. And with that came maybe a bit of a sacrifice
08:54on
08:54space. It was no other city in the world where you have this confluence of people and this density of
09:00people from so many different backgrounds, really at the top of their game. So it's exciting things
09:04happening. Never know who you're going to meet, never know what type of events you'll go to, or that
09:09serendipity or chaos kind of concentrated means that it's worth having a small space here.
09:15There we go. I mean, I'm very happy. I don't need more space.
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