Austin Larkin's studio apartment in Hell's Kitchen is in a rent-stabilized tenement building and is only 240 square feet big. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
He describes his personal style as: "Colorful and retro. Eclectic groovy maximalism." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"While it’s all one room, I basically have it separated into three zones: My primary living space, my kitchen and dining space, and my sleeping space," Austin describes. "My primary living space is by far my favorite area." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"It’s where I have my coffee, where I listen to records, and where I spend time with my friends when they come over. It’s also the most vibrant and bold section of my apartment, with a rust orange sofa, an emerald green armchair, and a checkerboard shag rug. It kind of feels like a chic grandpa’s basement that hasn’t been touched since the '70s." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
Austin says that his primary paint color is "Essex Green" by Benjamin Moore. "As soon as I moved in, I painted an accent wall next to my bed this color, and it’s slowly been finding its way onto just about every empty surface, from my door, to my cabinets, to the DIY screens I put up to mask my shower and closet," he writes. "There’s something about it that’s so sexy and calming. I swear by it, and have recommended it to probably four different friends at this point." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"Living in an apartment this small, I’m constantly negotiating style versus practicality. I have pieces that are purely for style, pieces that are purely for function, and pieces that are a bit of both. I think it’s important to have all three," Austin explains. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"No one wants to live in a glorified storage locker, but by the same token, sometimes you need that bland set of drawers from The Container Store because it’s the only thing with those dimensions and you need somewhere to put your pots and pans. It’s definitely a balancing act." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
When it came to the biggest challenge, Austin says "the small size and tricky layout were probably the most difficult parts of designing the apartment. Because of the placement of the shower and closet, you lose essentially a quarter of the already tiny main living space." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"No furniture could be in that area without cutting off access to the shower or closet, so it was difficult to make the room feel balanced and not lopsided," he writes. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"It’s also a long, narrow apartment, and finding pieces that were small enough to not look cramped, large enough to still be functional, and sick enough to fit in with the rest of my vibe, required a ton of searching," he continues. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
When asked about something unique in the rental, Austin states that the obvious choice is "probably the bathtub placement." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"I almost didn’t come to tour the apartment after the broker told me about this quirk, but I had already made the appointment, and rent-stabilized units are so hard to come by, so I decided to take the tour anyway," he writes. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"It has honestly ended up being one of my favorite things about the place. It’s a hilarious conversation starter, and a good reminder to not take myself so seriously." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"And to be honest, there’s sort of nothing more peaceful than taking a bath right in the middle of your living room. To be in a literal bubble bath looking out upon my kingdom, so to speak? It’s the closest I’ll ever get to feeling like Simba." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
His proudest DIY has to do with the kitchen: "My first and probably favorite DIY was when I re-did my kitchen cabinets. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"They were standard builder-grade cabinets that had clearly been there for ages. They were a bit scuffed up, and you could see layer upon layer of white paint around the edges from the Landlord Special after each time a tenant had moved out," he describes. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"I asked my landlord if I could paint them green, and to my surprise, he was stoked by the idea. So I disassembled them, sanded them, primed them, and did about three coats of 'Essex Green' by Benjamin Moore." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
"Then I added brass hardware and inlaid some peel and stick wallpaper from NC-based artist Nancy Bradham, which I found on Spoonflower, to really make them unique and tie in with the rest of my decor. I really didn’t realize how time-intensive it is to paint cabinets, and it probably took about a full weekend to finish." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
My biggest organization life saver in this place has been my sleeping loft, which I can’t take credit for because it was presumably put in by a previous tenant. It’s the perfect height. I never feel like I’m back in my college dorm room hoisting myself onto a bunk, but it’s high enough to store everything I don’t use day to day underneath. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
I use it to store my luggage, my off-season clothes, my holiday decorations, all of my DIY supplies, an entire hardware store’s worth of paint, and even some out-of-use furniture pieces I don’t yet have the heart to part with. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
Austin Larkin‘s studio apartment in Hell’s Kitchen is in a rent-stabilized tenement building, only 240 square feet big, and has a “pretty unique space with an atypical (and very New York-specific) layout. My bathtub is directly in the middle of the space, while the toilet is in its own closet-sized room at the back of the unit,” Austin describes.
"I built and painted a sort of false wall to hide my shower and closet, which take up an entire half of my living space," Austin writes. "When I moved in, there was an enormous, ugly gray curtain that pulled across that area of the apartment. I tried lighting it with colorful string lights to make it work with the rest of the space, but as I began incorporating more and more colorful pieces to my living space, it just became an eyesore." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
“When I first moved in, I thought a lot about how I could design my space to distract from how small and bizarre it is, but in the three years since, I’ve really embraced its quirks by filling it with color, patterns, storage solutions, DIYs, and unique decor and furniture pieces that reflect the uniqueness of the apartment itself. It has since become a sort of eclectic, vibrant, ’70s-inspired sanctuary,” he continues.
"The 'rules' of design are actually useless. Even if it doesn’t 'go,' if it brings you joy and makes you feel like you’re home, then it absolutely works. It’s really that simple. Fill your home with things that you think are dope, break the rules, and break them boldly," Austin writes. Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
“This is the first apartment I’ve lived in on my own, so it was really my first foray into figuring out my own specific design style. I’ve always liked mid-century furniture pieces, so that was sort of my jumping-off point, and from there I kind of let my creativity run wild,” Austin writes.
"I thought about replacing the curtain with a color that looked better with my color scheme, but was afraid it would still look like dead space, so I had custom blinds made to cover both the shower and the closet and painted them to work with the rest of the room, using an acrylic medium in the paint to make sure it wouldn’t crack when they rolled up and down," Austin continues explaining about his brilliant tub and closet-hiding idea. "At night, in the lamp light, you can’t even tell there’s anything hanging there. It just looks like a painted wall." Credit: Erin DerbyCredit: Erin Derby
“I moved into this apartment in 2021, while COVID was still a present aspect of life in NYC, so for quite a while, decorating this place was my primary creative outlet. I’m also a bit of a New York history buff, so I wanted furniture pieces and art around my apartment that paid homage to the many decades this building has been standing in this city,” Austin admits. “My building was likely built in the 1880s or 1890s, and you can viscerally feel the history and all of the people who have called this apartment home … I wanted to celebrate that in my design.”
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