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How to Make a Modern Apartment Feel Timeless — Transcript

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0:00It's not uncommon for modern apartments
0:02to begin with a very particular
0:04architectural language. They'll have
0:06clean lines, open space layouts. You'll
0:08probably see large expanses of glass and
0:10relatively simple finishes. There's
0:12nothing wrong with that on its own. Many
0:14people take to it. But if your taste
0:16leans more traditional, it creates an
0:18interesting problem. How do you give a
0:20contemporary apartment the warmth, age,
0:23and character of a more established home
0:25without fighting the architecture that's
0:27already there? That was the challenge
0:29with this apartment. of the channel and
0:31now client Rob had been living here for
0:33almost 2 months when he reached out to
0:35us. In many ways, he'd done the smart
0:37thing. Although he was tempted as anyone
0:39would be, he didn't rush to furnish it.
0:41He mentioned some leather sofas and
0:43swivel chairs which caught his eye, but
0:45he had held off from buying them, at
0:46least for now. He'd experimented with
0:48the style of mid-century modern in the
0:50past, but he felt that he was a bit past
0:52that phase. And he already owned a large
0:55cowhide rug which he hoped that we could
0:57keep in the new design. But he also
0:59understood where this type of approach
1:01could lead. A chair you like here, a
1:03sofa you like there, a few pieces that
1:05seem attractive individually but never
1:07quite become a room. What Rob wanted
1:09instead was something cohesive, calm and
1:12comfortable, substantial enough that the
1:14furniture didn't feel disposable. And
1:16because this was a rental, we had to be
1:18cautious regarding any thoughts to
1:20change something architecturally. We
1:22didn't try to disguise the fact that
1:24this was a contemporary building. We let
1:26the architecture stay contemporary and
1:28introduced history in other places
1:30through leather, timber, artwork,
1:32texture, and lighting and furniture
1:34pulled from more than one design era.
1:36The result is an apartment that feels
1:38considerably more established than the
1:40shell we started with. My name is
1:42Chaudry and today we'll walk through the
1:43decisions that let traditional character
1:46and contemporary architecture live
1:48comfortably under the same roof. If
1:50you're a returning subscriber, hit the
1:51thumbs up. If you're new here, hopefully
1:53by the end of this video, you'll be a
1:55subscriber. Remember that if you would
1:57like our help in designing your room,
1:59you can have that help by clicking the
2:01link in the description below.
2:03Before we look at the finished room, it
2:05helps to understand just how neutral the
2:08starting point was. The apartment wasn't
2:10poorly designed. Quite a lot of
2:12architecture was already working in our
2:13favor. There was an enormous
2:15black-framed window overlooking the
2:17city, an open kitchen with streamlined
2:19cabinetry and stainless steel
2:20appliances, recessed lighting, simple
2:23trim, a high interior transom. That's
2:25the rectangular window you see placed
2:28high on the bedroom wall, an
2:29uninterrupted open-plan living space.
2:31Everything felt clean and modern and
2:34polished. The problem was that almost
2:36the entire apartment existed within the
2:38same narrow range of white, gray, and
2:41cool wood tones. There's very little
2:43texture and warmth and almost no sense
2:46of age. And because the kitchen and
2:47living room shared one open area, there
2:49wasn't much visually separating one
2:51function from another. So, this wasn't a
2:53renovation project where bad
2:55architecture needed correcting. We just
2:58needed to give the apartment its own
2:59identity without pretending the building
3:02was something that it wasn't. When you
3:04see the finished living room, the first
3:06thing you probably notice is how
3:07different it feels from where we began.
3:09But when you look at it for longer than
3:11a few seconds, you notice the underlying
3:13framework again. The white ceiling is
3:15still there, the modern kitchen hasn't
3:17gone anywhere, the large luxury window
3:19hasn't been reframed, the transom on the
3:21bedroom wall and the recessed lighting
3:23remain. Very little about the shell is
3:26pretending to be old. Instead, almost
3:28all of the traditional character has
3:30been layered into the room through what
3:31sits inside that shell. It's a useful
3:34idea to remember for any future projects
3:36you may have. A traditional room doesn't
3:38always require traditional architecture.
3:41Sometimes it simply requires enough
3:42objects with age, texture, weight, and
3:45history to counterbalance architecture
3:47that has very little of those things.
3:49For us, that began with the leather. The
3:51Chesterfield sofa and chair immediately
3:53pulled the room in a different
3:54direction. The deep tufting and rolled
3:57arms, along with the nail head trim and
3:58distressed cognac leather. These aren't
4:01timid pieces. They carry a tremendous
4:03amount of visual history, which is
4:05exactly why they work here. A sleeker
4:07contemporary sofa might have fit the
4:09architecture more predictably, but it
4:11would have also reinforced everything
4:13the apartment already was. Mind you, I'm
4:15not saying there's a rule against that.
4:17It's just not the type of character Rob
4:19was looking for. The Chesterfield
4:20creates friction. The building says,
4:23"I'm 3 months old." While the furniture
4:24is saying, "I've seen some things."
4:27Rather than one defeating the other,
4:28that contrast becomes the identity of
4:30the room. The coffee table is doing
4:32something similar. This isn't a delicate
4:34glass table or a thin metal frame. It
4:37looks more like an old campaign chest or
4:39steamer trunk. Heavy wood with aged
4:42hardware, leather handles, and then
4:43there's that considerable visual mass.
4:46Again, the piece suggests age without
4:49requiring us to manufacture historical
4:51structure around it. We're not trying to
4:54reproduce an English club inside of a
4:56new apartment. The goal is to create a
4:58contemporary home inhabited by someone
5:02with a taste for things that feel
5:03established. One of the biggest problems
5:05with this apartment was that the living
5:07space had little architectural
5:09definition. The kitchen simply opened
5:11into the seating area. And when a room
5:13doesn't have walls telling you where one
5:15space ends and another begins, you have
5:18to establish those boundaries some other
5:20type of way. Here, that happens through
5:23the black feature wall. It gives a
5:24living room enormous visual gravity. You
5:27almost read the apartment in layers. The
5:29white modern structure around the
5:31perimeter, then this deep black
5:33backdrop, then the seating arrangement
5:35gathered right in front of it. Suddenly,
5:37the seating area begins to feel like its
5:39own room, even though we haven't
5:40actually enclosed anything. In open-plan
5:43homes, you don't always need another
5:44wall. Sometimes a shift in material,
5:47color, or texture is enough to establish
5:49a territory. The material itself also
5:52matters here. We could have simply
5:54painted this wall black, and then that
5:56would achieve creating contrast, but it
5:58wouldn't have created the same level of
6:00depth. Instead, the wallpaper has a
6:02subtle crosshatch pattern to it. From
6:04across the room, you read it almost
6:06entirely as black, but as you move
6:08closer, you'll start to see that's not
6:10the case. Although the wallpaper is
6:13flat, and this is not actually woven,
6:15there's the appearance of texture and
6:17variation. A slight softness to
6:19something that could have otherwise felt
6:21a bit severe. And because the
6:23Chesterfield sofa already carries so
6:25much visual activity by nature of its
6:28tufting, creasing, patina, and nail
6:30heads, the wall doesn't need another
6:32in-your-face type pattern. It stays
6:34quiet from a distance and gets
6:36interesting up close. There's another
6:38reason the dark wall works so well. Look
6:41at what happens to the leather against
6:43it. The cognac brown almost glows. This
6:46exemplifies a perfect point about
6:48darker, masculine-forward rooms. You
6:50don't necessarily need a large number of
6:52dark furniture and decor colors.
6:54Sometimes darkness works best as a
6:57background for warmth. The actual
6:59palette in this room is fairly
7:00restrained. There aren't 15 dissimilar
7:03colors appearing here. You have black,
7:05charcoal, brown, cream, taupe, and warm
7:08timber. A very small touch of muted
7:11green as well. That's about it. The
7:13leather does most of the chromatic work,
7:15meaning the contrasting difference
7:16between the hue and saturation in the
7:18room. Its cracks, highlights, and
7:21reddish-brown variation become much more
7:23visible because the room around it isn't
7:25competing for attention. So, the black
7:27isn't really the star. It's what allows
7:29the warm materials to become richer.
7:31There's not much dependence on bright
7:33color here. Instead, the interest is
7:35built through the way different
7:36materials respond to light. Take a look
7:38and realize how many things are
7:40absorbing and reflecting light
7:42differently in this room. Smooth painted
7:44walls, a patterned wall covering,
7:46distressed leather, dark polished wood,
7:48the plaid pillows, soft drapery, the
7:50cowhide, black upholstery, aged books,
7:53metal nail heads, and old hardware. Most
7:56of these elements live within a very
7:58narrow tonal family, but they don't look
8:00alike because of how they behave
8:02differently under the same lighting
8:04conditions. A restrained palette only
8:06becomes boring when everything also
8:07shares the same surface quality. Because
8:10the variation is tactile, you could
8:12strip away nearly everything, all the
8:14decorative accessories out of the room,
8:16and it would still feel like it has
8:18depth. The materials themselves are
8:20doing the work. One of Rob's requests
8:22was that we retain his large cowhide rug
8:24if possible. It became a very useful
8:27element, and it wasn't just something
8:28sentimental that we were forced to
8:30include. Look at the geometry of the
8:32room. A lot of it is dominated by
8:34straight lines and rectangular shapes.
8:37The window, the cabinetry, the feature
8:39wall, the artwork, the coffee table,
8:41even the floorboards. Almost everything
8:43consists of sharp corners. Then, beneath
8:46the seating arrangement, you get this
8:48completely irregular organic shape. It
8:51breaks that geometry. The hide softens
8:53the room without making it delicate, and
8:55its coloration is almost tailor-made for
8:57the scheme. Black relates back to the
8:59feature wall and darker upholstery, the
9:01cream areas pick up the curtains,
9:03artwork, and lighter surfaces. So, the
9:05cowhide performs several jobs at once.
9:08It preserves something Rob already
9:10owned, and in doing so, it introduces
9:13texture while repeating the palette. The
9:14floor is able to display an organic
9:17shape in a room that would otherwise be
9:18overwhelmingly linear. This existing
9:20object became part of the design logic,
9:22and that worked out really well. Let's
9:24talk about the lounge chair by the
9:25window. Rob had told us he was
9:27recovering from what he described as a
9:29mid-century modern dream that never
9:32really materialized. He'd owned a few
9:34pieces, but they They really came
9:35together. The easy response would have
9:37been to abandon the influence entirely.
9:40Instead, we kept traces of it within his
9:42new style direction. Obviously, there
9:44were things he was attracted to in
9:46mid-century modern. So, what harm is
9:48there in including some of that? The
9:50chair introduces a completely different
9:52design era from the Chesterfields. It's
9:54molded wood shell is distinctly
9:56mid-century. The profile is much
9:58sleeker, and its black upholstery is
10:00cleaner and less traditional, but it
10:02still finds a way to belong. The wood
10:05connects with the other woods in the
10:06apartment. The black upholstery relates
10:08to the feature wall, darker pillows, and
10:10the throw blanket. And because it sits
10:12beside traditional leather furniture,
10:14rather than an entire suite of
10:16mid-century modern pieces, it becomes an
10:18accent, rather than a theme. That's the
10:20difference between mixing periods and
10:22accidentally creating stylistic
10:25confusion. The chair isn't trying to
10:26match the Chesterfield. It's connected
10:28through the material and color. That
10:30gives us enough consistency to tolerate
10:33contrast in silhouette. If every piece
10:35here were to be tufted leather and
10:38traditional wood, the space could start
10:40tipping toward a period set. The lounge
10:42chair breaks that and reminds you that
10:44this is still a contemporary apartment.
10:46Now, could this chair have been placed
10:48somewhere else in the room? Could there
10:49have been a different arrangement for
10:51the seating? Probably, but it was put by
10:53the window for a reason. Rob mentioned
10:55in his initial notes for us that he
10:57wanted the option of turning a chair
10:59toward the view. So, rather than
11:01treating the window as a simple scenery
11:03behind the furniture, this setup allows
11:05him to use it in the way that he wanted.
11:07Another decision Rob had made was not
11:09wanting a TV in this room. He figured if
11:11he wanted to watch YouTube, a show, or a
11:13movie, he could repurpose his large
11:15computer monitor to do so. This gives
11:17you freedom from setting up the room in
11:19the most common way. Most modern living
11:22rooms, especially in apartments, are
11:23arranged around a large, dark rectangle.
11:26The sofa points towards it, the chairs
11:28are facing it, a media the is there to
11:30support it. Whether we like it or not,
11:33the television often becomes the star of
11:36the show, the main visual anchor of the
11:38entire room. Here, we didn't have that
11:40obligation, so the furniture could
11:42instead be organized around
11:43conversation. The sofa establishes the
11:45primary axis, then the Chesterfield
11:47armchair sits perpendicular to it. The
11:50Eames chair, which we discussed, sits on
11:52the opposite side at an angle, and now
11:54the large trunk coffee table becomes the
11:56center. That asymmetry matters. A sofa
11:59with two match chairs mirrored perfectly
12:01across from it could easily feel like a
12:03showroom arrangement. Instead, these
12:05pieces feel as if they might have been
12:07collected individually at different
12:08points in time, yet they're still
12:10oriented toward one another. The natural
12:12stance of the Eames chair also helps
12:14with circulation. Rather than building
12:17another hard 90° boundary beside the
12:19window, it eases the transition into the
12:21seating area. It's a very small
12:23incorporation, and of course it's not
12:25always going to be in the exact position
12:27you see here as it's used during
12:29different times. But if you're doing
12:31that last-minute tidying up before
12:33guests arrive, this would be the ideal
12:35position to feel the most welcoming to
12:37guests. The trunk table scale is doing
12:39more than you may initially realize.
12:41It's a good-sized piece. In another
12:44room, it might feel oversized, but look
12:46at everything surrounding it. The sofa
12:48arms are enormous, and the sofa as a
12:50whole carries considerable visual
12:52weight. The armchair is heavy, even the
12:54lounge chair has a broad sculptural
12:56silhouette. Drop a thin little coffee
12:59table into the middle of all that, and
13:00it'll disappear. The room needed
13:02something capable of holding the center,
13:04so the size makes sense because the
13:06surrounding furniture demands it. The
13:09trunk brings another layer of character,
13:10too. It hints at travel, the idea of
13:13collecting, age, and utility without
13:15forcing the entire room into a literal
13:17theme. You don't need globes, maps,
13:19suitcases, and memorabilia scattered
13:21everywhere to communicate that feeling.
13:23One truly convincing object can often do
13:25more than 10 shallow decorative
13:27references. Above the sofa, there are
13:30four traditional landscape engravings
13:32that aren't simply pictures filling a
13:33blank wall. Together, they behave almost
13:36like one element, two over two with a
13:38consistent framing, large pale fields
13:40against the dark wall paired with
13:42picture lights to highlight the
13:43composition. That gives the elevation
13:46structure. The pale artwork breaks the
13:48black wall without weakening it. The
13:50dark frames tie back into the room, and
13:52the picture lights introduce just enough
13:55of a library or gallery reference to
13:57reinforce the traditional side of the
13:59design. Notice though that we didn't
14:01install elaborate molding around them.
14:03There's no attempt to create a faux
14:04historic paneling. The character comes
14:06from the objects and their presentation.
14:08Again, staying away from pretending the
14:11building is older than it is. The
14:12curtains are another element that become
14:14much more important once you compare the
14:16finished design to the original
14:17apartment. That huge window is one of
14:20the best architectural features in the
14:22space. It's also very hard visually. It
14:25has those large panes of glass, the big
14:27black framing, and strong straight
14:29lines. In the empty apartment, that
14:32modernity dominates. The
14:34floor-to-ceiling drapery changes how the
14:36window feels. It introduces a tremendous
14:38amount of fabric into the room. Now, you
14:40have soft folds, vertical rhythm, and a
14:42warmer neutral tone helping to balance.
14:45And because the curtains run essentially
14:46from floor to ceiling, they exaggerate
14:49and accentuate the height of that
14:51casement. The goal wasn't to hide the
14:53window, but to soften its framing.
14:55Without those curtains, there would
14:57still be a bit of discomfort between the
14:59contemporary apartment and the
15:00traditional furniture. They're a huge
15:02help in mitigating, if not eliminating
15:05completely, the chance of that
15:07incongruency. A couple last small items
15:09to note before we move into the bedroom.
15:11The pillows with their various colors
15:13and patterns, they are extractions of
15:16the things already present. Tan from the
15:18curtains, brown from the leather, dark
15:20threads relating to the wall. The
15:22charcoal pillows pull the wall directly
15:25onto the sofa. They aren't introducing a
15:27new accent color, but instead forming a
15:30connection between wall and seating. The
15:32bookcase is not centered on the wall, as
15:34you can see. Without context, or if you
15:36were viewing the back wall with
15:37blinders, you might think, "Well, that's
15:40not balanced." And you would be right if
15:42what's surrounding it didn't exist. The
15:44bookcase, paired with the high transom
15:46window and the large Chesterfield
15:48armchair on the right side of the room,
15:50work together to balance the enormous
15:52full pane window, Eames chair, and
15:54drapes on the left side of the room.
15:57They're not mirrored setups of one
15:58another, but the total sum of their
16:01visual weight is equal. Think about it
16:03like this. You have a sheet of paper
16:04with a line down the middle. On one
16:07side, an equation reads, "2 + 4 + 5 =
16:1111." On the other side, the equation is,
16:13"1 + 3 + 7 = 11." The total sum is the
16:18same, but the individual values used to
16:21reach that sum are different. On to the
16:23bedroom. This wasn't just a repeat of
16:25the living room. There are no
16:26Chesterfields in here, not that they
16:28would fit. No plaid heavy gentleman's
16:30club textiles or campaign-style
16:32furniture. The bedroom leans a bit more
16:34urban in nature, yet still feels
16:36unmistakably connected to the rest of
16:38the apartment. Good cohesion does not
16:41have to come from repeating the same
16:42objects. It can be achieved by repeating
16:45the same rules. The strongest accent in
16:48the bedroom is the brick shiplap
16:50paneling on the back wall. This is a
16:52peel-and-stick addition with a 3D
16:54texture, a really neat feature to use
16:56when you don't want the addition to be
16:57permanent. It keeps things interesting
16:59because it reverses what we did in the
17:01living room. There, we placed warm
17:03cognac leather against a dark textured
17:05backdrop. Here, we create a warm
17:08textured backdrop and surround it with
17:10dark charcoal walls and furnishings.
17:13That reversal gives the bedroom its own
17:16personality without breaking away from
17:17the apartment. The brick wallpaper is
17:19like the wood paint palette that an
17:21artist would hold. It contains all of
17:24the colors that we will take and repeat
17:26in the room. Rust, brown, terracotta,
17:29charcoal, just about everything in the
17:31bedroom palette can be found somewhere
17:33on that wall. The walnut bed and
17:35nightstands connect with the brown. The
17:37dark walls pick up the charcoal. The
17:39cream bedding relates to the lighter
17:40mortar and ceiling. The single small
17:43burnt orange pillow is a concentrated
17:45version of the masonry. So, rather than
17:48choosing a brick wall and then
17:49separately developing a color palette,
17:51the wall itself becomes the palette.
17:53Just as importantly, the brick was only
17:55used on that back area. Put brick on
17:57every surface and the bedroom would
17:59become something else entirely, way more
18:02industrial and certainly heavier. The
18:04bordering charcoal walls are a silent
18:06sort of quietness surrounding the event
18:08that is the back wall. It makes it feel
18:10more special.
18:12All of this mirrors the living room in
18:14principle. One dominant textured
18:16backdrop with the surrounding surfaces
18:18allowed to recede. Same rule, different
18:20materials. The room also creates a
18:22figurative sense of architecture without
18:24adding any architecture at all. Look at
18:27the bed straight on. It sits centered
18:29against the brick wall. The brick itself
18:31is bounded by charcoal walls on either
18:33side. Then the large rug establishes
18:36another frame beneath the whole
18:37composition. So, you get one visual
18:39boundary nestled inside another. Rug,
18:42bed, brick, dark perimeter.
18:45Everything keeps sending your eye back
18:46toward the sleeping area. That matters
18:48because the furniture itself sits
18:50relatively low. And without this larger
18:52composition around it, the room could
18:54easily feel horizontally compressed.
18:57That's also why the artwork above the
18:58bed is arranged the way it is. Rather
19:00than one predictable horizontal picture
19:02floating over the headboard, we use four
19:05black and white architectural
19:07photographs, two larger horizontal
19:09cityscapes alongside two narrower
19:12vertical images. The asymmetry lets the
19:15gallery move upward. It fills more of
19:17the tall brick field and it counters the
19:19long horizontal lines created by the
19:21bed, nightstands, brick pattern, and
19:24rug. This is also a connection back to
19:25the living room. In the living room, the
19:27art is monochrome, black frames with
19:30traditional landscapes. Here, the
19:31treatment stays monochrome in that there
19:34is black framing and lighter subject
19:35tone, but the subject itself changes.
19:38Now, we're looking at architecture and
19:39city imagery. Once again, leaning a bit
19:42more urban. It suits the more industrial
19:44character of the room and although the
19:46presentation clearly belongs to the same
19:48apartment, the content is unique to the
19:50room. The go-to with bedrooms is to
19:52place matching lamps on matching
19:54nightstands and call it a day. It's not
19:56displeasing and that's why people
19:58continue to do it, but if given the
20:00opportunity, consider switching it up.
20:02Here, one side gets a sculptural black
20:04dome lamp while the other side gets a
20:06suspended glass pendant. Functionally,
20:09they obviously do the same job, but
20:11visually, they do it in very different
20:12ways and because both fixtures share
20:14dark hardware and relatively simple
20:17contemporary forms, the asymmetry still
20:19feels controlled. The pendant also
20:20solves a practical issue by freeing up
20:22the nightstand surface, but from a
20:24composition standpoint, that long
20:26vertical line it contributes is doing a
20:28lot of work. Look at everything else in
20:30the room, the bed, the headboard, the
20:32nightstands, the rug, the courses of
20:34brick, the transom, horizontal,
20:36horizontal, horizontal. Then this black
20:38thin cord drops from the ceiling. One
20:41small vertical interruption, enough to
20:43change the rhythm. But wait, this is a
20:46rental. How are you hardwiring a pendant
20:48light into the ceiling? We're not. They
20:51do make battery-operated and
20:52rechargeable pendant lights now, very
20:54convenient for renters. When warm light
20:57runs across surfaces like masonry,
20:59things that are deeply textured, that
21:01texture becomes more pronounced. Little
21:04projections will catch light, mortar
21:06joints will fall into shadow, and the
21:08edges become more visible. The wall
21:10changes character at night. For a
21:12bedroom, the ability to transform its
21:14feel in the evening is an excellent
21:16attribute because you're going to
21:17experience it unless you're a habitual
21:20sleep-on-the-couch kind of person. It's
21:22something to keep in mind. If you
21:23introduce texture into a room, give the
21:26lighting a chance to reveal it. Uniform
21:28overhead brightness would flatten one of
21:30the strongest materials in the bedroom.
21:32Localized light will make it come to
21:34life. As you can see, we didn't alter
21:35the ceiling. It's a bit of a pain to do
21:37in a rental anyway, but there was more
21:39reason than that. The room is relatively
21:41narrow, and the dark walls already
21:43create intimacy. Keeping the ceiling
21:45lighter preserves some of its height
21:47while maintaining a relationship with
21:49the white openings, trim, and the modern
21:51design outside the room. It's another
21:54example of not pushing a moody element
21:56too far. You can still make a room feel
21:58dark without making every surface dark.
22:01Sometimes the contrast is what makes the
22:03darkness effective.
22:05The orange pillow is really the only
22:06concentrated hit of saturated color in
22:09the bedroom, but it doesn't behave like
22:11a separate accent or a standalone color.
22:14It looks as though someone took one of
22:16the warmer colors already buried in the
22:17brick and turned up the volume. That's
22:20why it comfortably fits right there in
22:22the center, rather than coming from a
22:23place of here's our accent. It just
22:26amplifies what was already in the room.
22:28That's often a much safer way to
22:29introduce color into restrained
22:32interiors. You don't have to go on a
22:34hunt searching for an unrelated color
22:37that can be the pop in the space. Take a
22:40look around at what colors are already
22:41present, but could afford to get a
22:43little louder. The bed frame is warm
22:45walnut. Directly above it, it holds the
22:47bedding that is considerably lighter
22:49than the pillows and blanket introduce
22:51its charcoal and black found on the
22:53perimeter. That bed has a huge role in
22:56creating contrast for the center of the
22:58room, and it sets the standard of depth
23:01for the entire space. At floor level,
23:03the rug is mixed with beige, taupe,
23:05stone, and fragments of black, like a
23:08sinkhole, which has collected bits and
23:10pieces of everything in the room. It
23:12connects the cool flooring, cream
23:14textiles, warm furniture, and dark
23:16walls. Because of that, it does a great
23:18job at grounding the entire room. Though
23:21some people might want to, we didn't try
23:23to hide or cover the transom window. In
23:25an apartment with a layout like this,
23:27your only chance at seeing some of the
23:30sun's rays when you wake up is that
23:32window. Otherwise, you're essentially
23:34sleeping in a large, closed-off closet.
23:36Given its structure of thick, black
23:38framing and a large, rectangular shape,
23:41it almost reads like an elongated,
23:43framed artwork piece. If it wasn't
23:45there, it's likely that we would have
23:47included something additional on that
23:49wall, but because it's there, there was
23:51no need. We're once again not fighting
23:53the contemporary architecture. We're
23:55just allowing the design to absorb it.
23:58When looking at this apartment as a
23:59whole, the living room and bedroom are
24:01not replicas of each other. The living
24:03room leans toward a contemporary
24:05gentleman's club. There's the
24:06traditional leather, historic
24:08landscapes, the plaid, a trunk-style
24:10table, and collected books. The bedroom
24:13shifts toward warm contemporary and
24:16restrained industrial. You have the
24:18brick, charcoal walls, the walnut, urban
24:21photography, modern-day style lighting.
24:24But beneath those stylistic differences,
24:27the same principles keep repeating. You
24:29have dark neutral fields and warm
24:31natural materials, black and white
24:33artwork, and controlled patterns,
24:35textured surfaces, and small amounts of
24:37concentrated color. The individual
24:40objects change while the language
24:42remains the same. Why are we talking
24:44about this? Because cohesion is often
24:47misunderstood as repetition. I have to
24:50use the same type of furniture, the same
24:52artwork, the same material in every
24:54room, the same exact color formula
24:56carried from one space to another. If
24:59you do that throughout a home, it
25:01doesn't feel more and more
25:02complementary. It feels mundane. It's
25:05Groundhog Day. So, instead, the goal is
25:08to have each area interpret the same
25:10underlying ideas in their own unique
25:12way. Ultimately, not forcing this
25:14apartment to choose between infusing
25:16traditional character and retaining its
25:19contemporary architecture allowed us to
25:21have a little bit of both worlds without
25:23offending one or the other. If we look
25:26to the past, timeless rooms rarely come
25:29from reproducing one period perfectly.
25:32They come from knowing which ideas are
25:33worth carrying forward and making them
25:36belong in the life that currently
25:37exists. If you like the video, hit the
25:40thumbs up. If you feel like sticking
25:41around a while, feel free to subscribe.
25:44See you in the next one.
25:47>> [music]
25:54[music]

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