Copyright © 2012 by Kyle Schuneman Photographs copyright © 2012 by Joe Schmelzer All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com www.clarksonpotter.com CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schuneman, Kyle. The first apartment book / Kyle Schuneman with Heather Summerville. —1st ed. p. cm. Includes index. 1. Apartment houses. 2. Interior decoration. I. Summerville, Heather. II. Title. NK2195.A6S38 2012 747’.88314—dc23 2011043290 eISBN: 978-0-30795291-2 Cover design by Rae Ann Spitzenberger Cover photography © Joe Schmelzer v3.1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE ART LOVER THE FREE SPIRIT THE PREPPY THE ROOMMATES THE COLLECTOR THE SCHOLAR THE REBEL THE HOMEBODY THE BOHEMIAN THE COUPLE THE RESOURCE GUIDE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEX INTRODUCTION I’VE ALWAYS LOVED THE SKY-IS-THE-LIMIT MENTALITY THAT COMES WITH MOVING IN TO A NEW APARTMENT. So what if you can measure the whole space in arm-lengths, and the floor plan looks more like a half-finished game of dominoes? It’s yours—and it’s home. Hours are whiled away daydreaming of the cool—occasionally off-the- wall—ways you’re going to put your stamp on this tiny space. (Midnight- black walls? Most definitely.) Then reality bursts your design bubble. Those ugly cabinets you want to paint … turns out it’s not allowed. The sofa you’ve had an eye on … it’s not even close to being within your budget. Every creative outlet ends in a frustrating “no.” And giving up to the humdrum view of four white walls seems inevitable. Hey, I’ve been there—and everyone involved in the making of this book has too. It’s a rite of passage, I’m afraid. But as I often say, every “no” is surrounded by a sea of “yeses.” There is always a way to make your design vision come true—you just have to get a little more creative in how you go about it. Consider this book your personal guide—it’s everything I wish I knew when I was starting out. It’s smart decorating. It’s inspiration. It’s how-tos. It’s real stories about real people in real “starter” apartments. It’s the book that gives you permission to stick your head in the clouds and dream big. Because, after all, that’s what your first apartment is for. WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE Each of the ten chapters in The First Apartment Book tackles a different style aesthetic and a different set of real-life design obstacles: The Art Lover in New York City who needed to turn her one-room studio into four functional spaces; The Collector in Los Angeles who stockpiles porcelain figurines and needed an organized means of displaying them; The Roommates in Boston who couldn’t figure out how to combine their strikingly different tastes. These are real apartment makeovers, real budgets, and real scenarios based on the (often frustrating) living situations my friends and I have found ourselves in over the years—and inside these pages are all the helpful lessons I came away with. You’ll find floor plans, cost breakdowns, and how-to projects in every chapter—and not just a checklist of what I did, but also the “why” behind it. And the sources for everything you see—right down to the paint color on the walls— can be found in our Resources section. The First Apartment Book is meant to be easy, useful, and, more than anything else, fun. You can relate to our renters’ situations, and like them, you will (I hope!) find humor in the small-space decorating predicaments they find themselves in—because laughter is the one surefire ingredient that can make a 500-square-foot apartment feel like your own mini- mansion.