Designer Sam Masters Waited 16 Years to Land His 420-Square-Foot Apartment

The apartment embraces a well-known New York City aesthetic with a West Village feel. Crumbling plaster walls and paper-thin windows create a quirky, loud atmosphere. Most walls were covered with Farrow & Ball’s Pidgeon, providing a strong base for the overall look. The kitchen required the most changes because it is very small and functions more like a scullery than a full kitchen. After multiple color attempts, an earthy green called Farrow & Ball’s Olive was chosen for both walls and cabinets. Hardware was added from Rejuvenation. A marble countertop was DIY installed by taking a template to Atlas Marble in New Jersey, transporting the slab home by Uber, and installing it with the building’s super.

"“[My apartment] definitely has a very 2000s-ish New York City feel,” the designer says. “It's got that Sex and the City vibe of the West Village, which I love, and it's quirky-you know, crumbling plaster walls and paper-thin windows, so it's loud.” Manhattan is, after all, an island of trade-offs."

"Most of the groundwork for the design was already laid with Farrow & Ball's Pidgeon covering most of the walls of the 420-square-foot space. The kitchen needed the most zhuzh-ing (as much as one can do in a rental). The teeny area, “which is really less of a kitchen and more of a scullery,” as Masters puts it, proved difficult to land in terms of color."

"After three previous attempts (white, light green, dark green), he settled on Farrow & Ball's Olive, an earthy green, to coat both the walls and cabinets, and added hardware from Rejuvenation. Masters also DIY'd the marble countertop by taking a template to Atlas Marble in New Jersey, lugging the cut slab back home in an Uber, and installing it with the building's super."

Read at Architectural Digest