did you see this beautiful first apartment in brooklyn, featured on design*sponge the other week? i fell head over heels for the space, mostly because it’s got everything i dreamed i’d have in my first new york apartment. i moved to the city having very little understanding of what it meant to find (and secure) an apartment in the concrete jungle. i thought crown moldings and hardwood floors (not parquet, yuck) came standard. i thought i’d have lots of light and maybe a little balcony on which to stand and smoke cigarettes in the evenings (i don’t even smoke cigarettes, mind you, but the image is romantic and seems fitting to a new new yorker). i thought i’d have slightly chipping paint in the kitchen, and exposed brick in the living room, and the sort of quaint, early 1900s light fixtures that are so ugly they’ve become cool again.

in my first apartment, i got one of these things: a little bit of exposed brick walls. but i also paid way too much for a shoebox of a room with little to no natural light. i awoke each morning to the sound of pigeons cooing. i could not tell what the weather was come daylight; my window abutted another building. it was less romantic than i envisioned, and so when i moved a year later, i looked for two things and two things only: light, and space. i got them both, but with them, i sacrificed character. now, i live in a much larger shoebox, but it’s all angular lines and 1950s finishes (parquet floors, yuck!). it’s modern, yes, and updated, yes, and for that i am thankful. but it has none of the charm, none of the character, that i associate with a new york apartment. i’ve come to believe such apartments are hard to find – a place where you can get space to entertain your friends and family, while still getting original hardwood floors and gorgeous crown moldings and quirky light fixtures to boot.

apparently, i was wrong. they might be hard to find, but they are not impossible. case in point: this beautiful crown heights apartment, which belongs to a 25 year old girl named taylor. taylor found and designed the space all by herself, and it’s a beautiful, layered home comprised of flea market finds, hipster furniture pieces, and cozy antique tchotckes. i want it for my own! all of it! this home gives me hope that someday, i can get a one bedroom apartment just for me (and penny, of course), with all the charm and character i want. and maybe the paint will be peeling just a little bit, but it won’t matter, because i’ll have tin ceilings and herringbone hardwoods and all will be right with the world.

a girl can dream!