Two parents, three kids, a cat and a bearded dragon share this 650-square-foot Manhattan apartment—which means it must be awfully tight. Yet, thanks to a range of brilliant design choices and DIY hacks, the space feels far from claustrophobic.
Writer Jenny Davis and her husband, Corey, have been renting their Upper East Side home for 15 years, reorganizing the space rather than reorganizing after Jenny had their first child, Asher, and then twins Aaliyah and Aleph Choose. told Apartment Therapy, So good are they that they’re remodeling their beloved unit to meet their changing needs — which also includes adding a pet cat, Leo, and a bearded dragon, Rexi — to see the habitat and manages to see feel downright comfortable,
After becoming pregnant with six-year-old Asher, the couple considered downsizing, but were encouraged by the building’s other residents to stay and make it work. ,
,[Two] People who are raising children in a bedroom in our building said the pressure is not real,” Jenny told the publication. Instead of apartment searches, she and Corey converted a former home office into Asher’s room—and turned their living and dining rooms into a giant game room.
Then, after the twins were born, a closet was reborn as a home office and a play kitchen was added to the real kitchen, thus expanding the playroom.
Today, the alcove is a “spacious movement area with a rock wall, monkey bars and a latticework leading to it,” the actual bedroom is shared by all three children, and Jenny and Cory set up a Murphy bed in the foyer byway Let’s share. Of one bedroom
Along the way, the couple also added a door so that the living room has access to the bathroom, which originally could only be accessed from the bedroom.
The layout may be unique but the unit’s – and the building’s – best details still shine through.
Jenny said, “I grew up in a basement apartment, so this apartment was the first one I saw more than 15 years ago…and every day since then…it gets natural sunlight.” “I also greatly value that it’s in a pre-war building with really solid construction and some quirky details. Our lobby used to be completely marble, next to us is an old mail chute that goes into the lobby. The letter may have dropped (no longer in use – but it still works), and our building is only six floors high with many tenants and employees. We’ve been here much longer than we’ve been here. “