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Hello, welcome to my New York City apartment.
All right, so some quick specs on the place before we get into it.
This is technically a large one bedroom apartment.
However, my roommate and I put in a flex wall to make it a two bedroom apartment.
We'll get into it.
First thing, right off of the entryway, we have this very large communal closet.
My roommate is actually out of town, so it's empty right now, but that's the first closet and it's a big one.
Next little thing that we have here is this table.
So we're all about functionality in this household.
This one actually, I'm not going to do it right now, but it doubles in size, if you will.
We move this into the kitchen if we have extra people over to play drinking games, you know, things that kids get up to.
So that's what we have here, but most of the time we just kind of leave it as an entryway table.
We have our keys here, little decorations that are definitely always there.
Moving into the living space, we have this futon.
Like I said, we're all about functionality in this house, so this folds out to be twice the size.
We have had people sleep on it before.
It was $120 from Amazon.
I'll link all this stuff down below.
Moving into the kitchen, I actually really like this kitchen.
We have a ton of storage.
These are all, as you can see, we have pots and pans.
These are all soft closed doors, so you don't hear a thing.
Lots and lots of storage, and they go up really high.
Helps that I'm tall.
I can reach the top shelves.
We have gas burning stoves, which I'm personally a fan of.
In college, I did have some electric ones and they were not as good.
Large refrigerator, or I don't know if it's large, it's a normal size refrigerator.
Normal size refrigerator, freezer, oven, and then something that is not in every New York
City apartment.
A dishwasher.
Absolutely love it.
What else?
A couple more little things.
We have these ottomans, which actually can hold, I think it was up to 50 pounds.
We got them on Amazon.
120.
120?
Mm-hmm.
120 pounds.
No, 140, because I could stand on them, so.
140 pounds, and we use them as step stools a lot of the time.
They also double as kind of storage bins, so once again, functionality.
And back to the flex wall, this is something that we constructed on our own.
It took some doing, but it is how we're able to make this into a two-bedroom instead of a really large one-bedroom.
All right, I get a lot of questions about my flex wall.
Did we put it up ourselves?
Is it legal in New York City, et cetera?
So a little word on flex walls.
There are three main types.
The first one is called a pressurized wall, which are ones that go all the way up to the ceiling and it basically looks like the room was meant to be there and that it was built into the apartment in the first place.
These are still installed without screws or nails, though, so in theory, it will not leave a mark on the walls when you take it down.
Second, there are partial walls, which are very similar to pressurized walls in that they're installed without screws and nails, but they don't go all the way to the ceiling.
They'll come short about a foot or something like that.
So it's not the best option for privacy purposes, but there are still a ton of use cases for partial walls.
And then the third are bookshelf walls, which as the name suggests, are not really walls at all, but rather freestanding bookshelves that help create some separation and sound insulation for a new partitioned-off portion of your apartment.
Now, what my roommate and I did was sort of a mixture of these, and it was especially tricky for us because our apartment has 12-foot ceilings.
So we have freestanding bookshelves as a large part of the wall, but then two-by-fours going all the way up to the ceiling, plus some L brackets down on the ground to give the bookshelf some stability.
Additionally, we have some of that pinkish-purple foam core material that you guys saw, which helps add some soundproofing.
And even in between the foam and the walls, we added this cushiony-type material to try to help with the soundproofing as well.
In other words, we MacGyver the shit out of this wall, if you will, and in hindsight, we would have gladly paid $1,000, $2,000 for someone to come install it instead, but it was an adventure.
So are these flex walls legal in New York City?
A lot of it is actually building-specific.
To install a pressurized wall, your landlord will have to obtain the proper permits and a new certificate of occupancy from the New York City Department of Buildings for safety reasons.
In any case, I think your best plan of action is to ask your landlord or be transparent ahead of time if you have plans to do something like this and confirm that it will be okay.
My roommate and I confirmed with our leasing agent before signing for this apartment if it was okay to put up this sort of bookshelf flex wall to make this apartment into a two-bedroom flex.
And we wouldn't have signed the lease otherwise.
In conclusion, even though it can be quite the undertaking to construct a flex wall yourself or a fairly hefty upfront fee to have someone come and install it, anywhere from $850 to $2,000 depending on the type of wall, I think flex walls are an amazing way to save a lot of money on rent living somewhere like New York City.
And back to the paid programming.
So let's go into the first bedroom.
This is not mine, this is my roommate's, but like I said, she's out of town, so it's a little empty right now.
And by a little empty, I mean completely empty.
And by out of town, I mean that she was in between jobs and traveled for three months while I lived with an amazing subletter.
And I filmed this on the very day that the subletter moved out, right before my roommate moved back in.
That's why it's completely empty.
Feel like I had to address that.
But it is, as you can see, very sizable.
So obviously we compromised a little bit on having a smaller living area in order to have this other large bedroom.
So this is what the flex wall looked like beforehand, before we put that white sheet on out there.
It's kind of this pinky color, it's foam, so it actually helps with the sound a little bit.
But you know, torture chamber vibes a little bit.
Some bookshelves to have storage.
Because this was originally the living space, there's not a built-in closet in this room.
So that's kind of why we wanted to use bookshelves or bookcases as the wall, lots of storage there.
And then the view here is amazing as well.
It's actually on a corner, just like my bedroom.
I like the way the building is kind of cut L's, you know what I mean?
So you get more corner bedrooms.
Anyway, that's actually my bedroom right across the way, and we're going to go take a look.
Here in the hallway, we have one of New York City's biggest luxury amenities, laundry in unit.
Absolutely love having this.
Like I said, that is really not the case for New York City in a lot of apartments, so it's very nice to have.
Next, we have this other large closet in the hallway.
It's the one that my roommate uses because, like I said, that second bedroom, which was originally the living space, does not have a built-in closet.
So she uses this one as her main one.
All of these are so tall, like they go all the way up there.
I don't know if you can tell.
Moving along into the bathroom, this is the bathroom.
As you can see, another lovely view.
For those who are curious, no, we do not shower with it open.
We have a privacy blind that we can put down whenever we shower.
But when we're not in there, it is nice to kind of let some of the light into the hallway.
So along with that, we have this vessel sink, additional storage, and nice lights right behind the mirror.
And we actually have some more storage over here as well.
It's pretty shallow, but you know, better than nothing.
And I found out fairly recently that we also have a heater in here.
So I put that on when it gets a little chilly, and it's nice to have right when you get out of the shower.
And let's do another laundry reveal.
And now my bedroom.
I felt that warranted another knock.
Come on in.
Welcome to the official Taylor's bedroom tour.
So starting off over here, I decided to go ahead and make it all storage.
I ordered, how many are here?
I ordered a bunch more of the gray boxes to do storage of all kinds.
I have it organized.
Some are clothes, some down here.
Get a look over here.
I have my technology here.
So my microphone, stuff like that.
And then some miscellaneous.
Some are actually empty.
So I have some additional storage for the future.
So this is actually brand new.
I had the bookshelf like sitting here for a long time, but then actually constructed it.
So there's a brand new net new bookshelf.
I put my makeup up here.
My voice cracked.
But I didn't want this to be the first thing I saw when I walked in because even though it is a little bit more organized since I got little cups and things, it's still not the prettiest thing in the world.
So I have it over here.
Just some things I did to organize this space a little bit better.
Bought some of these tumblers from Target and just, you know, kind of organized it.
Like these are the things I use every day.
These are some things I don't use every day.
And then down here I have my all time favorite candies.
Fantastic.
My journal, my pepper spray.
It's New York City.
And then a couple extra storage bins where I put like my self care items.
So nail polish remover, cotton rounds, things like that.
Finally, finishing off with my trash can.
Trash can.
And then, you know, paper towels.
So nothing crazy, but it works.
And moving over here, we have my queen size bed, which I'm very excited about because my first two years of college, I had a twin bed.
Then I had a full bed.
This is my first queen bed and I like it.
I feel like a king, a queen in it.
And then over here we have my bedside table.
Nothing fancy.
I will say that, you know, I bought this part on Amazon and it was a little smaller than I liked it.
So put this heavy duty tile on top to just extend it.
And don't worry, it's like very sturdy.
It's not going to push down.
So that just gives me a little bit of extra room.
It's kind of this white marble.
Pro tip, you can get these tiles for like $1.50 at Home Depot and just, you know, find a place for them.
And then in here, I just have my necessities.
My necessities like melatonin and lotion and my sleeping mask and cookies.
And then down here, I have my iPad, my Jimmy Chin coffee table book.
I really felt like the blue vibe I got going down there.
And finally, my happy cup.
I call it that like a four-year-old vibe because it's yellow.
And then of course, tea for turtle.
You guys know.
All right, moving over.
Where shall we go next?
Moving over here as if it's like a huge room.
And moving over here, we have my workspace, which if you guys have seen my videos, you've already seen kind of this area.
But here's an official tour.
So I will say this puppy is brand spankin' new.
Put them together last week.
Huge, puffy, white.
Kind of goes along with my minimalistic vibe that I somehow accidentally constructed in this room.
But very comfortable.
My last one was not comfortable.
I got it for free in the building.
So how comfy can it really be, you know?
I have two kind of sections.
The first one, this is for actual work, my consulting job.
I sit here many hours a day.
And I like it.
I put it this way because that's my favorite view, the billionaire's row.
Even more so than the water.
But anyway, personal preference.
So this is where I do my actual like consulting job work.
And you might notice I have a little space here down by my feet.
Can you see it?
Because my little piggies, they get really cold.
I run a window here in the winter.
Moving over to this side, this is for personal use.
So this is where I edit my YouTube videos, anything on my personal computer.
So business.
Classic.
Business, pleasure.
And then I also like to have a little pop of color here.
These are dying, but they've lasted a really long time.
But they're still really beautiful.
And so I like to have flowers there or something.
And then I also have little planties kind of around my bedroom.
And yeah, there's a couple more things I don't want to forget.
I guess right here, I actually made use again of one of these tiles.
Same one as over there, the kind of $1.50 marble tile.
And then this tissue box just so happens to fit perfectly with the color scheme.
And then my lamp, which used to be turned, I don't, it was turned this way.
It took up too much of the view.
So I put it all the way back.
What else?
It's not a big room.
There's not like a ton to go over.
I have a bunch of little planties here.
Six foot five history.
They're all fake.
Faux, if you will, which means fake in French.
And then finally, something come a little closer to this.
And then also have, and then also have a horseshoe, which has the dirt from the Kentucky Derby racetrack, which I thought was pretty cool.
Got it in Kentucky.
Almost forgot my closet space.
So like I've kind of mentioned throughout this apartment, the closets are actually really, really large for New York.
Okay.
Not for whatever else.
I have all my things in here.
I have my sweaters.
And then I got this kind of painting shelf to fit more of my like jeans and T-shirts and such.
Got all my shoes down there.
Some up here.
And then like my huge suitcases up there.
So plenty of room there.
And then let me show you the other side.
And then over here, even more things.
And it goes up, like I said, really high to the point you need a step ladder to get up there.
So I like having all that room.
What else?
And then I think I'll just voiceover.
Stop it.
Oh, and then I guess one more thing, because we're just all over the place right now.
I have two racks for coats, towels, and such.
It looks like a lot right now just because it's winter.
So there's a lot of puffs happening here.
But, oh, one more thing.
There's so much in this ginormous room.
There is also, along with all the storage that I already showed you, like all these things, there is plenty of room for additional storage under the bed.
I have all my tools and stuff in here.
And then there's some other things, too.
So that's my pro tip, I guess, if you live in a small space.
Make sure your bed frame is somewhat elevated so you can put things underneath it.
Any other details there?
Maybe that you're amphibian?
Maybe.
Fancy tequila.
And while I'm thinking about it, a question that I get all the time is, do you feel no sense of privacy with those windows?
Can people see in?
During the day, there is a pretty much complete reflection on the windows that no, you can't really see in at all.
At night, of course, if you have your lights on and your blinds are still retracted, then yes, you can see in.
But of course, I close my blinds when I need to close my blinds.
So I waited a long time to film this apartment tour.
I actually moved in six months ago, but I took my sweet time getting it furnished, getting it somewhat decorated, and I didn't want to just show you my bare bones bedroom.
Still feels pretty bare bones, but you know what I mean.
And truth be told, it is still not done.
I think that some of the main things that will make this place feel a little more homey and cozy is adding some art pieces to the wall above my bed.
Again, we have 12-foot ceilings, so it's just a lot of white space right now.
And then I'll probably add a rug underneath my bed just to make it feel more cozy and homey.
So I'll keep you guys updated when I actually do that.
How much does all of this cost, you might wonder?
Well, it was a COVID deal, so we got two months free, which brought our net effective rate for the whole place to $3,600 per month.
And because I have a roommate and constructed that flex wall that I showed you,
I pay $1,875 per month net effective, which for this view and everything is very good in New York.
You might not think it is, but it is.
Uh-oh.
Okay.
Well, that's it.
Thank you, Vogue, for coming to look at my bedroom.
And until next time.
Come here.
So, awakening on continuity.
So, the flex wall.
We are going to talk about the flex wall.