00:00Hi guys, I'm Melina. Welcome to my fifth floor walk-up. I mean my sweet digs. Come on in.
00:07I pay $20.75 a month in rent. I live in the West Village and this is a studio apartment
00:14and I'm on a fifth floor walk-up. I moved from Los Angeles where I was paying $12.50 a
00:19month in rent
00:20and I had a studio that was like three times the size. So in comparison to that, it's kind of
00:26a lot
00:26but once you're like in the New York mindset and you hear what other people are paying it's
00:30actually a pretty good deal. This place is about 300 square feet but it's just really one big long
00:37rectangle and because there's windows on both sides it actually feels a little bit bigger than that
00:42and it feels more bright and airy. Here is my bedroom area. I put my bed widthwise across my
00:49apartment mainly because that was really the only way that it fit. I actually have very slanted floors
00:55in my bedroom area and I actually had to put risers on the bottom of the bed about like six
01:00inches to
01:01level it out. There's a little space on the other side of the bed that I have to roll over
01:07my bed in
01:07order to get to it. It's a little bit of a challenge. It's a little annoying but it also creates
01:11kind of a
01:12fun like calm space. I really liked this nightstand because it was a clear acrylic so by having this
01:20clear table and you don't notice it. We have my bathroom. My shower is interesting because the
01:28shower head is actually on the side of the shower. You would normally stand like this in the shower.
01:33I stand like this. Then I have this clear shower curtain just so that you can actually see through
01:38the room. It's all kind of part of living in a tiny New York apartment. This is my living area.
01:44You'll notice that there's actually a little step up. Having that step up really creates a natural
01:50division of the space. I've only had like a couple stubbed toes. One thing that helps is I have this
01:55really cozy rug right at the edge of the step itself and it's like a visual reminder okay I have
02:01to step
02:01up. The hardest part of decorating in such a small space is really finding pieces that I really like and
02:08that are unique but that don't take up too much room. One of my apartment splurges was this
02:13coffee table from West Elm. Because I have such a narrow space I was looking for a coffee table
02:19that would actually like fit within that and that would be really long but pretty narrow. It was like
02:25$3.50 or $3.75. I don't have a dining room. I eat here. I do work here and so
02:32it was worth the
02:33investment. One of my most sentimental pieces is this pillow from Anthropologie. It was out of my price
02:38range at the time but I told myself okay when I graduate college I'm going to splurge on this
02:43pillow for my first like adult non-college apartment. For me it was just symbolic of okay you know like
02:49I'm entering this new phase of my life post-grad like I'm adulting. I can afford you know an $80
02:55pillow. It is a nice reminder of LA and home and then also just like that first moment where I
03:02like
03:02bought this nice thing for my apartment after college. Coming in from here is I guess my little
03:09office space on Saturday mornings. What I love to do when I have the time is wake up and actually
03:15do
03:15some creative work. I get really inspired sitting in this spot. I work in social advertising but in
03:21my free time and really my creative passion project is my blog called Fifth Floor Walk Up. It's a mix
03:27of
03:27lifestyle content. I've since moving here you know I've really gotten into home decor so I tried to
03:33sprinkle that in. I do photography on the side and so I like to share that and so that's been
03:39a fun
03:39creative project. This is my kitchen area. In my next apartment I would love to have more counter space
03:45so right now I'm pretty much just working on this tiny little space between my sink and my stove. My
03:51desk
03:51area actually also doubles as a counter space when I'm cooking. It gets a little chaotic. I try to
03:57always have avocados in my fridge. Avocados. Coming from California like you can get avocados for I
04:04don't know like 25 cents each. In New York I think I once saw an avocado for five dollars. It's
04:09my little
04:09treat to myself and I try to always keep my fridge stocked with them. The way I found this apartment
04:14was
04:14I saw it on nakedapartments.com. They actually said that the unit that was listed had been rented which
04:20is pretty typical if you've ever looked for an apartment in New York but we have a unit in the
04:24building that is not listed yet. Do you want to see it? This was still under construction at the
04:29time. It was on the fifth floor. I saw the space and I immediately loved it and I've been living
04:34here
04:34a year and a half now. I had really just been a SoCal girl my entire life and I think
04:39I was just ready
04:40to experience something new. When I got a job in New York it just felt like the right thing to
04:45do.
04:46There's so much going on all the time. You'll hear sirens. You'll hear people yelling. There's just
04:51like kind of chaos. On one end you know that can be negative because it can be almost like
04:56information overload but in another sense it's actually really inspiring. I was feeling like I
05:01was in a little bit of a creative rut when I was in LA and since moving I feel like
05:06more creatively
05:07inspired and I really think that the city has so much to do with that. Experiencing it every day but
05:11also the people that you meet really play into that just like overall creative energy.
