00:00Hi, I'm Lucy. Welcome to My Sweet Digs.
00:02I live in a three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick in Brooklyn.
00:06It's about half an hour away from Manhattan, which is a great commute
00:08and it's also a cool neighbourhood with lots of coffee shops and bars.
00:12I pay $1200, so does my flatmate Fernanda, who also lives on the top level.
00:17All together we pay $37.50, but the bottom room is about to get remodelled into a living space.
00:22I found this apartment through Rumours. They are a co-living agency,
00:27which basically means that they match you up with roommates and give you a fully furnished apartment.
00:32I got to know them through a scholarship that I won last year,
00:34but I enjoyed it so much that I ended up staying as a tenant.
00:37This apartment is 592 square feet, which feels really roomy for New York.
00:43I think given the price, it's pretty reasonable.
00:45I know people who pay the same and have a lot less space, so I'm pretty happy with it.
00:49This is our kitchen. One of the things that attracted me to this apartment most was the kitchen.
00:54It's not super big, but it has really great appliances, including a gas stove.
00:59I'm a full-time food policy student. I'm also a part-time programme assistant,
01:04and I do part-time creative food consultancy. I do that from home,
01:08so the kitchen is really important to me.
01:10I love to cook Mediterranean food. I grew up in France, so it's something that reminds me of my childhood
01:17and also reminds me of sunshine. But actually, what I prefer is cooking for people I love,
01:22and making sure that they're enjoying it. I met my roommates in our old apartment.
01:27We were matched together by roomers. We got on really well, and we decided that we wanted to
01:32stay together and find a place just for the three of us. Fernanda I get along with super well.
01:38We're very close friends, and we spend a lot of time cooking and eating and watching TV together in
01:43this space. Zach's also a good friend, but he definitely spends more time at work,
01:48and he has a private space downstairs, so he tends to spend more time down there.
01:52The kitchen was pretty well decked out when we moved in. The only thing we've had to add
01:58is this shelving unit. It's actually an outdoor unit, but we thought it worked well in here.
02:03It just gives us a little bit more space and a little bit more storage, and it also fills up
02:08a wall,
02:08which is otherwise blank. Apart from that, it was just buying lots of ingredients and hot sauces.
02:14In an ideal world, I'd love to have a walk-in pantry to accumulate as many ingredients and hot
02:20sauces as possible. This is our bathroom. It's really nice and spacious. We have a really nice
02:25bathroom. Zach has his own ensuite downstairs. Up here, we share a shower and bath between the three
02:32of us. It has an actual bath, which I haven't seen in many other buildings, and I really like the
02:37tile
02:37work and the gold sink and shower finishings. We take turns cleaning the bathroom. We only really
02:44have one rule, which is don't leave hair in the shower, and otherwise we just all do our bit
02:48to stay on top of it. This is our current living area. I wouldn't really say it's a living room,
02:54because it's open plan. We don't have a TV on this side of the room, which is really nice.
02:58It means it's a really calm and relaxing space, and it actually means that we read in this area.
03:04I use the desk space over here, usually for studying and sometimes for consultancy.
03:10It's a really nice, calm nook, and it also gets great natural light, so it's a really good place
03:16to work. The desk actually did not come as part of the property. The apartment came about three
03:21quarters furnished. We definitely added bits here and there just to round it all out. I wasn't
03:27surprised to move into a furnished space, because at home it's really unusual to move into an unfurnished
03:33house, so that was kind of a culture shock to learn that that was the norm here. It's not hard
03:37to share
03:38the living space, because we're all really respectful of each other, and we also really
03:43enjoy hanging out together. We usually take turns hosting friends, but all of our friends know each
03:48other, so it just becomes one really nice social area. This is my flatmate Fernanda's bedroom. The
03:54layout is pretty much exactly the same as mine, but she's definitely made it her own.
03:59This is my bedroom. It's definitely my favourite part of the apartment. It's really important to me
04:04that my bedroom is calm and peaceful, especially living in such a wild city. I use plants, incense,
04:12and candles to try and give it a really chilled out vibe, and I also try not to work in
04:16here and keep
04:16it just somewhere where I sleep and relax. I really love the natural light in my room. It makes it
04:22such
04:23a really peaceful, lovely place to be, and I love being able to open the blinds and give my plants
04:29lots
04:29of light. When I moved in, the bedroom was mostly furnished, but it didn't have much in the way of
04:35storage or decor, so I added an IKEA unit that I turned on its side, and it also works as
04:41a tabletop
04:42for a mirror I purchased. I'm definitely like a visual person, so if things look out of place,
04:47it kind of stresses me out. I use decorative boxes as a way of just putting clutter into them,
04:53and then it looks good from the outside, and you get to forget about all your mess. There was one
04:58piece
04:58of artwork already in the space that was chosen by Rumours. I added a few more pieces. Most of them
05:04are just postcards or posters from places I've traveled to, so I have pieces from Paris, Amsterdam,
05:10and a few things from home as well. I actually really appreciated that this space was partially
05:15decorated because I wasn't able to bring many decorative elements with me when I moved,
05:20and the elements that are here are pretty neutral, so don't really interfere with my own personal taste.
05:26I definitely try not to accumulate too many things. The less, the better for me. There are a few things
05:32that I bring with me everywhere, and they tend to be very small trinkets and sentimental items.
05:38I also always bring with me cards that I've been given from loved ones that are just a really sweet
05:44reminder of who is not here. That kind of made it sound like I was talking about dead people,
05:48and I wasn't really talking about dead people.
05:51My most sentimental items are probably a paper mache gold moon that I have on my desk. I'm not
05:58sure where it came from, but I have really vivid memories of having it in my bedroom when we lived
06:02in France. Before I left Scotland, my mum gave me a small porcelain elephant, which is just a really
06:08sweet reminder of home. In France, it became a thing for people to start bringing us tiny wooden elephants,
06:15and then we also had this elephant rug, which I brought over with me from Scotland.
06:21I like living in Bushwick. It's relatively residential, so it's usually quiet, which makes
06:27it a nice place to be. It's only half an hour into Manhattan, which is great, and there's a cool
06:32little
06:32coffee shop just one block away, so that's my favourite little part of the neighbourhood. In an ideal
06:37world, I'd love to live in Manhattan and be in the West Village and be able to walk to school
06:43and work,
06:44but I think it's more likely that I'll probably stay in Brooklyn and I'd love to live closer to one
06:49of the parks.
