We gave interior designers Darren Jett, Noz Nozawa, and Xavier Donnelly a photo of the same empty college apartment—and then asked each of them to renovate it in their particular style. Three artists, one canvas, each bringing something different to the space. Which college apartment would you want to live in this semester?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00These three interior designers have been given a photograph of an empty college
00:04apartment and they have been challenged to create a renter-friendly design.
00:09My name is Xavier and my design style is cinematic, transporting, and human.
00:14I'm Darren Jett and my design style is seductive, cinematic, and narrative-driven.
00:18My name is Naz Nazawa and my design style is joyful, colorful, and storytelling.
00:23What will they do with all this blank space?
00:26Presented in partnership with IKEA.
00:29My first impressions of this space is that it's pretty much a basic, standard fare college apartment.
00:34The floor plan, it's kind of a run-on sentence.
00:37The flow is just choppy and weird and I want to really combine it and make it make sense.
00:41This is so much nicer than the apartments that I had access to when I was in college.
00:46It's bare bones, but there's so much potential here.
00:48This is a college apartment and it really looks like one.
00:52It's a little bit tragic, but it's sort of what you get.
00:54My overall vision for this apartment is I'm going to make it into a place that is really
01:03set up for learning and creative exploration and also that it still works for entertaining.
01:09The social aspect of being in college is still really important.
01:12I really want to create a space that feels like a salon environment for college students.
01:16People are coming together in a welcoming space.
01:18This could involve vintage pieces, antiques.
01:21So my overall vision here is I want to play with color.
01:24Please enjoy every color equally.
01:26The rest of the vision relies on resourcefulness.
01:29I have this total vision of celebrating student creativity.
01:33There are so many incredible designers.
01:39I really like hardwood floors for this, especially because you don't know who's coming in with shoes on.
01:45So we're going to leave the hardwood alone, maybe just put a rug, a vintage Moroccan shag rug.
01:50And then in the kitchen, I actively don't like this rectangular subway tile.
01:54I love the idea of doing peel and stick.
01:56So this peel and stick material is from Auto Studio and it's literally rated for the floor.
02:03You're supposed to use it on tile.
02:05So where we delineate the kitchen, I'm going to cover all of the floors with this peel and stick.
02:09And it's such a cute pattern.
02:11What I also love about it is peel and stick is not just for easy on application.
02:15It also is designed to be easily removable.
02:17I think my main problem with it is that it is split up half and half here.
02:22I think that if we unify these two spaces with one sort of floor material
02:26and make it all feel like one big space, that gives me a little bit more flexibility
02:30where I put certain pieces of furniture and how I arrange this room.
02:33I'm going to use a sisal carpet tile.
02:36And the great thing about carpet tile is you just lay it down and then you can take it back
02:41up again when it's time to move out.
02:43My first thought is how can we create this kind of like natural flow?
02:46And I think the perfect beginning to that is always with the flooring.
02:49Right now, we sort of have these two spaces that create this kind of L shape.
02:54What I really want to do is create three zones.
02:57Now, I want to have a living area here.
02:59I want to have a dining area here.
03:01And then of course, the kitchen would be here.
03:02In the living area, I would love to just have a big red rug.
03:06And then in the dining area, I want to have a big Persian rug
03:10that really takes up all of this kind of basic boring tile.
03:17So right now, the walls are this kind of off-white eggshell,
03:21basic boring apartment paint that everyone gets.
03:24We can do better than that.
03:25What I'd love to do is to create a space that feels aged.
03:29I want to tea stain the walls.
03:31And you take literally tea bags and paper towels and you start sponging.
03:34It's basically faux painting on the wall.
03:36So for the walls in the living area, I'm going to use this large format corkboard tile,
03:42which is really easy to put up.
03:43You can just use some double stick tape or pin it into the walls.
03:47And I'm going to cover all those surfaces of those walls.
03:49Besides providing a really beautiful kind of surface texture,
03:53it also is going to allow people who are living in this house to pin up all their,
03:57you know, studies or inspiration.
03:59And it can be really flexible and ever-changing.
04:01It's very warm and neutral.
04:03And I think it pairs really nicely with the sort of like warm and neutral sisal carpet tiles
04:07that I'm putting down on the floor.
04:09One of my favorite lavenders presently is African Violet from Benjamin Moore.
04:14It's got this like very sophisticated dusty gray undertone to it.
04:19It looks beautiful with the floor tile.
04:21You can actually make this into a lime wash.
04:24This is my personal favorite example of what that kind of material can look like.
04:29It's one of those things that creates so much dimension.
04:31Now that we have the tea standing on the wall,
04:33what I really love to do is to actually start to highlight the separation
04:36between the living area and the dining room.
04:39It's right on this header here.
04:40Why not do some stenciling?
04:42Why not create this kind of cool like threshold that goes from one area to the next?
04:47I'd love to do something like a Vitruvian scroll that feels fresh,
04:51but also is referencing the past.
04:53One of the main things that I can't change about this kitchen is this fridge.
04:56There's nowhere else to put it.
04:57So I kind of want to tie the rest of the kitchen together to that.
05:00So I'm going to use these peel and stick stainless steel tiles
05:03in a combination of just kind of flat stainless steel,
05:06but also stainless steel pegboard, apply those to the wall,
05:09and that's going to tie the rest of the kitchen together
05:12with this one big appliance in the center.
05:14It's all super easy to install and uninstall.
05:17The last thing I'm going to do is further kind of delineate the different spaces.
05:23So I'm going to use just a quick track application on the ceiling
05:28and hang some off-white curtains that can actually pull close
05:32to separate the kitchen off from the living areas when it's not being used.
05:36So it's all about building layers in this room.
05:39I'd love to have really more separation between the fridge and the dining area for sure.
05:43And an easy, simple division to have is curtains.
05:47You can have curtains that are $10 a yard, white cotton, so easy to find anywhere.
05:52And I just want to swag them along this wall, creating a kind of Romanesque dramatic effect.
05:58The kitchen cabinets themselves are in pretty good shape.
06:07I don't think right now that the wood is great.
06:11I suspect that this really ugly cheap veneer wood that you see in a lot of rental apartments,
06:16and I don't think that's worth preserving at all.
06:18So I'm going to paint it in this grayish, cool off-white that can kind of match the tone of the stainless
06:24steel and sort of tie this kitchen all together.
06:26I am going to be painting these cabinets.
06:29It's totally doable.
06:30And I'm also going to add hardware.
06:32You will notice in the existing cabinetry, it's very 80s.
06:35It's sort of a partial overlay.
06:37Like you would just kind of get your fingies and open the doors and drawers.
06:41I want to add hardware.
06:43I think that's a great way to just add a little sparkle moment.
06:46And for a lot of apartments that already have hardware, swapping those units out is really doable
06:51and easy to put back together with no cost and no damage.
06:54The hardware that I am showing on these cabinets are these beautiful round spheres in brass,
07:00and then the same spheres with a rod in between for the drawer pulls by Low & Co.
07:06I love Low & Co. hardware.
07:08I'm also going to change the kitchen faucet.
07:10Look at the one that is in the before.
07:12I don't love that.
07:13We're going to change that out.
07:14It's very easy to do.
07:15You can basically get under the sink cabinet or ask for help, but it's a total DIY upgrade.
07:20And I'm going to replace it with this beautiful brass unit from Breezo.
07:24So I'd like to really just start by painting the cabinets.
07:27Our landlord said we could paint them.
07:28It's totally fine.
07:29I'd love to do a color that's a bit more of a greenish, yellow.
07:34Something like this from Benjamin Moore would be perfect.
07:37Again, more stenciling.
07:38It actually references Jean Lavanne's bathroom in Paris from the 1920s.
07:42I think it's a perfect combination with the Vitruvian scroll elsewhere.
07:47This kind of organic shape with the geometry.
07:50Besides the fact that the cabinets are not great, there's actually no backsplash.
07:55You should always have a backsplash.
07:56It is literally to protect the wall from getting wet and rotting because of water exposure.
08:03So I'm just a college student.
08:05I can't do a whole lot.
08:07Wait a minute.
08:08Peel and stick.
08:09How funny is this?
08:10I found this from the Smart Tile.
08:12This is a very wild, very dimensional faux tile that you can stick on the wall,
08:19just like peel and stick wallpaper, but it's actually plasticized.
08:23So it would actually be water repellent.
08:25And I think this sort of soft pinky color is so cute with the color of the lavender cabinets
08:32that it will be surrounded by.
08:39All right, let's talk furniture.
08:40When I'm designing for a place where the communal,
08:43like living, dining, kitchen areas are being used by multiple people,
08:47there are so many things that can come about that are challenges.
08:50For me, the way to address that is to create a furniture plan that is pretty versatile,
08:57where a sofa could also count as a workspace or a laptop space
09:02or a napping space for your friends who are staying over unexpectedly.
09:06This area back here with the two doors has kind of a strange flow,
09:10and I need to make sure that there is, you know,
09:12a pretty easy path of travel between those two rooms.
09:15So I'm actually going to sort of flip the expectation and put the dining area back in this space
09:21and then bring the living area up front here, which in my experience,
09:24being close to the kitchen was where everybody hung out anyway.
09:27So I think that's fine.
09:28So for the dining table, I'm going to do something that I did in college,
09:33which is basically just get two sawhorses from Home Depot and a tabletop.
09:38And voila, there's a dining table.
09:40I'm also going to use these kind of very flexible Ikea benches,
09:45which are great because you can squeeze more people into them than you can a regular chair.
09:49And I'm going to add floating bookshelves along this back wall here,
09:53which felt kind of unusable to me as a place for furniture
09:56because of the way the door is positioned.
09:59But now it's a great, you know, full wall storage solution.
10:02We're going to have bookcases on this empty wall right here.
10:05This is perfect for this intellectual atmosphere that we're trying to create.
10:09The bookcases, they're glass fronted.
10:11So you see the books inside, but they don't collect dust.
10:13I really want to create some depth in the living room.
10:16I want to sort of show what's going on behind this door,
10:19but it's a really unnecessary door in my opinion.
10:22So let's take it off the hinges.
10:24We can put it somewhere.
10:25It can go underneath the sofa.
10:26It can go in a closet somewhere.
10:28And whenever you leave, you can put it back on.
10:30Easy peasy.
10:31I've done it way too many times to count.
10:33In the back of the room, I want to start with a salon type of seating arrangement
10:38because we're not really building the room around a TV.
10:41Really, this is a room for studying, a room to hang out, a room to be together with other people.
10:45The look and feel of the sofas is vintage. It's thrifted.
10:49These particular ones are Napoleon III style with fringe and a beautiful pattern along the back.
10:54But they could really be substituted for anything that was found or given.
10:58And then in the middle have an IKEA coffee table.
11:01The seating area is not huge, so it really doesn't warrant having a big, chunky coffee table.
11:06It needs to be something that's more movable and just more friendly for conversation and everyday life.
11:12I have always, always loved pallet furniture.
11:15I'm going to put the pallet sofa right at the transition where the flooring changes
11:21between the living space and the tile in the kitchen.
11:24The other thing that that allows is for this main wall to be the TV wall.
11:28So we're going to do a pallet sectional sofa here.
11:31It is the most college thing to just go find a beat up old pallet and then paint it.
11:36We're going to paint it with the same African violet paint.
11:39So again, it's another part of this color drenching story.
11:42That will be the base of my sectional sofa.
11:45And then the cushions over top.
11:47This is where we have fun with being resourceful.
11:49College students who have more time than cash and maybe a sewing machine somewhere.
11:54There's so many different art nonprofits throughout the country where people just donate scraps of
12:01things that might be useful to an art student or a designer.
12:04So as a college student, I would go seek that out.
12:07I would go to a used furniture type place and just pick up old cushions that fit.
12:13Or you could even take the foam and cut it down and use that as the foam core for your own
12:18cushions and reupholster them.
12:20And so imagine you're just sort of like sifting through the piles upon piles of old fabric remnant.
12:25And you found this.
12:26Amazing.
12:27Almost a cardamom type brown tweed from Loro Piana.
12:32I also love this House of Hackney Jacquard.
12:35It is so cute and adorable.
12:37And also this works.
12:38I could imagine myself losing it as a student if I found this Gastoni Daniela woven material.
12:44I tried to think about how we got furniture when I was in a college apartment.
12:48Vintage Stores or Salvation Army.
12:51So I have this kind of cool bench like sofa that I imagine they find with this kind of nice striped
12:58fabric here in kind of like a sort of a hemp weave.
13:02Pairing that with a stainless steel coffee table which can kind of echo the stainless steel that
13:07I'm using in the kitchen.
13:08Some other antiques sprinkled in throughout the space.
13:11This Moroccan chair upholstered in like a carpet fabric would be a cool find.
13:17And then as much sort of extra storage.
13:19This green IKEA bar cart felt really flexible to me.
13:22Something I could move around.
13:24To fit with the sofa, I want to use a laptop stand rather than a coffee table.
13:31This one is so cute.
13:32It's bright orange from IKEA.
13:33I think it is darling and very functional and lightweight.
13:37So you can just kind of move it around.
13:39Put your coffee mug on there.
13:40Put your laptop and actually do work from the sofa.
13:43It's perfect.
13:43And then this corner is a perfect spot for a giant beautiful oversized accent chair.
13:49Student art and student design is incredible.
13:53Carl Durko is a Philadelphia-based designer and maker and artist extraordinaire.
13:58And I met him when he was a student in Philly.
14:00So this chair which he calls the gnarle chair is this ridiculous like bobbly gigantic weirdly sturdy
14:08and amazing chair that looks like big felted feathers are all over it.
14:12It's such a cool experimental design.
14:14And realistically, you too could find an amazing roommate who has beautiful student work from class
14:21that has nowhere to go except your future apartment when that class is over.
14:24So in the dining area, what I want to do is have a round table really good for flow.
14:30The space is not huge.
14:31This table is a Biedermeier style table.
14:34It really fits in with the vibe of the sofas and chairs.
14:37This kind of old world look.
14:39I want to pair it with Ikea chairs.
14:41Something that's easily foldable and you can bring up more if you want.
14:45I also really like the pairing of old and new together at all times.
14:49We're trying to create a continuous thread for a small space.
14:52Even the cotton canvas of the chairs, it picks up on the curtains that we're doing elsewhere.
14:56In the dining space, I'm also featuring another of Carl Durko's work.
15:01This actual table, he designed it for an outdoor rooftop patio and bar.
15:06So we know that it can hold up to messy, spilly people.
15:10I don't want to use chairs.
15:11I want a backless stool.
15:13You can kind of push them under the table if you're having a big party in the apartment.
15:16These are the cutest.
15:17And they're upholstered so the seat is comfy.
15:19The design is from Carlo Contine from Adentro.
15:23And I think they're really neat.
15:29So now let's talk lighting.
15:30Let's talk lighting.
15:31For the lighting, I hate the gold and the brass and wood ceiling fan.
15:37If there's one place where these college kids are going to maybe
15:40invest in, it would be to hire an electrician to replace that ceiling fan.
15:45I would love to also bring a little bit more of that stainless steel
15:49energy from the kitchen into this room.
15:51I'm going to bring in this patinated bowl up light fixture into that room, which I think will
15:58provide a really nice diffused light into the space.
16:01On either side of the sofa, I'm going to use these two little Ana Luisa Corrigan table lamps
16:07with a skirted lampshade, which I really love.
16:10And I think those add a nice softness to this space.
16:13I really love a ceiling fan.
16:16I really hate a ceiling fan with a light in it.
16:18I can't tell you why.
16:19I just don't like it.
16:20You can take the ceiling fan away, put it in a closet somewhere, whatever.
16:24Bring it back whenever you move.
16:25But I want to have a light in here that is ambient.
16:28We can have something like a paper lantern, like this one from Ikea,
16:31right over the living space.
16:33It feels very flattering.
16:34It's a perfect glow on everyone that you're having over in your space.
16:38On either side of the sofa, I want to flank that with two lamps
16:41that really give more of that ambient light into the room.
16:44These particular lamps are vintage by Paul Mayen.
16:47I chose this pendant for the dining area.
16:49I think it's really cool because it picks up on the color of the walls.
16:53It has a sort of flowy effect that matches the drapery.
16:56And it also produces a direct lighting, which is perfect for an evening with wine,
17:01doing your homework.
17:02In every kitchen, I love to have a nightlight.
17:04In this kitchen, I want to have a small table lamp.
17:06It just kind of gives a nice glow to the space.
17:09Realistically, I am not going to be removing out of the ceiling,
17:13the ceiling fan and light, but I do want to add a little bit something.
17:16So I love the idea of putting two sweet little sconces on either side of the television
17:20just to give a bit of face-level ambient light.
17:23Plug-ins being the necessary thing because I'm not doing electrical work in my nine-month rental
17:29apartment.
17:29These are from Annie Lee Parker.
17:31I absolutely adore her work.
17:32This is the kind of thing that I, as a college student, would save up all of my side job money
17:37to buy and then hang on with me for like the rest of my life.
17:41And also how perfect that Annie makes these little sweet five-petal flower shapes,
17:47which goes so beautifully with the floor tile pattern.
17:51I also really am into the whole cordless battery-operated lamp thing right now
17:55because I could bring it from the laptop stand over to the kitchen at night,
17:58almost like a candlestick that I'm just kind of bringing around with me,
18:01or put it on the dining table while I'm doing some work late at night.
18:04This little lamp is the lamp that cut.
18:07So now we're going to talk about decor.
18:12We're really trying to create a space that feels collected, that feels layered.
18:18The first thing I want to do is have a moment that's above the sofa.
18:22This here is a Rococo mirror carved out of wood,
18:26something that could be found at an antique store.
18:28Over on the bookcase, we have plenty of space to showcase objects.
18:32I really love the idea of having shells mounted on stands.
18:36It just go up there.
18:37It also references the wave effect of the stenciling that separates the dining area from the living room,
18:43and it creates this really cool cohesiveness to the space.
18:46I'm still not 100% sold on the separation between the kitchen and the living space,
18:52so I do want to add curtains of some sort.
18:54So many college students have strong, warm memories of beaded curtains,
18:59but rather than go full coastal with wood beads, I'm envisioning Shimmer Screen.
19:05They are metal beaded curtains, and we would kind of drape them down and then just hold them with these little hand-shaped curtain holders, like curtain tie backs,
19:16and they would just kind of like hang here.
19:17They're pretty affordable, and you don't have to use the whole thing.
19:21So I would probably, just to save budget, kind of just have a little bit on the sides,
19:26and they're meant to swag and stay open, so they're a visual demarcation of space, but they don't literally close.
19:32Realistically, I am keeping the ceiling fan, and one of the things as a designer that I love doing is anything that has to stay,
19:40I try to make it an active choice by bringing, matching, or coordinating other things in that finish,
19:47which is why I did a brass faucet, and I'm doing a brass gold color beaded curtain.
19:52So everything feels like it goes together and feels like a deliberate coordination.
19:56This was sort of designed to be kind of a neutral backdrop for, you know, maybe three disparate personalities,
20:02and I think a lot of that texture and color and playfulness will come in with whatever the artwork is
20:09that they decide to pin to the corkboard walls, whether it's whatever project they're working on or research,
20:14or maybe some artwork that they really love.
20:17But I think there's a few other ways through, you know, decor and furnishing,
20:20that we can, you know, sort of bring that color and texture into the space.
20:24So in the kitchen, for example, I'm going to bring in some big woven baskets,
20:28and then I'm going to put this great IKEA clock on top of the mirrored pedestal,
20:32because I think it's just an incredible color blue, and this room needed that shock of blue in it.
20:37And then I'm going to add just a touch more blue with the lovely sort of Delft painted vase,
20:42very similar to one that I own on the coffee table for flowers,
20:46which I think always helps brighten up a space.
20:49On this Samsung frame TV, which is realistically where the art is going to go on the walls
20:54in this sort of an apartment for college students, I have artist Serge Gay Jr.
20:58He's a fabulous muralist and artist in San Francisco.
21:02This is one of his student pieces. I love it.
21:05And finally.
21:06No sofas complete without a blanket. A lush, fluffy, comfy, cozy, beautiful throw.
21:13It's just a really delightful, bright pop of color, and you can wear her out.
21:17It's fashion. It's home interiors. It's everything.
21:20And so what I want to do here is create symmetry by having pedestals,
21:26and on top of the pedestals, having big, beautiful urns.
21:29But we really want to create a sense of order, a sense of specialness,
21:35and we're trying to have a division between the spaces.
21:38Inside of the urns, you could have real plants like these ferns.
21:41You could also have fake plants like these ones from Ikea.
21:44There's a gap between the top of the kitchen upper and the ceiling.
21:47It's a perfect place to add extra storage.
21:49You can put baskets up at the top here.
21:55I'm really happy with how this design came together.
21:57I feel like the design for this room is really a space where some students could be
22:03very free to sort of express their interests, always be working, always be developing,
22:08and, you know, having a space that also works for entertaining.
22:11It's really important for everything to be pretty flexible and for these kids to be able to come in
22:16there, make it their own quickly, and move out quickly, and probably take with them to their next spot.
22:21Wow, this design to me feels really welcoming.
22:25It feels very warm. It feels very collected.
22:28It really feels like a gathering space.
22:31It feels like a place where I might study a little bit more than what I did, honestly.
22:34It's a really warm environment, and I would be probably sad to pack it up and move on,
22:40but I know that I would have pieces with me that I bought, that I purchased,
22:44that I would carry on into a totally new life.
22:46My final thoughts on this space are I love it.
22:49I think the Lavender was really a success.
22:52I would absolutely have adored living in a space like this.
22:55Realistically, in my wildest dreams, would this have been my college experience?
22:59But, you know, anything is possible.
23:01Oh my gosh, very cool.
23:12Okay, can we talk about your color?
23:13Oh my gosh, thank you, yes.
23:15This person is living in a lavender fantasia.
23:18Totally.
23:19Who's wanting to explore lavender and tomato red together.
23:22I love this beautiful orange-red floor.
23:24Thank you so much.
23:25These are actually peel-and-stick floor tiles.
23:28Amazing. So creative.
23:29I love a peel-and-stick for a student who has nine and a half months to live in this place.
23:32So true.
23:33Darren, I am obsessed with this, what appears to be mosaic tile work across the headers.
23:38What's going on there?
23:39It's actually stencil work.
23:40Stop.
23:41We're bringing stenciling back.
23:42We're bringing faux finish back.
23:45Xavier, I really love how you've married the aesthetic movement with these, like, functional pieces.
23:51I think there's a really cool language going on here.
23:53I was kind of thinking about what pieces of furniture, like, somebody might be able to source
23:57from their local Salvation Army because that was how a lot of people furnished their apartments
24:03when I was in college.
24:04Whoever lives here has a very strong design sense.
24:07They want to be, you know, mood boarding all day.
24:09Art history and architecture.
24:11Architecture for sure.
24:12Yeah.
24:12I think Darren's students are studying art history.
24:16Or, like, English Lit.
24:17Ooh.
24:18Yeah.
24:18Your student, I actually want to say, is, like, a very, like, chic, like, physics major.
24:25Cute.
24:25I mean, I'm getting, like, color.
24:27So I'm getting, like, either, like, a fashion student or a design student.
24:31I think it's, like, really smart with the pattern and the purple and lilac and it's kind of golden
24:35green.
24:35I think it's, you know, pretty forward.
24:37Wow.
24:38Oh my gosh.
24:38So I see that.
24:39A physics design double major.
24:42I love that.
24:42That student does it all.