How to create a complete home My first Manhattan apartment was a compact three-bedroom in the East Village that I shared with two of my closest childhood friends. The room I lived in was small: There was no closet, and my sliver of a window wasn?t even wide enough to accommodate the smallest of air conditioning units, making summers unbearable. But I didn?t care. I was finally living in New York City with my friends in an apartment that had high ceilings and a hint of architectural character.
It was during those years that I first came across the work of British interior designer and editor Rita Konig. The photos were of her own tiny Manhattan one-bedroom rentals, and one image in particular, from her first apartment in the West Village, drew me completely into her world.
Konig?s tiny West Village bedroom.

It showed a perfectly rumpled bed set against a wall that was mostly window. Atop the bed was a breakfast tray, the Sunday New York Times, and a laptop strewn artfully across scalloped sheets sprayed in a print of delicate pink hearts. (I?d later learn that they are by luxury French linen company D. Porthault?Konig?s go-to for bedding?and are outrageously expensive. A more affordable alternative is to get sheets from Laura Ashley.)
There was a nightstand overflowing with books and topped with candles and a vase of white ranunculi. The walls were covered in an ecru, white-floral-patterned wallpaper that gave the room an English-garden vibe. Th...