HOUSE TOUR _ Susanna's Eclectic 600 Sq Ft NYC Apartment _ Design Tips for Small Spaces

Hi, Homeworthy. I'm Susie Maggard. Welcome to my apartment on the Upper East Side. Come on in. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. Hi, I'm Susie Maggard. I'm an interior decorator and we're in my apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Well, I was I was a terrible student and I always thought decorating in the back of my mind, I could always do that. My mom was a decorator and I grew up with chintz, painted floors. We went to every fabric outlet on the eastern seaboard. We were always in antique shops, flea markets. I guess this bug is hereditary. And I took my first decorating class in college down at Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. And the teacher pulled me aside and said, you know, you should really take this seriously. So I just thought, oh, OK. I was always sending away for brochures for the New York School of Interior Design. And I just was always hoping I'd be able to come home and do an internship. I was able to transfer. I did the pros and cons on a legal pad and had this whole presentation to my parents and, you know, the money and how long it would take me. They just couldn't be happier. And I was a little closer to home. I got so many amazing internships with that first one at Schumacher. And that led to, you know, more and more opportunities. Well, after working for about every decorator in town, I got a call from a past client who I worked with at a firm and they tracked me down and bought a big place in New York and called me and said, we remember you from seven years ago and we want to hire you. So I was a little nervous. I knew it was just now or never. I just remember being in their master bedroom during an installation and they were drilling into the ceiling, the tester bed. And I just thought, if this goes wrong, this is all. But fortunately, it all went perfectly. So and that that was the start. This is the living room. And of course, I wanted some beautiful, fabulous rug, but it really had to be dog friendly. This is indoor outdoor from Seisel.com. And I got a kind of two by four and had Angus tested and he had thrown up on it and gone to the bathroom and it all came up. So then I was able to splurge. I, of course, I couldn't get just a plain area rug, a nine by twelve. I had to have it cut around the fireplace, which I really think gives a more polished, updated look. We are so lucky. This is a working fireplace. We have fires in here every day in the winter. We get up, throw a log on, have my coffee here, and it is it's just it's just wonderful. We love staying here during the holidays. We love staying here during the winter. It is so cozy. This is a slipper chair that was in my bedroom growing up. I've taken it to different apartments and I recovered it. It gave new life. This chair gives me a lot of comfort because it's from growing up. These mirrors are very special. They were in my parents house in the dining room. They were brown when we were cleaning out the house. They were the last things on the wall. And I just kept like they're a great size. They're pretty. They could be so pretty painted. And my sister says, you know, you might have room for this. I already bought this apartment, but I was really envisioning a big mirror over the mantel and two paintings. But it was the reverse. And I I think my mom must have bought these at a flea market. As everything my sister said, just you know, you should just take them and you might use them. And I sent them off to Mundi to bring them new life, kind of matching the hues of the apartment. I think they turned out so beautifully. So the color of these walls, I can't believe I settled on a neutral, a neutral wall. I always thought I'd have rich green walls in here, but I really had to tone things back. My former colleague and now decorating partner, Emily Price, came in and really we really did this apartment together. And I want everything. I want layers and more layers and stuff. And she she really held me back. I thought this apartment would be easy, breezy, not my first rodeo. So we did this together and I was so overwhelmed. I couldn't even make a decision. I felt like, why am I even in this business? I should change careers. It was it's just such a it's just was such a different ballgame. And it's really given me appreciation when when I'm helping clients. I know how emotional it can be. And one false move can be so much money. And it is I think it's made me a little more compassionate. That not that I wasn't before, but it was it was a it's a very, very good lesson. This is White Wisp by Benjamin Moore. But we got it in Fine Paints of Europe in their high gloss to make it look like lacquer, like very cost effective, you know, as much as I wanted the whole process of lacquer, this was this really was a money saver. So I'm so happy with how it turned out. This is a painting I got from Newell, and it's by Richard Rumi. I didn't, I picked it for the colors and the size. The scale is perfect. And I was afraid to ask the price and shockingly, I was able to afford it. And I just obviously I love all the colors, the richness and how it brings, you know, the whole room together. If this sectional could talk, there was a lot of drama with the sofa to get the proportions right, the depth, the pitch. It had to be custom made, and it needed to be big. Thankfully, Emily suggested I do a nine by nine. I just thought, I don't know, I don't know, but I trusted her. She is amazing with proportion. And when I would go to the upholsterer with her and it would be wrong, I would just, I couldn't, I would go into the bathroom and take one look at it, cry, and she would handle all the details cuz as I said, it's just so emotional and I just, for some reason, it's so hard to trust myself during this process. So this armoire, I'm not afraid of brown furniture at all. I got this from Antique and Artisan Center up in Stanford, and I fell in love with it. I love these Egyptian details. I love the veneer. Also, I had it fitted for, everyone's probably wondering why isn't the TV over the mantel? But that was never gonna happen, so it got fitted for a TV. And this holds my husband has an extensive tobacco collection and a pipe collection. And so that's another thing Diane, our organizer, helped us with. Okay, so a few years ago, I took up Needlepoint. I think everyone's very happy I took up Needlepoint because it chills me out. Alan, I know, he says, I love seeing you Needlepoint. Well, that's cuz I'm quiet. But anyway, I had to get this canvas. It just matches everything beautifully. I have the date, which is a little not sure, and my initials. And I just love the damask background. I send it to Mary Jane McCarty to get it finished with this beautiful velvet. And I love the grosgrain flange on here. So this is really special. I can't believe I did it. This was the first project I ever did. I had bought the canvas, gosh, years ago. I never, I just couldn't pick up the stitch. And I'd been dragging this canvas around in boxes. And when I was unpacking here, I thought, my gosh, these colors are perfect. So you better believe that I figured out how to needlepoint. I bought some kindergarten Needlepoint starter kits on Amazon, and then I was off to the races. This is, I thought, years ago, I thought, whenever I have my own apartment and I can really do it, I'm definitely going to have a Dale Goffigan photograph. She takes these amazing interior photographs of historic houses. And I just, I fell in love with this. I first had her green door, which I bought in the wrong size and I thought would go here. But anyway, that's a long story. But I just love how this has dimension. I got a beautiful white gold frame. And I painted the sides because I didn't want them rough. And I thought coming in this way and that way, you can really see, or of course, I would notice it. So we picked out a pretty gray, charcoal-y gray, which I absolutely love. This mantel, of course, I wanted one from Chesney's. I thought, again, one day I want a mantel from Chesney's. I want the steel surround. That didn't work out. But I found a place in Texas that does these limestone mantels. And that was really in my budget. And I was able to spring for the steel surround and the firebox, which is a little tarnished, but as it should be. This table's from Bunny Williams' home. I used to work in her Bunny and John's shop triage for many years. She does a lot of her furniture is based on classic designs with a little modern twist. So I think that's kind of what I was going for in this apartment. Traditional, classic, with some modern details. I love this chair. People want to steal this chair. I bought it at Newell years ago. I had borrowed it for a photo shoot in my studio. And I had to scrounge my pennies together to get it. I knew I would bring it to every home. I can change the. This chair is very comfortable. It's very comfortable for a man. It's easy to pull up. Of course, I love the caning. You can kind of see the golden hues, but it didn't really go with the scheme. So I just took out a sponge and rubbed a little decorator's white on it. Still not perfect, but perfect for me. I got married for the first time eight years ago. And I was living in a studio, my Bachelorette pad in Midtown, like very close to the D&D. I started looking online, and I saw this apartment online. There were two apartments for sale. One looked good. This one didn't look that good, because in the photos, it looked like there was a queen-size bed jammed in the corner. And I just thought, I am not buying an apartment where I can't have a bed and two side tables and two lamps. So we went to look at the other apartment. It was formerly two decorators that lived there, and it was done to the nines. And I walked in, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is great. It was a little too done, and I didn't think it would incorporate all my stuff, because, of course, I had my own vision. But there was just something about having everything done that was appealing. So Alan said, you know, let's just go up and look at this other apartment. And there was plenty of room for a bed and two side tables. So I was like, this is us. It was pre-war. It doesn't have a doorman. The super lives on the first floor. And, of course, I was a wreck for the board interview. I couldn't find the right lipstick. And Alan says, they're not going to care about your lipstick. And I said, the board can ding you for anything. It's a real dream to be able to move in and renovate. And it's our little jewel box. He's a journalist. I'm a decorator. You can imagine the books. But you just can't have everything in a one bedroom. So we really had to pare down. We hired a professional organizer, which I think saved our marriage. And, you know, she was kind of saying to me, you know, this is really your space, not Alan's. And I was just like, hmm, really? I don't think he realized he was going to be having a pink bedroom this late in life. But a lot of times he comes in and is like, you know, this apartment is just beautiful. He loves the Murano chandelier. It's pink and green in my bedroom. And he looks up like, wow, this is really pretty. So I'm just glad he appreciates. And I think everyone knows I married the right person. This is the command center. This is where it all happens. It looks very nice today. I had to pimp everything out for you guys. The wallpaper, I love. This wallpaper is from Twigs, which is carried by John Roselli in the D&D building, 18th floor. Initially, I was going to do the back of the bookshelves. But then once we got in here and realized there were so many beams and I was going to have things here, it just didn't make sense. So I was like, oh, I bought that wallpaper. What am I going to do? And it's like, throw it on the walls. And it's better than I ever could have imagined. Originally, I thought, oh, this would be a great closet. But when we got in there and measuring there, as I said, there's so many beams in here that it wasn't really going to give you a lot of shelf space or hanging. And then I realized this would be a great office area. So trying it out, I bought a table from Home Depot and had my Home Depot bookcases from my last apartment. And it really worked. This is a watercolor my dad did of our wedding. Alan's standing here. And my dad hasn't handed my hand over yet. And he died five years ago. And when I was cleaning out stuff, I saw this notebook. And I'm like, hmm, what's this? And he had painted a lot of different scenes from our wedding. So that was really, really special. So this is very special to me. This is a note from Margaret Russell when I was in AD several years ago. And I had a little party for myself at Newell, their beautiful old showroom on 53rd Street. So this was my invitation to my friends. And the background, I thought people would laugh, especially decorators. What is a COI? Mom, I can't just quit. What, the sofa won't fit in the elevator? So these are all the things all of us decorators say over and over. And then this was just a little watercolor my dad did of Angus and me. And we all put it together. It gave everyone a big laugh. So I spend a lot of time here. I sit here very comfortable. I have Zoom calls in here, which I can either have the door closed or a nice look into the bedroom. But usually, the bed is unmade. But it's very comfortable in here. And I get the breeze. My bedroom, yeah, it's pink. I love pink. Everyone knows I love pink. And everyone looks sexy in pink. I hang out there a lot. I feel like the professional organizer, it's like all these rooms can't be yours. He works in the bedroom on this sectional. I mean, I'm sorry, he works in the living room. It's a darker, darker room. We don't have too much light. But he loves working in here. And I work at my desk. And I do a lot of work on the chair in my bedroom. It has a lot of light in the morning. And I just, I mean, who doesn't love staying in their bedroom? So this is my pink bedroom. I started scheming for this room. I just thought, I'm just going to go to the D&D and pick out every favorite fabric. I came home with a lot of them. And really, the only one I liked was this bird and basket from Benison. I was just absolutely in love with it. All my colors, pink and green. And I just love how the upholsterer had the love birds, which there are still love birds. We're still love birds. And I would have loved, I thought, oh, maybe a tester bed. But everything is, nothing is symmetrical in this room. And I wanted things to be really airy. So originally, I just thought the atrium white walls were going to be OK in here. But then I was just feeling I want more cozy and a little nest. And pink is very hard. As we know, all color is hard. But this wallpaper is vinyl. So not that we have children, but it's holding up very, very well. All right, these bedside tables, I think, are fabulous. I got them at Ballard. I love the curve. Gives it a little bit of elegance. And storage, storage, storage. The lamps are from Pottery Barn. And I had Mundy, of course, do a little gilding to make him look a little more elevated. I remember I was working on a bachelor's apartment. And I was so poor. And it came time to charge him. And I said, look, there are these lamps I'm dying for. Can we just, can you just order them for me from Pottery Barn? So I've had these lamps for about 20, 25 years. And the Christian Spitzmiller inspired who we all love. We all love his lamps. These lamps are from Pottery Barn. I got them, gosh, about 25 years ago. I was working on a bachelor pad. And it came time to charge him. I was so poor. I think I did a lot. But I just wanted these lamps so badly. And I just said, look, please just buy these for me. And we'll call it a day. And when it came time to figure out the lampshades in this room, the plain white didn't work. And of course, it had to be the Benison fabric. And I went kind of wild with the custom shades in this apartment. Everything in this apartment has a story, as everyone knows. I love to tell long stories. But this was in my bedroom growing up. I mean, perfect. I had to have it in the apartment. I don't want to say that I designed the room around this lamp. But it had a, you know, it was very important. And I thought I was saving money on repurposing the lamp. So I talked myself into a custom shade with a little detailing. And I love the rectangular Blanchfield. Lisa Blanchfield helped me do this, who is one of the many lampshade gurus out there. I love luster wear. And one day, a box showed up at my apartment. I opened it. I had my sister's handwriting. And I thought, oh, boy, what are these? Like, some reject clothes. But it was her luster collection. It just makes me so happy. And I wish I could buy udas and oodles. But again, there's just very limited space. This dresser's from Wayfair. I love brown furniture, as I said. But everything I put here just looks sad. And I thought it would be fun to have a mirrored chest to make it a little more airy and reflective. So this is kind of crazy. My father was an avid watercolorist. And in his free time, and so was my father-in-law's. And when we met, it was kind of creepy that they're the same exact age, they're one day apart, and they're both avid water colorists. This is one of my father-in-law's. He was in the American Society of Watercolor. And this is a picture of Elephant Mountain in California, which when I would visit, we'd take long drives up to the Marshall Store for our oysters. And I always thought, like, this mountain range is beautiful. And they said it's called Elephant Mountain. This is a print that was in my mother's decorator show house in Westchester in 1976. And then it later lived in my sister's bedroom. And after my parents downsizing, it eventually went into the basement, had a cracked frame. It was actually a gilded bamboo frame, which was very 70s. But it broke, and I had to put a fresher frame on it. But when I was snagging it, everyone's like, why do you want that? It's all broken. I said, I'm going to use it. I'm going to trust me. I'll use it. And here we go. This bench I got at a junk shop. It was brown, and I knew it would be perfect for the end of my bed. I had this in my old apartment. And again, I send it to good old Mundy to muck it up and make it look old and covered it with probably one of the most expensive fabrics. My favorite. This fabric has been discontinued from Stark. It's very upsetting, but hopefully some stuff will show up on eBay. It's hard to believe that there were three doors coming into this bedroom. There was one smack in the middle of the living room, which came in here. There were some closets here. And there was also a door here going to the bathroom, and then a door here, which was moved over. We move this down. More about that in a sec. So when we moved in, I thought, OK, how eventually is this going to work? So I did some blue tape and marked it off just to see how it was going to flow. And then we thought, do we keep this door? So I've always dreamt of having a beautiful luscious bed and a TV, just like a hotel. And Emily and I were trying to figure out, are we going to put it on the wall in the corner because there was this door here. We knew we were covering up this center door, but then it's just, how is this going to work? And she says, oh, well, let's move the door down. So unfortunately, we had to tell the contractor, oh, we're moving a door down. But I'm sure they've heard that many times before. Living in a one bedroom in New York, these are all our clothes. So all our clothes are in here, in the bedsides, and then that mirrored chest of drawers. And I called the organizer one day and said, I don't know. Something's not working. And she says, well, did you buy any clothes? And I'm like, well, yeah. And she's like, well, as I said, if you want to bring one thing in, one thing has to go out. So I've been really, and at the end of the day, I don't need that many clothes. We utilized this top. This holds, you would not believe how much this holds. All our luggage, sweaters, we really had to maximize as much as we could. And I think we really did that. This painting stopped me in my tracks. It was in a window in Martha's Vineyard. And obviously, the colors spoke to me. But she really spoke to me, and she still does. I wish I knew who she was. I wish I knew what she was thinking. But it gives me a lot of joy looking at her. We gutted this bathroom. I mean, we basically gutted the whole place. But I wanted an all-white bathroom. I really just wanted it classic, keep within the pre-war. And good for resale, even though I'm not reselling. And it was just classic white marble. I love my tub. I take a lot of baths. And this is, I really get to relax in here. A lot of bubble baths. And so, yeah. Well, we, gosh, in the kitchen, we were able to cover up the service door, which got us a pantry six inches deep to the ceiling. It's about three feet wide. I never knew, I probably should have known this, but I never knew what six inches of depth can give you. Like, pretty much paper towels, dog food, I mean, the whole work. So that was a gift, yeah. This is the foyer. We stripped the door to have it more of an industrial look. Not that this building is industrial, but I just thought this gave a nice texture and patina to just have it, have the raw steel door. Always wanted a jib door. Here we go. Coat closet. And this is a painting, this is a painting my sister did in her first watercolor class. And every time I came to her house, I'm like, wow, that's just so good. And one day, she sent me home with it. I framed, and it really has a prominent place here. So obviously, I love the colors, and she is very, very good. This is our tiny kitchen that we really, again, maximized every inch. We were very lucky in here that we were able to cover up the service door, which gave us a huge pantry. I don't know what we would do without it, but we have absolutely everything, dog food, paper towels. I hoard incandescent light bulbs, getting to the end of them. And as we know, they don't produce them anymore. I've been collecting tearouts for years of kitchens I've liked, and they always had a dark cabinet. And so I just love this color blue, and it went perfectly with this fabric I saw at Schumacher, and it really ties everything in. So this is the kitchen, obviously. It was toward the end of COVID, and everything seemed to be at a stop. Everyone was waiting. So many things were backed up with the ordering, and I went in. I said, I need an 18-inch dishwasher, a 24-inch fridge, and an 18-inch stove, and narrowed it down so that everyone gets caught up with, what's your stove? What's your refrigerator? I don't want an open kitchen. I don't want to look at the kitchen. I do want to look at this kitchen, but I didn't want to use up any wall. I needed every wall I could in the living room. This kitchen looks really sexy at night when Alan is shaking his martini. We did mirrored backsplashes. I've always, in Emily's apartment on the Upper East Side, back in the day, had mirrored backsplashes. I just thought it was the sexiest thing that ever walked the planet. And I just, again, one day, I'm going to have mirrored backsplashes. And everyone said, they're going to get dirty, and you're going to have food on it while we cook. But we also have Maria once a week, so we're very lucky. I wanted white quartz. It does not stain. Bitters actually stains a little. But if you pick it, if you get it up real quick, it doesn't. I thought I wanted veining to look like marble, but I just thought the clean white was better. Really, in every room in this apartment, there is somewhere to sit, and there's somewhere to work. This was on the diagonal. Genius Emily thought just to bring in this counter and make it, OK. This originally was on the diagonal, and genius Emily thought, just set this back, and you have a counter space, a drawer, and I really do sit in here while I'm cooking all my stews. Ha ha. But we really did maximize. A lot of people stop. A lot of people don't bring the cabinets to the ceiling. That is so much storage. Some people want to put little accessories up there. I just want everything covered. I wanted it to look as most like a room as possible. The color of these cabinets, again, it's a Benjamin Moore color. It's called Evening Dove. But we got it in Fine Paints of Europe in their high gloss finish, which they really, I think they really achieved the real lacquer look. So that was such a great cost effective to get the high end look. Another great, oh, I think New Yorkers will understand what I'm saying is, I don't have one, but I have two silverware drawers in here. And I also have room for two garbage cans under the sink, which is what I've always wanted. Home means to me safety, love, comfort, family, and Angus, of course. I really wanted a place where we can have the people we love and new friends over. And just, you know, it's such a hard, you know, it's hard. You know, life is hard. And just to have people come in and feel safe and loved and, you know, that's, I think that's what life is all about. Thanks for watching. Be sure to go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content, shopping guides, and so much more.