How A 575-Sq-Ft NYC Apartment Is Optimized For Running A Home Business | Architectural Digest

When you take risks leading a life, putting art first, you're risking the security aspect. I don't have a 9 to 5. I have a 24-7. For my pottery business, typically it's about 100 to 200 pieces per collection. That accumulates to about 800 pieces per year, which is so wild. I can't even believe that this tiny wheel and 575 square feet holds all of that. And I feel like in New York, there is this real intensity. Having this function out of a studio apartment, where my bed is behind me, but then also my ceramics and my reclaim bucket, it's like all in the same ecosystem and all the logistics, the boxes, the paper wrapping, the clay on the floor, the mopping and dusting every single day, recycling clay, the glaze, the stories told. I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Hi, I'm Taya Kapila. This is my 575 square foot apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I lived in New York, I think from ages 4 to 9, and felt such a calling to come back. I think the total amount was $11,000 that I saved throughout high school to get here, land my feet on the ground, and just begin. And by the time I moved in, I think I had $0 in my bank account. My lease was $1,950 when I first got here. And I currently pay $2,800, which is objectively a lot. But I live in New York and also live in Williamsburg. But I feel lucky to live here. And I have made it six years in this apartment, which is crazy. Here's the living room space. I want to take you through some of the most central pieces of this entire apartment, one of which is this chair. It's called a naga chair. This actually is something that was carved by a single piece of wood. And every morning, I'll sit here. And the light in the summertime kind of comes in in a very unique way. So I'll take my little cup of whatever, usually coffee, and I'll sit right here. And I just feel like I'm in a tree. That's really nice. I got this coffee table from Dobbin Street Co-op. This couch is from Six Penny. And it's incredibly comfortable. I really want someone to come on here and put their feet up on the couch and get comfortable. And then over here, I have kind of my makeshift record station. This is where my grandpa's records that I got from his home in Kansas live. There's a lot of old school Christmas music, but also some great albums like Beatles. Right now, I have a Miles Davis in there. This is a multi-purpose living room. It's not just a living room. I often get asked questions whether the mixing of different purposes of space gets in the way of anything or interrupts the flow. And I think there's a lot of room to create boundaries. So if you have good mental boundaries, I think even though it's a silly little curtain separating one space from another, it adds so much to the intentionality of the space. The other part of this living room space is actually like a storage strip or a faux closet. So I'll show you that. It's graciously hiding behind this curtain here. But this is kind of where all of the clunkier things hide. I have glazes on top. I have candles, recording devices, and wires. This is just the backend office of all the other stuff, like eye gear. I'm a handyman. I'm a handy person. My dad is a engineer and has taught me kind of all I know. With how to fix things, I'd be totally competent. Many of my ceramic tools are here and sponges. Got some bags to protect the piece so it doesn't dry out so much. And then, of course, my wheel below. But this is where I also just hide stuff if I don't really want to look at it. I actually, when I first found this apartment, I moved in here with a partner. We found this one on Street Easy. And then after that shift and allowance of new space from that uncoupling, I think granted so much more room to really highlight pottery. My first wheel was a gift from Amazon. I think it was $100. And from there, I just practiced. I now have my ceramics. And then I have my ceramic ceremonies. I made this space kind of a supper club-style event space that keep me afloat in this apartment. ♪♪ Welcome to the shelves. I built these with my dad. We built these shelves custom so they would hold the weight of all these pieces because they ranged varying weights. I have these dowels that can be placed here, and we can kind of customize where the shelves go. And I have a raw work table. This is where I wedge all my clay, put all my pieces. This is also where sometimes I post or I'll eat dinner. And I decided to open doors as like a studio-style event where people would come over in my residential space. And I'd host a ceramic ceremony, like six people max. And we'd sit around here, and I'd, like, squeeze behind the shelves to get people what they needed. And it was a very tender moment. I did that for about a year and then slowly caught traction in different places and now have an external studio space where I host bigger events. So I'll take you through the lower level. This is where all of my clay bulk is. But a lot of shipping equipment is down here as well. So it hides under this big table. These crates are really great because they stack and they hold so much. It's, I think, almost 35 cups per crate. And I carry all of these to my studio space. So all of this does make it to the studio, and I've only had a few casualties. Sometimes you break stuff. I'm doing a little tassel series for New York Design Week. And this is gonna be a little lamp that I can even put a little tea light inside. I have a really big piece here that I just finished. I wanted to do a series that was folding onto human body. So this is a little fragile, but I'll try. It's like kind of hugging and molding to the body if you were hugging a piece. It's like a very tender, tender moment. Doesn't, it's not often you like cradle things if I'm not a mom. So I have pottery instead of children. And that's what I'm working on at this moment. This is the curtain that divides the living room and the bedroom area. So I actually got them at Facebook Marketplace, but they're originally from Ikea. And then I was recently working on different jewelry pieces because I love clunky, chunky jewelry. And I was gonna intend on making this a cuff, but it was too small for my wrist. So I thought, let's make it a curtain cuff. And now it lives here. And then I have my makeshift bookshelf library section. I have some of my favorite pieces though from different people in different parts of the world. The bigger art that shines through in this room would be the larger paintings here. This really large one that was originally a canvas I bought from Blick. And it became a kind of a symbol of self-care. I painted this on Valentine's Day last year and this was my fun activity. This is a lamp I actually found off of Facebook Marketplace. And my mom had this beautiful lamp exactly like this with little tassel at the end. And then this was kind of like my way of protecting the bed. I know it looks like really nice and kept, but it's actually a protection. I just didn't want the underneath to get all messy. There's like, I have white bedding actually, but this touching after a close to me just feels crazy, especially in New York. So I keep it separate and have this as a little buffer. And then when I peel back that layer, it becomes like fresh sheets all over again for a night's rest. So this is the kitchen space. This is a really unique detail that the building did. They made renewable energy in the building along with some recycled different materials. Like this is cork. I have all my spices here. This is quite traditional to India, having a display like this of readily available spices, but I use a ton. I cook a lot. I enjoy the slow process. This vessel had a mishap in the kiln and cracked at the bottom, but still holds a really cool function to hold all my dry spoons. Everything here has kind of just been collected throughout the years and I like to have it on display. Whenever I do Diwali celebrations or Holi, I'll just use this to puja the space and create more of a ceremonial environment for people. I actually made this little incense house, which rests on top of this plate here and you can put a cone inside and then it creates a nice like chimney effect. I wash all of my pieces here when they come out of the kiln and they have like that layer of dust from firing from greenware to bisque. I also clean up all of my tools here and I have a sink trap below that catches all of the clay and residue along with other things because I cook and eat in this kitchen as well, but it sees a lot of mess for sure. I got this from Facebook Marketplace. Down below, you have a lot of my ceramic pieces that I use for serving bowls and my onions, potatoes. I have a whole stack of these brown stoneware plates that I've made. I would say 80% of my apartment is made from clay. All right, let's go to the bathroom now. So this is the bathroom area. The things in here are just also different DIY projects. Like I had these shelves installed and then really didn't enjoy them, so I plastered over it and it created a very similar facade like clay would be, but they're very light because it's just plaster. So I just made this vessel. I'm really satisfied and I made a little dent in it because it's supposed to be touched and I think some handles on the side would be nice, but I'll wire it off and let her dry. Clay will humble you and it's a teacher. Every single stage of this process is teaching you a lesson. You'll find a crack in the clay. As soon as you get attached to the glaze, the glaze will bubble and have pinholes or I don't know, but then you're taught to love it and you learn that love is elastic and that there's so much room to experiment and play, but as soon as you get attached to something, it's gonna change. I have an update. I moved. I cannot believe that I'm saying this because after filming this is really when all of this changed. The biggest reason why I moved out was because I did get priced out of my apartment, which is a very heartbreaking and violating experience. This new apartment does come with a significantly different price tag. My rent is 4,750 and that's the most I've ever paid for rent before. I feel like it just keeps getting scarier and scarier and scarier out on the market right now and I feel very grateful to be able to try a leap like this. Everything will be set up. Everything from the old space has been moved here. I'm learning that nothing fits the same, but to exist in this space is to be open to the offerings of what it has and so I'm trying to remain very open.