My Blue Heaven in Hell's Kitchen

The bad news: I'm fighting the dreaded summer cold. My throat is killing me! The good news: I'm sipping tea at my favorite local Starbucks, which has just been remodeled into a laptopper's dream. It now features a long cushioned bench with tiny tables every few feet, and an outlet at the base of the bench right about where each table is. No more fighting for outlets! No more numb butt from sitting in a hard wooden chair! Yay! After all, when you live in a tiny-ass apartment, you're more often compelled to get outside of your small home and out into the world. Although I have to say, if my TAA looked like the one featured on Apartment Therapy a few weeks ago, I don't know if I would ever get tired of staying inside! Wendy lives in a 350 square-foot studio in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. She's only been there since February, but she's already done up her place in style. I love her choice of colors. The blue on the walls is perfectly contrasted with the dark red brick of her fireplace (lucky!), the golds and golden-browns are wonderful, elegant accents, and the white trim, furniture, and bedding keep things light and airy. Wendy's also appreciative of the gorgeous architectural elements of her new place. "I'm a big fan of exposed brick. I think it brings a certain romantic yet raw edge to any apartment, so I was very pleased when I found this studio," she says. Wendy's workstation is a perfect example of "thinking up" as well. She's maximized the amount of storage she has through the use of shelving all the way up to the ceiling. Her words of wisdom:

"You've got to be careful in that you don't over decorate to the point where things stop looking perfectly placed and start looking cluttered. Storage also becomes a challenge too as space is severely limited and often is taken up by the big ticket items such as your bed, couch, desk, etc. My solution to this was to get a desk with shelves that mounted to my wall which took advantage of the vertical space available. In terms of storage, I took advantage of the space above my kitchen cabinets and refrigerator. I found that wicker baskets were perfect in terms of storage and carried more style than regular baskets. As you can tell, I'm also a big fan of wicker baskets."

And can you believe that she transformed her place in just one weekend? She says, "I moved in on a Saturday morning to a blank canvas and by Sunday evening, it pretty much looked the way it does in the pictures. I'm very type A when it comes to finishing a project like home decorating. I really can't stop until it's done!" My own decorating philosophy falls in line with hers. I believe that when you move into a new space, you have two weeks tops before your design project dreams start to fade. You've gotta get everything done as soon as possible, or you'll just "never get around to it." Trust me, I've got a picture wall project in my studio apartment that I still need to get to. Oh wait, I moved out of there a year ago. Big thanks to Wendy and Apartment Therapy for inspiring us with the results of two days of work well done! Via Apartment Therapy: New York.