“When my roommate moved out,
I was like, okay, now is the moment to make it as unique as I want it to be.”
And then some alterations required a little bargaining with her landlord, like downgrading to a mini fridge, which she prefers over the regular-size one that was previously floating in the kitchen and blocking the natural light. “My friends thought I was crazy, but for one person, I make it work,” she says. “It hasn’t been too bad.”
Collé is not the type to splurge on a bunch of new appliances or decor. “I don’t really buy anything new,” she says. “It’s just hard for me to wrap my mind around that as a designer, and especially in New York, where you see all the shit that gets thrown away on the street daily. And I already feel like I’m producing furniture that unfortunately could end up in a landfill one day—hopefully not! So in my own space, I try to be cautious and only go to Goodwill for dishes and things.”
Collé coated her walls in Peppermint Stick by Behr, then added practical touches like IKEA’s Kallax Shelf and Nissedal Mirror.