From 2011 to 2014 I lived on a beautiful street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in the one gray building on the block. It was a 500 sq ft (46 sq meter) studio with an alcove archway and great sunlight.

I bought the mermaid painting at Miss Pixie’s when I lived in Washington, DC, and it traveled with me to all four apartments in Brooklyn and it’s now with me in Modiin, Israel. The dead space bottom left of it isn’t great (nor is the cheapo silver mirror). But that’s life in your 20s….

The white sofa is from IKEA. Over time it got dirty and I’ve since re-covered it in gray velvet thanks to Comfort Works. It’s still with me now in Israel. If I were designing this today, I would turn the couch facing the windows, back to the bed, to create two distinct living spaces.

I got rid of the two Robert Longo Men in the Cities posters when I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband), who refused to have them around. I had bought them from a woman in Alexandria, Virginia, who said she loved them but her husband refused to have them around.