Dating a design content creator has its perks. Phoebe Kut, who has nearly 200K followers on her TikTok account, @pbjdesign, used all the tips and tricks she shares online to completely upgrade her partner’s 330-square-foot New York City rental on a tight budget. She did DIY projects, shopped secondhand, and chose multipurpose pieces to pull off the transformation for just $5,000.
Fortunately, Kut had a beautiful canvas to work with. The compact one-bedroom apartment is over a century old, so it boasts original brick walls, exposed wood beams, and ornately carved window trim. “It has that historic charm,” she describes. “I believe the building dates back to the early 1900s. The kitchen and bathroom were already renovated.”
The first thing Kut did was warm up the living room with a coat of Texas Sage by Benjamin Moore, a muted olive tone. “Before, everything was white, so we painted that accent wall just to give it some color and character,” she explains. “Green is very cozy and homey, but we didn’t want a really dark shade because it would make the space feel a little bit enclosed. This is a medium, balanced sage.”
For the sofa, Kut opted for a modular pale gray Burrow number that tucks into the corner for comfortable lounging and turns into a twin bed for overnight visitors. “[My partner] wanted to be able to have guests over,” she says. “In New York, there’s always people wanting to crash and you’re hosting them, so that was a specific thing that we did end up finding a really great piece for.”
