In Refinery29’s Sweet Digs, we take a look inside the sometimes small, sometimes spacious homes of millennial women and their families. This week, we tour influencer Rachel Martino’s colourful, industrial-style loft in Brooklyn, New York.
Rachel Martino’s pre-war loft in Williamsburg used to be a paint factory — which is fitting, since the 31-year-old beauty and fashion blogger was in the market for a “blank canvas apartment” when she moved in. That said, just one year later, the place is anything but blank. In fact, at present, you’d hardly recognise the formerly industrial space (think: cheerful eclectic ambiance, exposed brick, and lots of pink).
At 2,000 square feet, Martino’s pad is ideal for entertaining — especially when you consider her dining room, which includes an 11-foot table (her biggest yet splurge despite being purchased secondhand) surrounded by eight velvet chairs in shades like emerald, blush, and mustard yellow. And that’s before you arrive at Martino’s “crown jewel,” her bar, which spans the entire length of the wall with copper and glass shelving.
While the original spot offered three bedrooms, that felt a bit gratuitous for two (Martino shares her digs with her one-year-old cockapoo, Taxi), so she converted one into a relaxing nook complete with a comfy yellow couch, a hanging chair for reading, and large windows that Martino likes to peer out of to gauge the weather — or get outfit inspo. “People in Williamsburg are very stylish,” she says. “I love watching people to see what they’re wearing.”
As a final touch, then, she turned the last excess bedroom into a full-blown production studio, which she rents out to clients, brands, and other creatives who’d like to use the trinket-filled bookshelves, vanity, or seamless backdrop for their own projects. “It’s so girly,” she says, “so we get a ton of female-focused projects, which I absolutely love.”
Because the space triples as a home, an office, and a content studio, Martino considers her $6,000 USD-a-month rent “actually a steal.” Whatever you’d categorize it as, it’s definitely the kind of place you’d want to snap an Instagram selfie in.
Watch the video above for a closer look inside Martino’s home, and get the inside scoop on where she splurged, her favourite local spot to grab a margarita, and why she commissioned her followers to help her make final decisions.
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