Lizzy Oates knows a thing or two about making the most of a small space. She and her husband share this beautiful 650 square foot apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Three years ago, while apartment hunting, Lizzy’s rental agent mentioned a great new space that went on the market, but didn’t have the big kitchen that Lizzy, an avid cook and entertainer, wanted. Undeterred by the kitchen news, Lizzy and her husband decided to see the space and ended up signing on the apartment the next day. While the space didn’t have the full kitchen Lizzy was hoping for, it did have big beautiful windows, a wealth of natural light and a porch that would make any New Yorker jealous. When Amy, Max and I went to visit Lizzy’s apartment to take photographs, we all agreed it was the sort of small but perfectly chic space that reminded us of Sex & The City. High praise from this team.

Newly married, Lizzy and her husband, “Didn’t have much to [their] name.” So rather than spending too much on all new furniture, they worked with pieces that were given to them from friends and family. Lizzy recently started her career in interior design and describes her style as “traditional with a twist”. To me, their space is warm, welcoming and timeless. It’s the sort of apartment any city-dweller would be lucky to have and we are so thrilled she was kind enough to share it with us here today. Thanks so much to Lizzy and her husband for letting us into their beautiful light-filled home.

Photographs by Maxwell Tielman

Images above: “In my opinion the Audubon swan print adds a lot to our living room. It is a wonderful statement piece that gives a focal point to the room. It came from my husband’s grandmother. The mirrors in the hallway make the apartment feel much bigger than it is.”

The full home tour continues after the jump!

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My neighbor John McKinney is an optometrist with a serious eye for design (pun absolutely, shamelessly intended). Although his days are filled with eye charts, optical exams, and glasses fittings, his evenings and weekends are packed with trips to local auctions, estate sales, and flea markets—all part of his tireless and passion-driven journey to renovate and furnish his 1723 house in the heart of uptown Kingston, New York. John’s home, an absolutely stunning stone construction, is a a gem amongst gems—one of the neighborhood’s oldest and longest-standing structures, dating back to Kingston’s pre-Revolution days when it originally functioned as the town’s Elmendorf Tavern. It has survived not just the Revolutionary War and the infamous 1777 burning of Kingston, but centuries of change. Nineteenth century Italianate and Victorian homes have sprung up around it, but this quaint colonial construction has remained one of the area’s most beautiful homes.

Throughout my first months as a Kingston resident, I had always admired John’s home when walking past it on trips to the city’s center, but I was absolutely floored when I was first welcomed inside for afternoon cocktails. After purchasing the home from a former medical practice five years ago, John has been painstakingly renovating it to its former glory—right down to period-appropriate antique furnishings and woodwork. John’s loving commitment to his home is clear in every detail—and the story of how he purchased the home and ultimately furnished it in its colonial and colonial revival style is downright fascinating. John’s previous home—a split-level ranch filled exclusively with midcentury modern furnishings—was a far cry from the pre-Revolution styles he currently surrounds himself with. When he put his former home on the market five years ago, though, the purchaser chose to buy with one proviso: that the home come with all of its furnishings. Despite having obsessively culled all of the home’s authentic Modernist pieces over the years, John split with them willfully and amicably, relishing the opportunity to start fresh. Although John seems to have broken up with his midcentury obsession when he broke up with his former home, the colonial style, with its hallmark simplicity, has proven to be an unexpected compliment to his eye for the clean, modern line. “As long as you keep it simple,” he notes, “it’s all ‘modern’ for that time period. If you pick the right pieces from each time period, you can see the clean lines in it.” John’s house might have a 1723 date on it, but its classic styling and timeless beauty makes it right at home in the twenty-first century. —Max

Check out all of the photos and design notes after the jump!

Above image: The upstairs hallway. Original wide board floors. In the corner are a 18th Century Hudson Valley Chippendale chair alongside Tiger Maple Pembrook Table. Paintings, both mid-19th Century, purchased from Ebay. Drapes by Tim Lester Designs.

Above image: The house’s front facade. Built in 1723, originally the Elmendorf Tavern.

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Metals continue to be a strong trend in home design. They add just the right amount of polish and elegance to a home without being too opulent. While reporting on trends at ICFF back in May, Grace proclaimed copper to be her favorite, and I would have to agree. I love the warmth of copper, whether it’s a shiny new pendant lamp or a weathered old tea pot. Though it may be having a moment right now, copper has an undeniably timeless quality and can be incorporated into a home in any numbers of ways. To give you some ideas and inspiration, here are some of our favorite examples of copper from our Sneak Peek archives. -Shannon

Image above: After discovering Blu Dot in New York, Arran and Jacqui Lewis decided to ship this copper desk back to their Australian home and buy the copper chair from a distributor in Australia.

Image above: Joy Cho chose a coppery rose gold hue to add playful polka dots to her daughter’s nursery in her Los Angeles home.

Image above: This elegant copper watering can found in this Hoboken home was a garage sale find.

This post is brought to you by Sherwin-Williams. Turn your inspiration into reality with Sherwin-Williams Color Selection Tools.

More examples of copper around the home after the jump…

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