Brick-Lined Brooklyn Apartment Your Photos

Name: Shannon Jordy, partner David, and two dogs, Pal and Poppy
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Type of home: Apartment
Size: 1,048 square feet
Years lived in: 9 years, renting

Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: David and I have been working toward a space that’s more like a grownup Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and less like Pottery Barn. The furniture and decor have come together in fits and starts, usually when I’m at home during long periods, like grad school and the pandemic, and start obsessing about the apartment. We’ve always aimed for colorful and modern, with cheeky elements, toys, and lots and lots of books. We’ve managed to take an awkwardly sized main room and divide it up into distinctive dining, living, and now office areas with rugs and furniture chosen specifically for the space they inhabit. And I don’t know how the dogs stayed out of these photos.

Art is huge for both of us. It’s only recently that we’ve started buying art from strangers (as opposed to close friends), but I think we’ve been able to maintain a style that reflects our consistent quirky aesthetic. We also have a ton of robot toys and weird artifacts David, who’s an illustrator and printmaker, has created or assembled over the years.

The color, though, is all me. My personal style is heavily reflected in the CMYK color palette throughout the apartment. I wear and decorate in bright colors, and that’s 75 percent for me and 25 percent for other people… because it seems to make everyone so happy. We’re always told by visitors that there’s so much to look at in our apartment and play around with.

Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: A vibrant, playful, brick-lined abode

What is your favorite room and why? The main room, which has been divided into living, dining, and now work-from-home spaces. We’ve been able to use area rugs and very appropriately sized furniture to create (hopefully) a colorful, sleek, but still lived-in vibe with discrete activity areas. Also, we have this great pull-down world map that covers an otherwise blank wall we project movies on to. When we’re ready for a show, we simply roll it up. Plus, all of our records are in the main room.

What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? We’ve been trying to fill the apartment with plants without creating a jungle, but the last thing I bought was a fiddle leaf fig plant for the bedroom.

Any advice for creating a home you love? When I buy something, I try to think about how it reflects both my and David’s tastes, which meet somewhere between minimal and maximal. I have a list of about five adjectives in my head — like colorful, fun, and cozy — that speak to the kind of home we’re trying to create, and I evaluate any item against that list. Also, I think it’s important, especially in smaller spaces where things are close together, to start with a set color palette. We break the rules here and there, but always come back to the main color palette.