Rahul Ghera's 540-square-foot Chelsea studio apartment in New York

A Los Angeles-based startup consultant wanted his New York base to feel nothing like his sunny Californian home: something, in his words, "moodier, masculine, and more dramatic". He found a 540-square-foot Chelsea studio looking out to the Empire State Building and Hudson Yards, but it came with an odd layout, years of ad hoc fixes and even a wall stuffed with Styrofoam. Rahul Ghera of the studio Dyali took it on, working, he says, to the eighth of an inch.

Ghera treated it almost like a hotel suite. A continuous walnut cabinet runs from the bedroom through the living room, doubling as dresser and games store, and lines up with the windowsill so the eye travels to the view. Walnut wraps the entry closets and galley kitchen, where a stainless-steel backsplash and Calacatta Viola marble keep things bright. A slim USM table squeezes in a proper dining spot, and a deep custom sofa can host overnight guests.

The bathroom is the showpiece: windowless, so Ghera leaned into it, wrapping it floor to ceiling in oxblood garnet tiles and fashioning a sink from the leftover kitchen marble. The client likens it to showering in a very cool hotel.

A private home, but a useful lesson for anyone wrestling with a small flat.

Our summary of a story from Architectural Digest, published 28 October 2026. Read the original

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