The renovation was guided as much by lived experience as by design intuition. The homeowners—a husband-and-wife team, working as a creative director and a production designer in independent film—designed the unit with visiting parents and out-of-town friends in mind, drawing inspiration from classic European pied-à-terres. The space had been occupied by long-term tenants in years past, yielding lessons for where the space felt generous and where it needed more breathing room. Built-ins were pared back, ceiling fixtures were swapped for warm side lighting, and a shared wall was reinforced for acoustic privacy. A compact kitchen was designed to feel seamless—incorporating a ceramic cooktop and hidden convection oven into a minimal footprint. The new entry landing, built in varnished plywood, stretches sideways into a custom bench for the dining nook before stepping down to cork flooring—visually unifying the various zones and grounding the space in a soft, natural palette.