Photographer and set stylist Nick Laciok was about six years old when he had his first creative breakthrough—involving the living room curtains and a pair of scissors. The end result, a shortened set of drapes with bows fashioned from the trimmings, felt like a “groundbreaking” new invention at the time, he recalls.

For many parents, the incident would be a punishable moment, but Nick’s mother took it as a sign that he needed an outlet. “My mom saw that she needed to give me the freedom to create things,” Nick says, explaining that from then on, he was given free rein to decorate his childhood bedroom however he saw fit.

Since he couldn’t spend much money on furnishings and decor, he decided to get inventive with the materials he had on hand—a very early lesson in resourcefulness that has informed his interior fixations ever since. Many, many DIYs later, the act of creating and reimagining furnishings, and the rooms they live in, still feels second nature to Nick—which is evident as he rattles off all the upgrades he’s made to his 958-square foot, pre–World War I apartment in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Nick and his partner Nils, another creative who just graduated from fashion school, were lucky enough to have inherited it from some friends. “We initially encountered the space devoid of its former charm, but through our restoration work, we’ve managed to infuse it with a blend of historical charm and contemporary design sensibilities,” Nick says.

One of his first major tweaks was cloaking the zigzag-like hallway connecting the large, airy rooms with a slick of green paint. It wasn’t quite the right fit (and the hue was eventually sunsetted for a neutral white), but Nick knew that he needed to feel out what the space needed. It’s an intuitive revamp process that he’s experimented with from rental to rental.

“I think that rooms have to grow, and you can’t just bash everything in there and be good with it,” Nick explains. “You can just learn from feeling the space and the movement of the sun and the light what the room really needs.”

Three years in, his apartment is still an evolving work in progress—but it’s settled into a place of calm and refinement, with some surprises here and there. Take the Yves Klein–blue ceilings that, in concept, seemed a little too out-there for his partner, until Nils saw the full effect.

The intensity of the color gives the nearly 11-foot tall ceilings a modern-day cathedral feel. Since then, Nils has learned to trust Nick’s explorations in design, and he’s offered his own contribution in the form of an obsidian column in the hallway etched with his drawings.

A similarly cavernous effect occurs in the wabi-sabi–inspired living room, converted from a study, where Nils stores vintage fabrics for his clothing designs. The space combines light beige walls with an earthy brown ceiling to complement the naturalistic furnishings found on Kleinanzeigen, the German equivalent of Facebook Marketplace—a common source for the many secondhand items seen throughout the home.

Take the coffee table, which Nick cobbled together with two thrifted finds: a USM shelf for papers and a stone carved into a flowing organic shape. Small reinventions like this appear throughout the rooms, from an Ikea floor lamp turned sideways and strung up from the ceiling to a wall-mounted sideboard—a white triptych of ’70s kitchen cabinets which Nick recently fixed up with a stainless steel top—that he’s schlepped from one apartment to another.

Throughout the whole design process, his landlord has been supportive of the updates Nick’s made to his unit in this quiet, family-friendly building. The black vinyl flooring Nick laid to cover up the crumbling tiles underneath is one of the photographer’s few regrets—the dark surface is pretty unforgiving with crumbs, dirt, and the odd spill—but Nick knows that when he eventually leaves this place, it’ll be far better off than how he found it.

“I don't even care if I know that I will live in a place for only two years,” he says. “I invest the energy in it because I love to live in a flat that represents me.”

Have you taken on an ambitious Rental Revamp—or do you know someone who has? We want to hear about it! Reach out to edit@dwell.com with photos and a brief description.

More Rental Revamp stories:

An Artist Infuses Her 1,000-Square-Foot Flat With Her “Pantone-Punk” Style

The Maximalist Magic of Josh & Matt’s Melbourne Home

A Designer and a Filmmaker Make Their Brooklyn Loft Feel Like a Showroom

Project Credits:

Interior Design: Nick Laciok / @nicklaciok