Bedroom

On the other side of the apartment, a bedroom doubles as a workspace.

If letting your bed linens drape onto the floor or the platform bed frame just isn’t your style, keep your bedroom feeling sharp and tidy by tucking your sheets under the mattress and removing any extra blankets or fluffy comforters. A slim, white bed frame such as this one feels skeletal enough to still convey airiness.

“Two-bedroom apartments are coveted in Manhattan, but the reality is that we are just two people, and the second bedroom had become neglected storage space,” Fontanez says. Combining the two into one reaped big rewards. “Now we wake up to a row of four windows and a variety of birds singing,” Russell says.

Although the built-in storage eliminated the need for a lot of furniture, classic items like the Eames walnut stool and Executive Aluminum Group chair, and De La Espada's 011 Atlantico bed.

Light floods the second floor master bedroom, and floor-to-ceiling windows are buffered by adjacent steel mesh wall. A Modloft Ludlow platform bed anchors the room, and Pablo Designs bedside table lamps delicately punctuate the minimal space.

The snug attic in this former fisherman’s cottage in Copenhagen contains the homeowner’s platform bed, custom-designed by Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen to maximize storage and fit the unusual space.

Less laborious than installing windows and more energy-efficient than turning on electric lights, tubular skylighting is a creative, sustainable design solution for brightening dim rooms.