By
Michael Zhao,
a senior writer at the Strategist covering appliances and men's style.
He was formerly a deputy editor at Wirecutter.
The end of this month marks the start of my tenth year renting the same parlor-level brownstone apartment in Brooklyn. The décor has declined over time as my wife and I cycled between living here full and part time, with and without roommates. It had reached a nadir by the time we reclaimed it for ourselves last month. We moved the furniture we liked to Vermont years ago, so all that was left was a hodgepodge of castoffs, various roommates’ belongings, and stoop finds. It was in desperate need of a redesign, but with our first baby on the way, we had new considerations to keep in mind and a hard deadline for completion.
