{"id":180849,"date":"2026-03-31T14:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180849\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:21:09","slug":"actress-amelie-zilbers-900-square-foot-nyc-apartment-looks-just-like-a-1920s-parisian-salon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180849\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress Amelie Zilber’s 900-Square-Foot NYC Apartment Looks Just Like a 1920s Parisian Salon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When most young New Yorkers move into their first college apartment, they don\u2019t typically put nearly as much effort into making it feel like home as actress and Columbia University student Amelie Zilber has. While her campus may be nearly 100 blocks uptown, the Los Angeles transplant\u2014who can be seen starring in the movie Slanted, out now\u2014opted for a 100-year-old apartment building downtown after falling in love with the charm of both the neighborhood and her 900-square-foot home. Luckily, her personal style aligned with the pre-existing architectural elements of the early 20th-century building she calls home.<\/p>\n

That said, she didn\u2019t just move in, arrange some furniture, hang some art, and call it a day. \u201cIt certainly was not a gut renovation, but I definitely made some big changes,\u201d she says of her makeover, which included painting, installing wallpaper, and even swapping out the kitchen floor. Because she\u2019s a tenant rather than an owner, she made sure that any changes she made are easy to revert to their original state when she decides to leave.<\/p>\n

For her first home outside the one she grew up in, Zilber did pretty well for herself. \u201cEverything was new to me. Before this, I had only ever lived in my childhood home, so this was my first real experience decorating a space from scratch,\u201d Zilber explains. One strategy that worked for her was her willingness to splurge on pieces she loves and will keep for years. \u201cI\u2019d always rather spend more on something that makes me happy every time I look at it, functions well, and makes the space feel like home,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\"Stylish<\/p>\n

One of the most prominent pieces in Zilber\u2019s Parisian-style living room is a large-scale painting she made on a piece of scrap fabric. \u201cI had just ended a situationship, and I knew that the only way to deal with my feelings was to paint,\u201d she admits.Lanna Apisukh<\/p>\n

The style of the apartment had to match her personal aesthetic, so when she began her apartment search, Zilber considered only pre-war buildings that, unlike many new residential towers, boast a certain charm. This spot downtown, built in 1900, came with almost everything Zilber wanted. The one exception? A fireplace, so she basically installed one herself (though not a functional one). \u201cThis was wildly expensive, and in hindsight, I wish I had gotten something that offered storage too,\u201d Zilber admits. \u201cBut I love the way it looks, even if it serves almost no purpose beyond aesthetics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another pricey find Zilber doesn\u2019t regret is the set of vintage stools she found on 1stDibs. With so much white in the living room, she wanted to incorporate a few items that introduced dimension and texture, so she set out to find something decorative that wasn\u2019t just an accessory. The stools, upholstered in a 1940s-style tiger print, were an obvious solution. \u201cThey\u2019re very old, though, so no one is really allowed to sit on them,\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n

Aside from the fireplace and the stools, the most eye-catching element in her living space is easily the massive canvas depicting two abstract silhouettes. No, it\u2019s not from a Paris flea market or a gallery in Chelsea; it\u2019s a piece Zilber painted herself in the midst of a breakup. \u201cI painted this on a piece of excess cloth I had lying around\u2014I think it might have been a curtain I meant to return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily, her artistic inclinations lean toward the Sixth Arrondissement, just like the rest of her space. She avoided anything that felt too gimmicky to make sure her home always felt timeless and classic, but it does have the French factor that anyone with an affinity for style attempts to capture. In Zilber\u2019s case, she succeeded.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the room where Zilber\u2019s Francophile tendencies are most on display is the kitchen, where a black-and-white checkerboard faux tile takes center stage. \u201cWith my mom\u2019s help, we added peel-and-stick wallpaper and floor tiles,\u201d she notes. It\u2019s a good thing Zilber doesn\u2019t consider herself a particularly skilled cook because, as she says, \u201cwith no room for a dining table, I usually eat sitting on my kitchen floor, which sounds bleak but is oddly charming in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few people enlist a professional interior designer for a rental property, and while Zilber is no exception, she deferred to her mother\u2019s input in more than one room. \u201cShe basically spent a weekend redesigning my kitchen,\u201d Zilber notes. \u201cShe sourced and added most of the decor, since she\u2019s incredibly good at interiors. I hope I inherited that bug from her.\u201d<\/p>\n

One skill that\u2019s definitely well within Zilber\u2019s wheelhouse is her ability to curate decor: Nearly every surface features a few unique pieces that the average shopper would definitely not be able to pick up at their closest mass-market retailer. Almost everything\u2014a Tiffany Blue-colored rotary phone, a vintage French vocabulary book, or a dollhouse-sized mahogany dresser, to name a few items\u2014is specialized and, in some cases, one of a kind. Zilber adds, \u201cWhen I\u2019m styling a surface, I usually care most about variation: different heights, textures, materials, and a balance between formal and odd.\u201d<\/p>\n

That balance is what makes Zilber\u2019s home feel collected rather than over-styled. What\u2019s more, she doesn\u2019t buy anything specifically for one desk, wall, or nightstand. Rather, she buys things she loves when she happens upon them and, eventually, finds a place for them until she is happy with the curation of objects across her surfaces. \u201cA lot of it takes time, and I move things around constantly,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n

A lot of it is vintage from a range of outposts, including flea markets and Etsy. She also happens to have nearly as much wall art as she does objects on the surfaces. \u201cI\u2019ve collected art from flea markets for years, and one morning I just started hanging things.\u201d It\u2019s a useful strategy considering most of the walls in her home, like most rentals in New York City, are white. The art, like much of the decor, pumps some life and charisma into Zilber\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

One room that, even with plenty of decor, is a bit quieter and more serene than the others is Zilber\u2019s bedroom, where the king-size bed is quite literally king. \u201cI actually bought the bed first, which was not my wisest move,\u201d she admits. \u201cI should have bought a queen, but I was impatient to wait for it, so I ended up with a king and no room for matching nightstands.\u201d That said, she does have room for plenty of charming pieces, some of which are from surprising places.<\/p>\n

The drapes and pendant light are both Amazon finds, while the quilt draped across the foot of the bed is from Zilber\u2019s childhood home. The wallpaper, though, is what ties the room together seamlessly. \u201cThe wallpaper came very quickly after the bed because I knew I wanted toile. I love toile,\u201d Zilber says. \u201cI wanted my bedroom to feel as sleepy-girl-princess as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zilber, though a self-proclaimed impulse-buyer, loves her home and has no plans to leave so soon after moving in. Still, she\u2019s the first to admit that, while she spent quite a bit of time and money on it, it\u2019s not perfect\u2014at least not yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecorating my first apartment taught me that, in the future, I need to be a little more cohesive and a little less impulsive,\u201d Zilber says. \u201cI love my apartment, but if I were starting over, there are definitely things I\u2019d do differently.\u201d All of that said, the look and feel of her home achieved her aesthetic goal: French, classic, lived-in.<\/p>\n

Any designer would likely say that they also suffer from impulsive shopping here and there, making Zilber\u2019s occasional inability to slow-decorate a non-issue, especially because the things that matter most to her are the things she took her time to find. \u201cI have this terrible combination of spontaneity, impatience, and decision paralysis, so I would spend months not deciding on something, then suddenly have a complete blackout and impulse-buy something I certainly should have slept on.\u201d However, the things she loves most\u2014the pieces she brought from her childhood home, the things her mother had given her, and the vintage discoveries she spotted online and in the wild\u2014are the ones she said yes to slowly.<\/p>\n

As is typically the case, making something look effortless often requires a lot of effort. Zilber has a very specific sense of style\u2014\u201ca mix of British cottage, French traditional, and maybe a bit Victorian,\u201d she says\u2014and getting it right was hardly easy. After more than two years of living here, though, she finally created the space of her dreams.<\/p>\n

\"Interior<\/p>\n

Zilber, in her living room, standing beside an emotionally charged piece she painted on a piece of leftover fabric.Lanna Apisukh<\/p>\n

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