You don’t have to figure out your apartment’s aesthetic on day one — or even year one. For interior designer Sydney Moss, her one-bedroom apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is the perfect blank canvas for trying out new ideas.
“I treat my home like my playground where I can kind of experiment,” Moss told The Dodo and Isabel Klee of @simonsits during a tour of the apartment she shares with her husband, her cat named Nala and her energetic dog, Percy.
Step inside, and Moss’ skills are immediately on display. Her home is full of upcycled and DIY'ed projects that are both budget-friendly and one of a kind. “It adds a personal touch to the space and I just have fun doing it,” Moss said.
Moss began her career as a seamstress in costuming, then pivoted
to upholstery before breaking into interior design. Many of her projects feature cheerful, patterned fabrics. One recent favorite is a shelf tucked into a living room window. Padded and covered in green velvet with striped trim, it acts as the perfect perch for Nala to watch birds and squirrels — or keep an eye on the living room.
Other design choices are equally pet-conscious. Moss opted for velvet upholstery on the sofa, noting that its tight weave makes it more resistant to cat claws. And with her background in upholstery, she can always re-cover furniture when needed.
In a dining nook, handmade curtains give a wooden dog crate a stylish twist. Percy is such a “cave animal" that, according to his mom, a crate was nonnegotiable. The floral curtains, attached with Velcro, are removable — and a clear design upgrade from a blanket draped over the crate.
The kitchen continues the theme of playful fabric.
To disguise the brackets of a wall-mounted shelf, Moss sewed bunting in the shape of triangle flags to wrap around it. With leftover fabric, she created additional curtains for kitchen storage, hiding appliances while keeping crumbs away.
For Moss, being a pet parent doesn’t mean sacrificing style; it means making a home where everyone feels comfortable and happy. “I love that Percy has room to run around and play — and so does Nala — but we still love our home, and it’s beautiful for us,” she said. “I’m able to keep experimenting with different paints and fabrics, and [it’s] really just a place of play.”
And, as Klee points out, everything is better with curtains.
