How to Make an 800-Square-Foot Apartment Feel Twice as Big

We’ve seen it time and time again: Jewelry designers truly have the best homes. From massive downtown lofts to airy Los Angeles bungalows, they have a knack for mixing eccentric finds with modern pieces that feels distinctly luxe. Jewel-like, if you will.

Mania Zamani’s TriBeCa apartment is no exception. The Iranian-born mathematician turned jewelry designer’s home feels palatial, especially considering its 800-square-foot footprint (which, by New York standards, actually is enormous). The trick to making the space feel larger and richer than its blueprint? Filling it with museum-quality Iranian artwork she’s carefully collected over the years, and creating visual interest at every turn. Walking into her apartment, the overall vision is wholly cohesive, yet there are so many beautiful, rare, and fascinating finds on every surface and around every corner that the modern bones of the apartment feel labyrinthine.

As someone who is obsessed with architecture and proportion, it makes sense that her curation would feel expansive, not claustrophobic. And while, yes, there’s visual interest in every. single. part. of her apartment, she curated it closely, revealing that there’s an entirely separate storage unit housing the rest of her art collection.

Click through to see how her art collection works with her space.