Moving in With a Partner: What 6 Couples Wish They Knew Before Taking the Next Step

Relationship status: Married, living together since 2015

Square footage: 2,200 square feet

AD: If you could point to one space in the apartment that feels like the perfect fusion of you two, what would it be and why? 

Mariana: I think the living room. We have the leather daybed, a long midcentury-modern coffee table, and then two pink armchairs with some funky lamps that are the Seletti white monkey lamps. We always have books on the coffee table, and that’s where we have our morning ritual on Saturdays where we do the New York Times quiz. That’s a space that’s really ours. 

Diego: Yeah, it’s both of us. I couldn’t add anything to that.

Is this your first place together as a couple, or were you previously sharing a space? What were your spaces like before moving in together?

Diego: We first moved in together in Chelsea, and then we moved to Williamsburg and now Bed-Stuy.

Mariana: Something that has happened in all of our three homes is that we move things around all the time; we reconfigure the furniture constantly. I’m a big believer that you switch energies that way. You keep your space fresh and light when you move furniture around. 

Diego: Mariana is a stylist, so she sneezes and everything that is in front of her turns beautiful, it’s her superpower. 

Mariana: The first apartment we lived in together was very me because it was my art, books, and furniture. When we moved to Williamsburg, that was when it really became our space. We started buying furniture and art together. Diego’s books started to appear, and he brought many things from Colombia: objects, art objects, and collectibles. So then our space started to be ours.

Diego: In that first phase, the decor was mostly Mariana’s. She comes from a family of Latin American and Colombian art collectors, so she had inherited some art pieces from different moments in life, and some were given to her by her family. Then I proposed and we got married, so we opted for more space and went to Williamsburg as a married couple. We shot Mariana’s cookbook there. After Williamsburg, the reason why we came to Bed-Stuy is because we have five really good close friends here. We moved to the first and second floor of the brownstone that we’re in right now. 

How would you describe your design style?

Mariana: I would say it’s pretty eclectic. I love combining vintage pieces that tell a story with modern contemporary objects and lines. And as for color, I feel like more is more. And again, I think my style is ever-changing. I’m constantly shifting and moving furniture around, reupholstering, adding layers, adding textiles and things over furniture to make it more interesting.

Diego: I was going to say childish because I have toys here and there. I grew up reading comics and loving Japanese anime television series from the ’90s, so there’s a lot of books and artwork related to that. It’s not traditional, but it’s sophisticated in its own way. It makes quite a contrast with what Mariana has, but we’ve managed to combine them in a way that fits, and the artwork that we choose together is neutral in that sense; youthful and classic at the same time.