#SEPARATE STUDIO HOW TO#

But studios don’t have to be defined by their lack of separation, especially when you can use room dividers to create structure and privacy.īut before we dive into how to use room dividers to get the most out of your studio apartment, it’s important to understand why dividers are necessary at all. Some argue they’re too small and impossible to design while others appreciate the lower cost and minimalist living spaces. “He moved the bed to the closet and set up a desk,” she says.Most people have mixed feelings about studio apartments. There wasn’t much that needed to be done. She says some renters may have luck in condo buildings where the owners are out of town for an extended period.īañuelos has a seller who is waiting to go to contract who is renting out her furnished pied-à-terre on a month-to-month basis to a neighbor for use as a home office. Marisol Bañuelos, an agent at Keller Williams NYC, is also fielding queries from renters looking for studios to use as home offices. It is asking $2,400 a month with no broker fee. It’s in a luxury doorman building with a concierge and lots of amenities. His listing for a studio in Fidi, 88 Greenwich St., #3003, says it is available as a home office or furnished apartment rental. Perhaps that will change as work from home becomes permanent for more companies.Ĭohen is already on the bandwagon. It's rare to see a studio apartment listing that explicitly says it is for use for work from home. He says renters looking for an apartment to use as an office should approach it like a typical apartment search and then ask the landlord if it can be used as an office. His client made an offer of $1,600 that was accepted. “The unit was in rough shape and the landlord was only requesting $1,800,” Cohen says. Cohen found a studio in a luxury doorman studio on 89th Street and Fifth Avenue. What you can expect to payĬohen worked with an attorney who wanted a studio to use as an office. Those are the requirements BOND New York agents explain to tenants, and Michael Cohen, an agent at BOND New York, says that these days, studios are more readily available because renters are able to trade up to a one bedroom with concessions for what they would have previously paid for a studio. To avoid getting in trouble for using a residential space as a commercial space, it’s important that the studio apartment be used solely by the renter-you can’t run a business that requires foot traffic, or staff. Keep in mind that while you can run a business from your apartment, a so-called home occupation, New York City zoning rules limit home-based business to 25 percent of the total floor area, and no more than 500 total square feet of floor area.

Last night for example, my wife got some work done while I gave our son a bath, then we switched off and she put him to bed while I worked.” Staying on the right side of the law “My wife and I rented the studio next door to our apartment to use as an ‘office annex.’ We just put a desk and our other office furniture in there and are able to access the wi-fi through the shared wall. My wife works from home in HR and we have an 18-month-old son. Sarnell found this to be the solution for his own family as well. In one rental building on the Upper West Side, he’s worked with parents who rented a studio apartment down the hall from their primary home to use as a work-from-home space, so they can take turns working uninterrupted by their children but still be nearby. I’ve also rented studios to personal trainers and yoga instructors to use as private studios for one-on-one sessions with clients,” he says.Ī studio apartment in the same building as a primary residence is a solution for the juggling act that working parents are faced with these days. “I’ve rented an apartment to two people who are working for a non-profit that is temporarily closed.

Josh Sarnell, a broker at The Corcoran Group, rented several studio apartments recently to New Yorkers looking for a place to work. According to the Elliman Report, in Manhattan, the median rent for a studio in November was $2,150, down from $2,600 in June and in Brooklyn, the median rent for a studio last month was $2,123, down from $2,500 in June.

In fact, rents for studios have been dropping steadily for months. If you can swing it financially, it makes sense on several levels: A residential apartment provides a more socially distanced way to work than a shared co-working space, there are more studios on the market, and they’re increasingly affordable. For those who are not going back to the office anytime soon, the solution is to rent a separate studio apartment to use as a home office. Some New Yorkers are finding the whole work-from-home scenario tough to pull off because their apartments are too crowded, noisy, or lack privacy for video calls.

Separate studio