Tech

We tried a service that designs fancy all-inclusive micro-apartments, no movers required

Leanna Garfield

2016-06-29T14:05:00Z

When you live in the city and have to move to a new apartment, lugging all your furniture and boxes is tough.

A new service called Ollie aims to make it a little easier. Ollie curates the furniture in select luxury micro-apartments so new tenants only need to bring a suitcase.

Ollie's newest location is in Kip's Bay, a neighborhood on the lower east side of Manhattan. Called Carmel Place, the nine-story building has 55 studios between 260 to 360 square feet, all designed by nArchitects. Ollie decked out 17 of the studios with space-saving furniture and accessories.

I spent the night in a 308-square foot apartment on the sixth floor.

Keep scrolling to see what happened.

Ollie designed the micro-apartments to be ready-made for tenants.

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They include furniture, WiFi, a TV, cable, and subscriptions to the events club Magnises and the butler service Hello Alfred. Blesdoe says Ollie's team also act as attentive landlords in the building who are always on-call for tenants.

The average price for an apartment with Ollie's amenities is about $2,800.

As of late June, Carmel Place is about 90% full with only five apartments left.

By necessity, the apartment has a minimalist design aesthetic. When I walked in, I noticed that nearly every piece of furniture and cabinetry was white.

The neutral colors — from the rugs to the walls — give the illusion that the apartment is larger than it actually is, Ollie's design director Jacqueline Schmidt tells TI.

It's also full of versatile furniture. By the front door, a white desk slides out into a larger table, and the coffee table by the couch extends and raises in height.

Below the flatscreen TV, Schmidt chose a small lamp that doubles as a loud speaker. When you enable Bluetooth on your phone, you can play music through it.

The main wall near the couch features extensive shelving, where Ollie placed collapsable bags for storage.

Every kitchen appliance — the microwave, fridge, dishwasher, and electric stovetop — is miniature. There's also a toaster oven, but no actual oven.

Schmidt stocked the bathroom with fancy soaps and placed a succulent on the toilet. She also picked out "waffle towels" that take up less space and are more absorbent than normal towels.

The living room's couch transforms into a bedroom thanks to a bed that folds out from the wall.

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NArchitects also designed all of the micro-apartments with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors. Each door opens completely, except for a metal bar. When the door is open, it (almost) feels like a terrace.

The sliding door doesn't seem too safe for a small child, considering there's no screen.

Every week, the task service Hello Alfred will make the bed, change the linens, shop for groceries, mail packages, replenish household staples and prescriptions, and drop off laundry and dry cleaning. Tenants make all their requests through Hello Alfred's app.

Normally, the service costs $156 per month, Hello Alfred co-founder Christian Bjelland tells TI.

For an extra $20 fee, Hello Alfred will perform "special requests." Bjelland recalls one incident when a client realized she left her passport in her apartment. So she frantically called Hello Alfred to ship it overnight to her from Manhattan to upstate New York. It got there before her flight the next morning.

All of the services included with Ollie makes it feel like you're living in a luxury hotel.

Every apartment's door opens with a RFID card, similar to a hotel. If you live in an Ollie apartment, you also get a key fob that grants you access to its locations (like gyms, spas, juice bars, lounges, roof decks, and coworking spaces) in other US cities.

The idea is that the Ollie's chic design and amenities makes ultra-tiny living possible in cities — if not more preferable than living in huge apartments for the millennial generation.

With Ollie's services, you're paying for the freedom to spend more time in the city with friends — not cleaning your apartment or grocery shopping.

When you do the math, Ollie's micro-apartments don't seem affordable at first glance. Other unfurnished studios nearby cost anywhere from $2,300 to $3,200 per month, but for twice the space.

But residents aren't just paying for square footage. For the $3,000 rent, they're shelling out for the architects' open layout, Schmidt's design eye, Ollie's services, the readymade furniture, and the central location.

Design New York City