Rahul Ghera’s 540-Square-Foot Chelsea Studio, Down to the Inch

By Grace Kim

Rahul Ghera redesigned a 540-square-foot Chelsea studio around a wall-to-wall cabinet that turns storage into the apartment’s main architectural line. AD identifies Ghera as the founder of Dyali and a 2026 New American Voice.

AD’s Small Spaces series, devoted to homes of 1,000 square feet or fewer, presents the project as proof that compact space can still show personal style. Its examples range from Manhattan apartments to Milanese micro-homes.

According to AD, the client is a Los Angeles-based startup consultant establishing a more permanent foothold in New York. He wanted a place that felt unmistakably like New York, not merely an extension of his bright Southern California home, while embracing what he called the best of each coast. In New York, he said, that meant something “moodier, masculine, and more dramatic.”

He found a Chelsea studio with sweeping views of the Empire State Building and Hudson Yards. The original apartment did not deliver that drama. According to AD, the odd layout, ad-hoc renovations and a wall stuffed with styrofoam left the space cramped and dated.

How does Ghera make 540 square feet work?

Dyali entered the project with a simple operational goal, Ghera said: “amplifying functionality day through evening.” His plan had to solve storage while creating areas for entertaining and working comfortably from home.

A hotel-like emphasis on function guided the design. Ghera described the result as a private hospitality project: “It’s almost like a hospitality project in a way—a personalized suite that’s your own place.” He added: “Just with Jay-Z singing ‘I’m in New York’ views.”

The storage system began as a practical response to the footprint. A cabinet now runs from the bedroom through the living room, serving as a dresser and a place for games, books and other odds and ends. Ghera widened an existing opening so the cabinet could continue without interruption.

Keeping that cabinet horizontal and continuous made the studio feel “wider and bigger,” Ghera said. It also directs attention toward the windows, light and city views. He compared the line where the cabinet meets the window sill to a “border around the home” that almost “hugs you.”

The plan was, Ghera said, “an incredible puzzle to solve with a kind of quirky floor plan to start.” His answer combined rich walnut millwork, meaning fitted woodwork, with reflective surfaces that visually connect the rooms. Ghera described the palette as restrained yet expressive.

In the galley kitchen, meaning a narrow, one-wall cooking area, a stainless steel backsplash contrasts with the grain of the walnut cabinetry. Ghera said the reflective finish helps the compact room feel more expansive than its dimensions suggest.

Which rooms carry the strongest details?

The bedroom millwork forms a single composition. Ghera designed a large custom mirror, bed, headboard and nightstands in walnut so they read as one piece. He chose a platform bed, set on a raised base, and floating nightstands, meaning suspended bedside units, to preserve floor area, reduce clutter and improve circulation.

A vintage Turkish kilim lumbar pillow, or lower-back cushion, in deep crimson adds color to the quiet room. Bedding in shirt blue and red supplies the same controlled whimsy.

Ghera said comfort and flexibility were the living room’s priorities because the client likes to host friends for drinks or dinner. A custom deep-seated sofa upholstered in Larsen’s Asante in Linen fabric seats several guests and offers a place for overnight visitors. The Cuba Lounge Chair by Carl Hansen & Son folds up and disappears into a closet when a larger party needs the floor.

Dining presented a more severe spatial problem. “It still kind of blows my mind,” Ghera said, “but it works.” A sleek USM dining table topped with oak veneer forms what Ghera calls a “contained” island. A suspension lamp hangs deliberately low above it to act as the room’s “focal point.”

What changes for the client?

The bathroom has the client’s strongest approval. A friend identified it as the apartment’s “pièce de résistance,” and the client agreed. In Ghera’s design, oxblood garnet tiles cover the floor and rise to the ceiling, enclosing the room in a saturated color.

Lighting falls from above and below the medicine cabinet, then washes down from a cove, or recessed lighting channel, in the shower. “It really just feels like you are cradled in this space,” Ghera said. “It’s a little sexy.”

Reeded, or ribbed, glass brings transparency to the enclosure. The client compared the shower to “showering in the world’s coolest hotel,” another deliberate echo of the hospitality concept Ghera described.

For the client, the practical change is a studio that can move from work to hosting without changing rooms. The cabinet contains daily clutter, the foldaway lounge chair clears the living room, and the low dining lamp anchors a flexible evening arrangement.

The constraints left little margin for error. Ghera worked “down to the eighth of an inch.” “You really have to be so honed in on the tiny details … and intentional about the things you do.”

The next test is ordinary rather than promotional: whether the cabinet can absorb a workday’s clutter, the chair can clear the room for dinner and the studio can still frame the Empire State Building and Hudson Yards when both routines overlap.