For five years, acclaimed chef and cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz has called a compact, 500-square-foot rental apartment in Brooklyn, New York, her home. Initially, like many urban renters, she resisted investing heavily in personalization. The transient nature of renting made her hesitant to hang art, drive nails into the walls, or view the space as anything more than a temporary landing pad.
However, a shift in perspective ultimately redefined her relationship with the space. "This is where I live now," Pickowicz reflects. "Why not make it as comfortable as I can?"
What followed is a masterclass in small-space design, tactical resourcefulness, and intentional living. Rather than fighting the limitations of a modest footprint—which includes a compact kitchen, minimal storage, and a lively feline co-habitant—Pickowicz has transformed the apartment into an expressive, highly functional sanctuary. Supported by photographic work by Veronica Olson, this home tour captures how a professional chef and creative tastemaker brings warmth, culinary philosophy, and a touch of wild nature into the heart of Brooklyn.
Detailed Chronology & Spatial Tour
The Entryway: A Gallery of Childhood Memory
Stepping into the apartment, visitors are immediately greeted by a vintage rug and a poignant piece of personal history: an oil portrait painted by Pickowicz’s mother, an artist.
"I think I’m about eight in this one," Pickowicz notes.
The portrait is part of a cherished family tradition. Every year on her birthday, her mother painted a portrait of her. Today, Pickowicz’s childhood bedroom in her parents’ San Diego home remains a gallery-like shrine of these works. When she relocated to New York, she carefully selected a few favorites to bring with her, anchoring her Brooklyn threshold in familial heritage and creative roots.
The Kitchen Area: Efficient Design and Pet-Proofing Solutions
Working in professional kitchens fundamentally shaped Pickowicz’s approach to domestic meal planning. Instead of chasing a new recipe every night, she builds her routine around core ingredients. For instance, purchasing a whole chicken allows her to poach it, yielding a rich, flavorful stock that she enjoys every morning alongside rice and steamed greens.
Cooking in a compact space required creative structural adaptations. Pickowicz converted the front hall closet into a functioning pantry and utilizes a streamlined, apartment-sized refrigerator. Because major grocery hauls are impractical, she shops every couple of days, fostering a local connection with neighborhood purveyors.
Even unexpected household challenges became design opportunities. Her cat, Teenie, quickly mastered the art of opening standard kitchen cabinets to access treats. Pickowicz’s clever, low-cost fix? She unhinged and re-hung the cabinet door at a slant. While visibly crooked, the skewed angle permanently outsmarts the determined cat.
When it comes to produce, Pickowicz holds a definitive culinary preference: nectarines over peaches. Praising their softer skin and higher acidity, she champions them for both vibrant green salads and artisanal jams.
The Living Area: Budget-Conscious Comfort and Media Minimalism
The living room blends warmth with practicality. A plush sofa from Pottery Barn anchors the space, acquired through a smart negotiation strategy. When shopping in-store, Pickowicz’s boyfriend asked a sales associate if they could purchase the floor model directly. The store agreed, securing the sofa at a significant discount. The space is further grounded by a Schoolhouse rug and a West Elm dining table paired with thrifted chairs.
Notably absent from the living room is a television. When Pickowicz first moved to New York and occupied an even smaller apartment, she chose to forgo a TV to keep the space visually uncluttered and conversation-focused. Over time, she realized she didn’t miss it at all. While occasional movies are streamed via laptop, her daily evening routine prioritizes analog decompression: reading, drawing, or tending to plants.
The Bedroom: A "Treehouse" Retreat
Situated with direct stair access to the backyard garden, Pickowicz’s bedroom functions as an elevated urban sanctuary.
"I like to call my bedroom my treehouse," she says. "It has stairs down to the backyard. In the mornings, it feels like waking up to a secret garden."
Lighting presented a distinct challenge in the rental unit. During a visit, her mother critiqued the original lighting as inadequate. The solution came in the form of battery-operated wall sconces that adhere via double-sided tape—a renter-friendly workaround requiring no hardwiring or permanent wall damage.
Adding a deeply personal touch, Pickowicz, her boyfriend, and his son crafted custom dioramas in the backyard inspired by their shared camping trips throughout the year. These miniature landscapes echo her mother’s artistic background, cementing the home as an incubator for ongoing creative projects.
The Garden: Urban Wilderness and Restorative Projects
Following a grueling two-month, cross-country road trip to promote her latest cookbook, Everyone Hot Pot: Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting, Pickowicz faced a classic post-tour exhaustion. To ground herself, she threw her energy into revitalizing the apartment’s shared backyard garden.
She transformed the outdoor space into a lush, chaotic jungle of vining plants, herbs, and produce, including:
- Purple okra
- Kale
- Husk cherries
- Cucumbers
- Bitter melon
- An abundance of tomatoes
- Passionflower vines, planted as a nostalgic nod to the flora of her San Diego upbringing
The garden also serves as a focal point for social gatherings. Pickowicz frequently hosts competitive, Top Chef-style blind taste tests. Blindfolding guests, she harvests random garden herbs—such as Thai basil, lavender, and lemongrass—for them to identify by taste alone, introducing an element of playful sensory discovery to dinner parties.
Supporting Context & Metrics
- Apartment Square Footage: Approximately 500 square feet.
- Tenure: Rented for 5 consecutive years.
- Key Literary Work: Everyone Hot Pot: Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting (published earlier this year).
- Photography: Captured by Veronica Olson for Cup of Jo.
- Design Philosophy: Rejection of the "temporary" mindset in rentals; integration of family art, high-efficiency kitchen systems, and renter-friendly modifications (e.g., tape-backed sconces, crooked cabinet doors).
Future Outlook
Natasha Pickowicz’s Brooklyn apartment challenges the prevailing cultural narrative that treats rental spaces as mere waiting rooms for permanent homeownership. By investing emotionally and aesthetically in a 500-square-foot footprint, she demonstrates that domestic comfort is a function of intention rather than square footage.
As Pickowicz continues her literary and culinary pursuits—balancing national cookbook promotions with local neighborhood engagement—her home remains a dynamic laboratory. With plans to evolve the chaotic backyard garden in subsequent seasons and an ever-growing collection of family artifacts integrated into her daily life, her urban refuge stands as proof that constraints can actively spark profound creativity.
