Minimal, Modern Studio Apartment Makeover WITH NO COLOUR!

This video is sponsored by AG1. Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm Alexandra, and you are watching Studio Fix, the series where I tackle teeny tiny apartments under 500 square feet and show you how to make them beautiful, stylish, and organized. He's clapping. He's clapping. He's clapping. It's a little crooked. Whoa. I just think it's so funny that I'm doing this in my skirt. Graham looks so proud. Stunning. You got a makeover to do, so... Wait, what? I don't recognize it. Oh my God. Let's get started. Today, we are helping Aisha makeover her studio apartment, and guess what, you guys? We are using no color. No color at all. Before we get into it, make sure you hit that subscribe button. If you're watching on your TV, all you have to do is click my little icon, hit subscribe, and you're in. It's free to subscribe, and it helps us so much. I'm going to hop on a call with Aisha to get to know her, her space, and her style. Hi, so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. This is so exciting. Oh my gosh. Well, congrats for winning a makeover. Thank you. I know. I'm like, I can't believe it. So this call is really just to get to know you and your space. I'd love to know how you're just currently living in your space. Talk me through it. I don't have much sitting space. I don't have any space to entertain or really work from home or even like eat, really, so I have a teeny tiny IKEA patio set that's in my studio right now. I find like I'm doing a lot of like my admin work on my bed, so I spend a lot of my time either on my bed or just like on this little tiny table that I'm on right now. No space to entertain, so I really can't have people over. It's not really functional. I've been at this unit now for like over a year. For me to create a living space, a bedroom, and then like a little dining nook with also being minimalist is just really difficult. Like I can't see the vision. That's a great like overview. I would love to know, do you work from home and what do you do for work? So I work in retail. So I work, I'm out of the house majority of the time. Maybe twice a week I am pleading to be at a desk. Okay, so with that in mind, are you thinking like if we brought in a dining table, you could also sit at that to do your work a couple days a week? So I think I can do the table desk in one and then like maybe some sort of like love seat where we could watch TV type of thing. Okay, walk me through what like a typical night of hosting looks like for you. Like TV, you know, I'll do like small apps on little drinks on a table, but it's not like a sit-down dinner. It's more like just very casual. And then this wall here, what is this? I guess it's like a treasure chest. It has all my books in there and then I have no place for my plants. So they're just on that. Yeah. Okay. Talk to me about the lighting in your space. It looks like you have a great window and a patio door. In the main space, there's no overhead lighting. I have a light in the hallway, a light in the kitchen, light in the closet and the bathroom. So that's enough light for me. I feel like an overhead light would be too much. So maybe a lamp would be the best. Yeah. You know, some people who live in studios are like, I hate that my bed's on display. Are you one of those people? I don't mind the bed being involved. I prefer that. I would rather not have something that's solid blocking the bed, but then again, creating division with like something. Yep. That makes total sense to me. Okay. Let's move on to your inspo. We've never really taken on a space that has no color in it. I'm really excited because I think it's beautiful. It's minimal. I guess talk me through like why you're drawn to this style and how you really want to feel in your space. I work in a very intense environment. I think my life is just very like, there's a lot going on. So I like my space to be not a lot happening. It makes me feel so relaxed and zen and calm. And I like things just not bright things. I totally get it. I think the key to making the space feel warm and relaxing is going to be texture. And so like layering creams, layering whites. I love your inspo and I want to like build on it a tiny bit and add in that texture to make it feel like that much warmer. That's definitely spot on. Okay, cool. Even though the style actually looks minimal, I feel like with spaces like this, you actually have to put a lot of thought into them because it can be very cold feeling if you don't do it in the right way. So challenge accepted. I'm here for it. If anyone can do it, you can do it. I've obviously follow your show. I watch all the things and I know my style isn't really that colorful and I'm like, maybe it's a little too boring, but I'm like, you know what? Let me just give it a go and see if it's something that, you know, you would take on. So it's really, really, really exciting. I definitely don't think it's boring. I think it's just your style. And like, there's so many people I'm sure that have a very minimal style. We've just never really done it, to be honest. So wow. Really excited. I'm excited to see the finished product. Thank you for helping with this. Oh, that's so great. Okay. Have a great day. You too. Thank you. You guys know I love color. It's what I'm naturally just drawn to when it comes to decorating. But when I saw that Ayesha's inspo was primarily filled with black, white, and gray, I was kind of nervous about it. But then I quickly changed my tune and I was like, you know what? No, I am up for the challenge. I know that so many people love this style. So I'm hoping you can take some tips and tricks away on how to make this style feel cozy and warm, even when just decorating with a couple of hues. Because this is a tiny studio, I think a layout change is needed in order to fit a bed area, a living room, and a workspace slash dining corner. So here's what I'm thinking. Ayesha doesn't currently have a living room. She said she wants to entertain and host. So I want to bring in a little love seat, a rug, a media console for her TV, and just create a warm and cozy spot where she can host her friends. I want to bring in some kind of desk that maybe turns into a dining table, somewhere where she can pull up a couple chairs and eat a meal, or do the admin work that she occasionally does from home. The key to this neutral style is textures, patterns, and layers. So I want to bring in a variety of shades of black and gray, whites, creams, beiges, and tons and tons of textiles to really warm up the space. Okay, I am heading out to Ayesha's makeover. This is like a typical morning in my life before a makeover shoot. The one thing about me is like I will never be early for a makeover. I'll always be a couple minutes late. But yeah, I'm trying to head out the door. 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Right now, AG1 is having their biggest sale ever with this kit, which is valued at $126. In the kit, you got samples of AG1 Next Gen flavors, the sleep supplement, AGZ, the canister, a shaker bottle, a morning person hat, and a year supply of vitamin D, which I'm realizing I can add to my drink. I just put one drop in and that's it. Use the QR code on screen or the link in my description box to shop. Thank you so much AG1 for sponsoring this video. I got to go. I'm going to be late. I'll see you at Ayesha's. Okay, you guys, we are jumping right into it today. Since we're staying neutral, we are not painting the walls or the ceiling. They are crisp, fresh white. We are just going to start building furniture. Graham and I are going to start by building the bed. This bed is from Article. Nice. Really nice. I love the texture on the headboard. Gorge. I'm adding in this beautiful side table from Sundays. I'm going to add one to the other side as well. This is an example of us layering color and texture. We could have gone black with that bed frame, black with the side table, but these two colors, they're neutral, but they're different, which is key to making this style feel warm. Sundays has such great pieces. I'm actually eyeing a bed frame for a room in my home. More on that in 2026, but you can actually visit their showroom in Toronto to try out their sofas, their beds, see their furniture in real life. It's on Ossington in Toronto and it's a beautiful showroom. It is curtain time. I am hanging these linen. They're linen. Holy ----. I thought you were there and you were there. Sorry. These curtains are going to add just a lot of texture to the space. So you're going to hear me use the word texture, texture, texture, texture, texture, texture a lot in this video. I find drapery adds just so much to a room. It makes it look more finished and that's really the goal of these curtains. You're really, um, like a dad today. Dadcore. Why? For eating two lunches and probably yours later too, but something's churning it down there. Oh, it's not well down there. So I'm choosing to have the rod and the curtains end right at the door. If you have a wall like this and you want to cover your door with curtains, go for it. It would look really luxe. You just want to make sure you have probably more than four panels. You'd probably want six panels. I've just chosen to frame the window. I want her to be able to keep the door open, but just wanted to say there's no hard and fast rule. Okay. I got to give these a steam, but like, gosh, that looks so good. The curtains should always just kiss the floor. Unless you're going for like a pooling kind of look. I like it just clean kissing the floor and then pleated at the top. It's giving me chills that it's the perfect height. I wasn't expecting it to be that perfect. You can also drop it down another two inch. She just said she has chills. No, if you need to. It's literally perfect. That's like a brush. It's brushing the floor. You want to kiss? No, it's kissing. Kiss is a bit more than that. Well, depends what kind of kiss. Okay. Moving on to this wall. I thought this would be a really great space to add a little table, a little place for her to work, dine, you know, like a two in one. And I'm finally using a product I've been so excited about. I'm using the Ikea Billy bookcase, but you guys have folds out into a table. Let's build it. Teamwork makes the dream work. The urge I have to hammer your finger right now is wild actually to just go, but I won't. Okay. It's there. Okay. I was like, is there another piece to this? You can actually buy this as a separate add on to add to your existing Billy bookcase. They have add ons for the tall Billy bookcase and the short Billy bookcase. We're doing a short one for the purposes of this space. So let's build the table together again in record timing. Okay. This is very sturdy on the wall. I am going to add this shelf to the bottom for some storage. So what I love about this is this setup is perfect as a little desk, but then Aisha can turn it in to a dining table. So like it extends, which is awesome. If you have the taller Billy bookcase or this Billy bookcase already, you can just add this extender piece. So you don't have to buy a whole new bookshelf. I love this and I've been waiting to use it for a long time. So thank you for your help. We're going to pop some shelves up. These are the Lack shelves from Ikea. These are a lighter toned wood. And I think that they just warm up this corner a lot. We have created so much function and storage for her along this wall. I love it. Tomorrow, we are going to keep pulling the space together and we're going to really focus on this side of the room. See you guys then. Okay. If you are sitting on your living room sofa watching this video and just realize that Christmas is next week and you don't have a gift for someone pretty important in your life, maybe you just deserve to treat yourself. Maybe consider our virtual makeover consultation. If you purchase this package now, my team and I will help you make over your space in the new year. Our virtual makeover consultations are dare I say, pretty incredible. You submit your photos and measurements of your space, hop on a 30 minute call with me. And then my team and I take all the information back and come up with this massive package that outlines how to make your dream space come to life. We're talking a floor plan, a 3d mood board. So you can really get a sense of what we're envisioning and then a full shoppable list of products that you can shop right from the package. I love working with virtual makeover clients. It's one of the best parts of my job. So if you are looking for a new refresh space in the new year, head to alexandragator.com and click the virtual makeover consultation tab. Okay. It's coming along in here. We've got in most of this side of the room done, but I'm going to make the bed, make it really cozy. And then we got to hustle today. We have so much to do and we basically have to finish most of the makeover today. So let's jump into it. Do you want to help me do your favorite chore and make the bed? I didn't make my bed this morning. So I have energy to do this. Okay, great. These sheets we're using are from article. They're beautiful linen. These inserts are from Canadian down and feather. We've used these before. They are so comfortable. And honestly, is that how you sleep like this? Yeah. Like every night I'm like, I'm like this. It's very comfortable. Just given very, uh, character from legally. I'm Elwood. That's such a compliment. Um, what? Like it's hard. Graham's showing me a new bed duvet making technique. Okay. So you flip it inside out. Okay. You laid it flat. Yeah. Then you lay the duvet completely flat on top. You guys let us know in the comments, what your duvet making trick is. If you have one, I personally just love getting in the duvet, shaking it out, but would love to know what your method is. Wow. But pull the tie and everything. Yeah. And then go. Yeah. That's so great. Yeah. Easy. Nice. Okay. Great. Look at you. We actually have to move the bed over to make room for the next piece, which is a handyman Graham original. Let's throw it to Graham cam to see what he made in the workshop. Spoiler. It's For this mirror, Graham is using some scrap three quarter inch MDF. He had in the workshop from a previous project. Graham's tracing an organic shape onto the MDF using a pencil. And once the shape is locked down, he's tracing it in permanent marker. Now he's cutting out the shape using a jigsaw. Next he's tracing the shape of the mirror frame onto the mirror. So he knows how much glass he will need to cut. He's cutting the mirror in straight lines, using a pistol grip glass cutter, cutting curved lines in glass is a lot harder and riskier. So he's just playing it safe here. He's sanding down the edges, using a belt sander, spindle sander, and an orbital sander. Now that the shape is smooth, he's rounding the inside and outside edge of the mirror frame, using a large round over bit and a router Graham sanding everything down with some sandpaper up to 120 grit. He's now priming everything with some shellac primer and going in with three coats of silhouette by Benjamin Moore in a semi-gloss finish. Now that the paint is dry, Graham is gluing the mirror inside the mirror frame using some clear silicone. He's putting some paint cans on the back to hold everything together until the silicone dries. No. Oh, why don't I kind of close my eyes here? It's not broken. Oh yeah. Do you want to close your eyes or just go like this? It's not that. Beautiful. Beautiful. Wow. Adding an interesting shape like this to the space is, again, going to make it feel cozy. This is also the color of the year, the Benjamin Moore color of the year. I even put this, the cutout on the backside. Wow. So that it has something to like hang on. Wow. Beautiful. Looks so good. Wow. And it like sits off the wall because you did that cutout at the back. Yes. It gives it like some 3D. Wow. I love it. Beautiful, Graham. Really great job. Seeing it up here, actually, I think we could move the bed back a little bit. Wow. This is really coming together. Okay. We're going to do lighting next. Because there's no lighting source on this side of the room, I'm bringing in two of these on either nightstand. And again, I'm going to use that word texture. These are neutral, but they bring so much to the space. We needed something bright. We needed something bold. These are from Mitzi. Anytime I'm looking for a statement, table lamp, floor lamp, pendant light, I go to Mitzi. Texture, definition, the structure, appearance, and feel of a substance. You want some synonyms? Because I keep saying the word texture. Okay, Carla, I want you to like pull back so everyone can see how gorgeous two of these look. Okay. Okay. I'm going to add a couple of finishing touches to this side of the room later, but I want to start working on the living room. Graham and I are starting by building this media unit from Article, bringing in some darker wood tones to, again, help it feel. Textured. And layered. Undo. Undo. Undo. More. More. More. More. Nice. Okay, it is rug time. Roll out. Okay, this is stunning. This is from Vida V. Wow, she is gorge. In a neutral space, a rug is a great place to bring in pattern. You'll notice it's also like an off-white kind of beige. Again, bringing in lots of varying tones. This looks great. It's a perfect size. Okay, we are adding in a cute love seat. This is from Article. Can I tell you something? Please. They have a variety of sizes of sofas, so you can get a love seat for a tiny studio like this. Sectional. XL. Yeah. Anyways, I was just- That's what you wanted to tell me, is that they have different sizes of sofas. I mean, I hope so. My point is that you can find a really comfy, beautiful sofa like this one that fits in a studio apartment. Crazy. You don't have to settle for something that doesn't work. Exactly, and it looks beautiful too. Yeah, I get what you're saying now. Thank you. Let's put it down. This is such a cute sofa. I love this configuration for a studio, having your sofa in front of your bed. We have a good amount of space to work with. If your studio is smaller, you could totally have your sofa against the end of your bed. I just thought the TV would be so far if we pushed it out, so I like this. Sofa so far. Sofa so far. Now, there's a little living room area. Got a little walkway. Work area. You see everything behind you here. And bed area. Okay, now back this way. I really want this coffee table in my living room. Ayesha wanted a space to host, so I think this is good. You could play some cards, you could eat some dinner. It's a great board game table. This is from Article. I have these chairs here because I'm going to create a little dining nook. So do you guys remember how this table just pulls out like this to become a dining table? These beautiful chairs are from Furniture Depot. They're very modern and cozy at the same time. Look at that. She can have dinner here. She can have a friend over and have dinner. And then just for everyday use, she can push it in all the way. Have this here at all times as like a little desk. And then I'm going to create a little cozy corner over here. So Ayesha can just move the chairs depending on what she's using this table slash desk for. Now on these shelves, I'm going to start by putting her plants on display. Now I'm filling the gaps with some candles and a bowl. I'm adding a couple of floor cushions. That way she can have more friends gather around this beautiful coffee table. This beautiful print that I'm hanging above the bed is from Artfully Walls. And the other day, I spent hours on Artfully Walls looking at all of their beautiful pieces. I got this one printed on canvas. Again, just add some more of that, everyone. Thank you. In a neutral space like this, textiles are so important. So of course, I went to my friends at Tonic Living to find some neutral cushions. These all have pattern that's adding to the layers, the texture, and just making the space feel more full and less cold. Doesn't that look like 10 million times more lux? Yeah. Same idea for the sofa. Just lots of pattern in neutral tones. Gorgeous. So for light for this side of the room, I'm adding this beautiful floor lamp. This is what the home subs find. And it fits perfectly in this corner. I love how it arches. So it's going to provide lighting for the living area. Should I turn it on? Yes. Okay. You guys know I love a shelf above a TV, but it's truly because if you have a tall wall and don't know how to fill it, this is a great way to add plants and art and books. I think it's super functional, but also pretty. I'm smiling because I'm about to do probably the most controversial thing we've ever done on this channel. Ever. I want to use this as storage for Aisha's book collection, but she doesn't want any color in her space. So I'm going to do it. I'm just doing it. I'm doing it. Okay. I know this is wildly impractical. I just really wanted to rile everyone up. The good news is if she hates it, she can turn the books around, but I was not going to be the one to give her something she didn't want, which was color. That looks great. Okay. I'm layering in a couple of art prints, keeping it simple with styling with this cute pothos in a vase. We got so much done today. The space looks beautiful. Incredible. I'll see you guys tomorrow. We're going to add finishing touches and reveal to Aisha. See you then. Hi guys. It is reveal day. So exciting. I am going to add some finishing touches to this space, but first I need to fill this corner and I wanted to give you guys a little tip. So if you have an empty corner, maybe you have a medium size plant, put it on a little table. This is going to add so much height. It fills the corner so nicely. What's her name? What is her name? Marnie. Marnie. I like it. Marnie. Cause she's a Monstera. You named them so fast. Now it is time for finishing touches. I'm starting by adding some art to the TV. You guys know the drill. I'm hanging another print from Artfully Walls. I'm layering this chair with a faux sheepskin and a beautiful lumbar cushion. I'm styling the coffee table with a decorative bowl from HomeSense, one of Aisha's books and a candle. I'm placing a stack of coffee table books, adding some tapered candles and placing a few more decorative pieces to fill the media unit. I'm adding a cozy throw blanket to the sofa and of course one to the end of the bed. Okay, you guys, it is time to bring Aisha in for the reveal. Come on in. Aisha, are you ready? I'm so, so, so ready. Oh my god. Can you walk me through what your studio apartment looked like before? It was pretty empty. I had a bed in the corner, nowhere to entertain, nowhere to really sit. I had my patio furniture inside. Just not really a cozy studio. Are you ready? I'm ready. Okay, on the count of three, I want you to open your eyes, okay? One, two, three. There is actually no way. Like, I'm actually crying. Oh my god, oh my god. Are you serious? No, there's no way. There's actually no way. Are you for real? This cannot be my space. Oh my god. Never speechless. This is, I'm in shock. Oh my god. Best reaction ever. Words. This is unreal. This is unreal. This is unreal. Oh my gosh. I also put your books on display. No, I love it. Oh my god, my plant has a house. It's cute, right? You are a genius. This is, this is, I am, like, I, oh my god, this is amazing. So good. This is insane. Oh my gosh. I love this. It's so perfect. It's perfect. What I thought it might look like, this is not it. This is a hundred times better. Oh my gosh. I'm so glad. I love it. This is the last video of 2025, and I always do, like, a little, a little message at the end of the year. This year, behind the scenes, was a little bit of a challenge, to be honest. We were navigating some tough business decisions, some tough things. I'm not sad to see 2025 go, but what I will say is that I am just constantly amazed and blown away at how my team shows up week after week to make these makeovers come to life. I truly believe that we make such a difference in people's lives, not only with these makeovers, but the joy that my team brings to you guys on your TV. I hear from you all the time about how it helps you get through tough moments, or it's a way for you to connect with family members or friends. That honestly just keeps me going. It's, like, why we all do what we do. So thank you so much for being here, for supporting this team, and truly, like, letting us live out our creative dreams. It sounds cheesy, but it's true. I can't wait to see you next year. We are back with a Lone Fox-inspired living room. I am so excited for you guys to see this one. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. We here at Team AG are all going on a company-wide shutdown. We are resting. We are getting ready for a strong 2026, and I'm just so thankful, again, that you continue to show up for us. So that's my spiel. Happy holidays, and I will see you next year. Bye! Die tag. That's you. You're a die tag. Hey Siri, what does die tag mean in Swedish? You're Siri's a guy? He's a man. Why would a man be? No, he's an Australian man. I tried different voices on Siri, but the OG one just hits really hard. Graham thoughts as he stares out the window. Graham thoughts. A series. I was laughing last night because I was awake so late, and I thought, Carla is probably just going to bed. Do you nap during the day, or? See, I feel like you'd be a good spy. True, she doesn't need sleep. I think I'd be a really good spy. But she'd have to remember a lot of stuff at the same time. That's where it would be hard. You'd be good with the micro cameras. And you'd have to be on time. Oh yeah, I wouldn't be on time at all. You'd be good because you could stay awake and go to parties and socialize and get info from people, but you'd have to remember it all and be on target. Rendezvous at 0800, and you're like, f**k. 915.