Ryan Korban, a New York interior designer, spruced up "a horrible rental kitchen" by replacing the plastic cabinet hardware with brushed nickel handles, painting the walls chalkboard gray and adding unlikely decorative items, like a ceramic pony on a wooden lacquer pedestal and a porcelain blue-and-white-China urn atop the fridge. Photo: Todd Selby

He is big on brass lamps, full-length mirrors, chunky antique furniture and eccentric curios, as evidenced by his own 550-square-foot studio apartment in SoHo. Photo: Todd Selby www.nytimes.com