Tour a TikTok Exec's Bold and Colorful NYC Loft

Meet Michelle Pham, a design influencer with a stunning home who is also chief of staff, strategy and operations for social media giant TikTok. Almost two years ago Michelle and her boyfriend, Ashkay, moved into a sprawling, 2,000-square-foot apartment in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. Since then, her decorating process has entertained millions, offered up in installments on Michelle’s TikTok account @iammichellepham.

Moving at the height of the pandemic in 2021 posed more than a few challenges for Michelle and Ashkay. “Supply chains were still fragmented,” she remembers. “It was incredibly difficult to source furniture, so we went hyper-local for many of our furniture pieces. Within the first six months, we had the foundation of the home in place. After thinking about the warm, welcoming, maximalist feeling we wanted in a home, we began our journey to look for a way to pull this vision together.” The couple sourced furniture, ordered rugs from Morocco and Turkey, put up wallpaper, framed art for the walls, upgraded appliances and added new layers of paint. Along the way, Michelle began sharing their journey on TikTok, garnering thousands of followers and millions of views, becoming a new kind of design influencer in the process. And like many designers, her tips come from the firsthand experience of working on her own home, targeted specifically for those who, like her, are working to put a personal stamp on a place that they’re renting. “Changing the lighting fixtures is an easy game changer that can elevate a rental immediately,” she offers as one example. “I have swapped out at least eight of the original lighting fixtures with edgy and contemporary lighting fixtures that add an air of sophisticated elegance to the home.”

“We moved into this loft sight unseen,” says Michelle. She and Ashkay were living on the West Coast at the time and had a friend okay the space, which had been on the market for more than a year prior. “The loft building was built in 1907 and has eleven full-floor lofts. A privately keyed elevator opens directly into a grand and open living space.” In Michelle’s home, the elevator opens to this spacious and colorful sitting room, graced with huge city-facing windows and highlighted by gorgeous pink, tufted sofas.

It may seem like a mystery that a home like this — especially a rental — would go unclaimed in the New York market for over a year. It’s a paradox that Michelle attributes to its unusual layout. “The loft is wide-open space, and it has beautiful bones, exposed brick and wonderful light,” she muses. “However, it doesn’t have many separate rooms or storage space, which whittles down the necessary prerequisites for many New Yorkers.” Michelle has taken full advantage of the brick, however, turning the exposed material into an eye-catching vignette complete with an area-defining Moroccan rug, colorfully appointed side chairs, and a credenza showing off her keen eye for lighting and accessories such as her Regina Andrew porcelain flower lamps.