Welcome to our New Home Makers' Quizlette: A place where we get all the details from real people with real lives and very real budgets all on a quest to build the modern home. No fuss. No frill. Just facts (plus some furniture). 

THE BASICS

Name: Gibson Johns

Pronoun: He/him

Age: 28

Location: Lower East Side, NYC

Occupation: Host and Producer for In The Know

Type of home: Studio apartment

Time in your space: 2+ years

Cohabitants: Does my plant count?

YOUR SPACE

Side table: Soon to be a Sidekick!

 Where you cook:

 Where you dream: 

Your home away from home: There's no better place to hole up during a cold winter day than Ludlow House! It's currently closed, but there was no place I went to more pre-pandemic.

Your biggest splurge: This giant Diptyque was a Christmas gift last year, but I do love to splurge on a great candle. Scents are such a great way to upgrade a small space and make it feel more cozy. Every time I finish a candle, I clean out the jar and reuse it to store things in my bathroom or my ever-growing matchbook collection!

Latest addition: I bought this during my solo trip to Mexico at an amazing, queer-friendly store called Apartment 25. It's by Felix D'Eon, whose art celebrates queer love, and I thought it was a must-have.

 

GALLERY WALL

Go to recipe: Honestly, I rarely cook from recipes when cooking for myself, but one of my most common dinners is an arugula salad loaded up with anything I have on-hand, some roasted veggies and some sort of simple protein. 

Coziest corner: This gallery wall, and the bookshelf underneath it, which I look at all day every day. It's a mixture of found art, posters, photos and other memorabilia from over the years, framed in a mixture of white and black frames. For me, it's cozy because it conjures up memories from my 5+ years of living in the City. It reminds me even on the toughest of NYC days that there's always fun to be had here. 

Homemaker Idol: My mom! She is a true one of a kind with an unmatched eye for whimsy, color and style, and she'll always be the first person whose opinion I ask for when I'm thinking of buying something new for my studio. 

 Things that make you happy: Wine-filled Friday night dinners with friends, Bravo, spending time with family (dogs included), getting a new issue of New York Magazine in the mail, giant iced coffees...

FINISHING TOUCHES

A tip: Decorate your space with "found art" — living in New York City in my 20s doesn't leave me with much extra cash to spend on buying expensive art or photography to hang on my walls, so I frame postcards, matchboxes and menus from some of my favorite places to decorate my apartment. It's a cheap way to fill your space with colorful reminders of things you love. My latest piece of found art will be a framed menu from China Chalet, a dim sum restaurant that was home to some of New York's most legendary recent downtown parties.

Today's to-do list: Prep for an interview with a former Bachelorette and pack for a long weekend trip. Oh, and pay my rent!