A Prop Stylist’s Apartment, Without the Clutter

Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, prop stylist John Dittrick, loved all things design from an early age. “I had this Playmobil doll house and my cousins had one, too, and I remember going to my cousin’s house and looking at the way they set theirs up and going, Oh no, they’ve got it wrong.” [Laughs.] “That’s not where I would put that couch.”His interests also included acting and set design, which he studied in college, and months after his move to New York in 2017, he landed a job at West Elm. After many moves, all involving sharing with roommates, Dittrick was ready to go out on his own and found this Carroll Gardens railroad apartment last year. Settling in he realized that as much as he loved his childhood home, he needed to create a more serene oasis than what he had known growing up. “Our house was beautiful, but it was very cluttered,” he says. “And I have inherited a lot of those sentimental sensibilities. I tend to hold on to things, but all that gives me anxiety, too, so sometimes I feel very burdened by stuff.” His new apartment has been designed with a sense of order and calm with just the right stuff.