APT

It took Crawford roughly a year to accumulate the glass jar’s worth of loose change. “I don’t like to carry change around and I never make it to Coinstar—it’s embarrassing going there,” he laughs. “Anytime someone gives me change, like at Starbucks, I give it to them as a tip. It’s not real money to me.” His underestimated wealth sits next to oil cans that belonged to his grandfather, who was a mechanic.

For the past four years, fashion designer Christopher Crawford has rented his loftlike 900-square-foot studio in the swank Armani/Casa–designed condo 20 Pine the Collection(20pine.com). But it didn’t take long for those around him to notice his artistic flair for interior design: Once his neighbor started doing the sales push for the building, she immediately tapped Crawford to decorate some of its model apartments. “I have a whole storage unit in the building filled with the weird stuff I pick up, and this is a good opportunity to use it,” he notes. “It’s either that or I become a hoarder.”

Crawford used house paint and fabric to create this Rorschach ink-blot–inspired piece. “I made one for a model apartment and then I liked it so much, I made one for myself,” he explains.

Crawford bought this Eames lounge chair on eBay and discovered the crocheted throw at a barn sale in Kentucky. “It’s like middle America’s version of a yard sale, except it’s in a barn,” he explains. The ashtray is a holdover from his college days.

To separate the dining room from his bedroom, Crawford had green contractor Ed Nugent(nugentcm.com) create this reclaimed-wood divider. “I was at Frette and they have headboards made out of this wood in the showroom,” he says of his inspiration. “I thought it was so cool.” As a result, this CB2 table—flanked by Kartell chairs and stools Crawford picked up at a stoop sale—has its own defined area. The patinated crystal chandelier is from a Paris flea market.

Rather than use a run-of-the-mill shower caddy, Crawford displays his bath products on top of a tree stump in his shower. “Fortunately I’m not a girl, so there aren’t many things that I need, like razors and such,” he points out.