


On a recent fall morning, Ben Taylor Lebowitz neatly made his bed, placing each throw pillow in its rightful place; threw on a sweater and hat; lit a eucalyptus-scented candle; and hit the “espresso" button on his sleek coffee maker. Mr. Lebowitz, 35, the founder of a pet portrait company, was filming a video of his morning routine for his hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
His home in the background of the video is hard to miss: a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom apartment in a trendy part of downtown Manhattan, with a large walk-in closet and views of the Hudson River. Mr. Lebowitz purchased the home about four years ago and furnished it using photos on Instagram and Pinterest as inspiration.
His home isn’t just any apartment though. It’s a “boy apartment.”
First, consider the bachelor pad (or its more recent iteration, the “boy room”): What comes to mind? A mattress on the floor? Beer and old takeout in the fridge? Think again. On TikTok, young men with an interest in interior design and penchant for tidiness are showing off their curated, urban homes for the world to see. Mr. Lebowitz is one in a new class of content creators who are sharing their homes’ interiors to defy expectations about men and their living habits. “The trend is so much bigger than me,” he said.
The boy apartment trend gained attention over the summer, after Victor Gerchev posted a video of his one-bedroom home in Shumen, Bulgaria. Mr. Gerchev, 28, was inspired by several other TikTok trends, including “boy essentials” and “girl apartments.” (Girl apartment videos are plentiful on TikTok, many offering décor ideas aimed at women.)