When Jimmy Moon moved to New York three years ago, he attempted to cram as much as he could from his three-bedroom South Carolina home into his one-room midtown space. It’s full (to say the least), brimming with overlapping Oriental rugs, ornately carved mirrors and heavy wooden furniture. “If you can believe it, this apartment is way more modern than my house back in Carolina,” he laughs, pointing to some stacked cube lockers that rest next to the four-poster bed (also overlaid with a tapestry).

Unwilling to part with silk drapes he rescued from an old Southern mansion, Moon, an aspiring actor, curtained his walls, over which he layered oil paintings, angel ornaments from Europe and carved moons (reflecting his name). “It’s like living in an old-world how tel room,” he adds.

A tiny kitchen, complete with a one-foot width of black-and-white checkered tile, abuts the room. “I actually cook,” he adds, “because I have celiac disease and it’s easier to make my own meals.”

The one break from the rich fabrics and colors is the palatial, all-white bathroom, which occupies a precious 78 square feet. “The layout is a downside,” he laughs. “I really don’t need a hallway to the toilet.”

1. Moon hung pictures Pitti Palace-style, layering elaborately framed works with photographs, ornaments and modern shelving—it all adds to the over-the-top vibe.

2. “Overhead lighting is so unflattering, and I don’t have space for table lamps,” Moon says. “So I installed can lights in the corners.”

3. A wall of curtains can conceal ugly outlets and bad paint jobs, and a bracket holds Moon’s TV set high (seen in the mirror), so it’s not visible from the entryway.

4. A lack of clutter and bright white finishes give breadth to even the narrowest of bathrooms.