Julie Inzanti

If you haven’t noticed, our daylight seems to fade earlier and earlier as the colder months creep in. It is practically pitch black at 4pm. And as anyone with a northern exposure can tell you, the winters are long and dark… even from a high floor.

Most New York apartments are small, but the lengthy narrow hallway in this two-bedroom $3,975 per month rental at 38 Leroy Street in the West Village creates the illusion of space.   

The arched doorway at the end of this clean and crisp hallway seems to frame the next room like a picture and whisk you away somewhere else, besides just the next room.   

With double fireplaces, ornate woodwork and crown molding, the luxurious main parlor of this lavish Brooklyn townhouse seems to have all the splendors of “Downton Abbey,” minus the whole feudal lord situation. 

This restored classic-six, $3,600/month Washington Heights rental has a large living room, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and an eat-in kitchen with a separate service entrance.

But our favorite part is the formal dining room, and the aspirational dining influence we imagine it would exert....