‘Amazing Race’ Winners Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss Reveal Eclectic, Newly Furnished Apartment: ‘70s Chic Meets Japanese Streetwear Culture’

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‘Amazing Race’ Winners Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss Reveal Eclectic, Newly Furnished Apartment: ‘70s Chic Meets Japanese Streetwear Culture’

Finally settling in! Fresh off their $1 million win on The Amazing Race, winners Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss are revealing the newly furnished apartment they share together in Los Angeles. The reality TV couple, who originally met and started dating after they both competed on Big Brother 23 during summer 2021, are exclusively sharing the details and photos with Us Weekly. [ami-related id="2191237" url="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/the-amazing-race-winners-where-are-they-now/" title="‘The Amazing Race’ Winners: Where Are They Now?" target="_blank" thumb="false" imgsrc="https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Amazing-Race-Winners-Where-Are-They-Now.jpg?quality=40&strip=all" imgid="2191193" format="gallery" flag="" channel="9"] After making the move from New York City to California, Derek and Claire had “zero furniture, nothing with us because we moved across the country. So we were really starting from scratch,” they tell Us. “All the furniture we had had basically been found on the streets of New York because it's New York – people leave furniture outside and you're like, ‘Yeah, I just graduated college, I have no money, I'm just gonna hoard this.’ It was definitely a combination of we couldn't bring it and I didn't want to bring it.” “My apartment previously was really a hodgepodge of me and my roommate’s furniture, and there wasn't really a cohesive look,” Claire, 26, says of her previous abode. “There weren’t any furniture pieces that really felt like me or really felt like her. It was just what's available and what can we just throw in there.” [ami-related id="1828255" url="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/big-brother-winners-where-are-they-now-photos/" title="‘Big Brother’ Winners: Where Are They Now?" target="_blank" thumb="false" imgsrc="https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Big-Brother-Winners-Where-Are-They-Now.jpg?quality=47&strip=all" imgid="1828226" format="gallery" flag="" channel="9"] It was a similiar case for Derek, 25, who also experienced just about the worst thing you can experience when getting furniture. “Me and my roommates were like, ‘We want to go couch shopping’ one weekend,” he explains. “And when we stepped out of our apartment door, we just found this couch laying out on the street, and I was like, ‘Perfect, we don't even need to shop anymore.’ And we bring it back and all of a sudden I'm like, ‘Man, I'm so itchy. Is anyone else?’ So then we had to get the entire apartment deep cleaned and deep fumigated [because of] the entire bed bug situation. So I’m very happy to not have to go through that again.” [jwplayer RtD8mtvA] Claire, 26, jokes, “We're leaving the flea ridden couches. We were in our early twenties. We're entering our late twenties now, so it's to actually get beautiful furniture.” So, the pair teamed up with Article to design and furnish their space, which proved to be tough as they initially had very different aesthetics in mind. “When Claire and I started thinking about this space and getting this one together, we were like, ‘OK, let's go through Pinterest and bookmark the things that we like.’ So we're both looking at it and scrolling through, and Claire's like, ‘Oh, I like that one. That's cute.’ And I was like, ‘OK, yeah, let, let's mark it.’ And I'd be like, ‘Oh, I really like this one, Claire.’ She's like, ‘OK, yeah. I guess we can mark that too.’ So we have this Pinterest board and it’s, like, two completely separate themes. Claire is more of boho chic … muted, natural colors,” Derek explains, with Claire adding, “simple.” [ami-related id="1176615" url="https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/big-brother-showmances-through-the-years/" title="'Big Brother' Showmances Through the Years: Where Are They Now?" target="_blank" thumb="false" imgsrc="https://www.usmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/jeff-and-jordan-and-jessica-and-cody.jpg?quality=47&strip=all" imgid="1176591" format="gallery" flag="" channel="9"] “I definitely like more color,” he continues. “I like a more street, retro [vibe]. I was, like, hoarding things, like, ’Oh, I love that.’ And she's like, ‘They graffitied the wall.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but that's so cool.’ So it was funny because we had to talk with the Article designer and she was like, ‘So what's your inspiration?’ And we're like, ‘OK, this is gonna sound weird, but imagine ‘70s chic meets Japanese streetwear culture.’ That was literally the guiding statement that we said to her.” It worked because within weeks, the social media influencers had a space they could call their own: “This place has finally started to feel like an actual home now. It's not just an apartment. It’s actually started to feel like a home in a place that we can be in for a while, and I don't wanna leave.” Scroll down to tour Derek and Claire’s beautiful new apartment.  

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A Bright Kitchen

“I think that's one of my favorite spaces in our apartment – the kitchen and dining room – because we get great natural light,” Derek tells Us. “And I love this oak wooden table (Haiv Oak Dining Table) because, in the morning, you can see these rays of light hitting the table and it looks like it's straight out of a magazine.”

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Functional Wall Space

The duo built and painted a peg board that hangs on the wall and serves as functional storage for kitchenware. “That actually ended up being a really nice touch as well,” Derek says. “I think that kind of blends the entire space together too. So that's one of my favorite places because I love to cook and with entertaining, or having guests around, it's a great place for people to go to.”

Claire adds of the kitchen, “It really is beautiful with the table and these rattan chairs (Netro Oak Dining Chairs) and the blue pendant light (Gemma Pendant Light) that we installed.”

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Space to Host Friends

“What was really important for us was to be able to have a space that we could have people over and play games,” Claire explains. “We're a board game house, and so our dining room table is actually the perfect size to have people over, have a huge game board set out, and really be able to interact with each other and you know, get down and dirty, and sabotage people and play board games.”

Derek adds, “I think the combination of the dining space and living room space was what we really wanted to focus on. I wanted ample, tabletop surfaces and then ample seating. So if we have, like, 15 people over, everyone can get a seat, which was not always the case with our old apartments.”

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Colorful Art Project

The couple wanted something colorful to brighten up the big wall space but couldn’t find exactly what they wanted, so Derek took matters into his own hands. “We were visiting all these art exhibits, and I'm like, ‘Give me one shot.’ I was like, ‘Let me just try this one time. If it's not good, we'll just buy it.’ So we stopped by Michael's on the way home. I bought this big canvas. We bought six tubes of paint, a brush. And then that night, I was like, ‘All right, let's do it.’ So I went out, painted it, just put on a ton of different colors, kind of blended it in with each other, and I feel like it turned out OK.”

“I think it’s good,” Claire assures him. “Derek’s [painting] is a nice centerpiece.”

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A Blending of Styles

“Claire was looking to go for a more minimal approach and I was on that page, but I also really liked color,” he says. “So it was that contrast of Claire being like, ‘Oh, I love like this, like, off white.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but what about that orange?’ Like, I like the orange. So I think there were some compromises there.”

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Comfy Couch

The blue velvet couch (Sven Cascadia Sectional) is definitely a statement piece in the living area. “That's why Article is nice because they had very modern, sleek furniture, but also with that pop of color,” they say. “Our couch is this beautiful blue velvet. That adds so much richness but also looks neat, looks nice, looks sharp.”

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‘70s Vibes

“[Article] did an amazing job,” Derek tells Us of melding their different styles. “I think the way they did it was really nice where the furniture has the pops of color that I was trying to get out of that streetwear idea – unique pieces, unique shapes. They definitely nailed that. And then, I think with the whole ’70s idea, there's definitely like curves and fun shapes. And I think the colors that I specifically wanted were like blues, greens, oranges. And you can see that throughout the house. They killed it. I feel like I gave them an impossible task and they delivered on it.” (Vena Walnut Coffee Table)

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A Relaxing Bedroom

One must-have for them was also a serene bedroom space. “Our bed frame is this beautiful emerald green (Sven Grass Green King Bed),” Derek says, “which I think is perfect because it kind of connects with all of the plants we have around the apartment. It feels very welcoming. And there's wood tones throughout with the dresser, the nightstands. … It just feels very relaxing.”

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Matching Nightstands

The oak nightstands bring in the wood accents as well as hold their famous BB Comics. “I don't know why, but having nightstands (Vireo Oak Nightstands) is, like, the pinnacle of being an adult to me,” Claire jokes. “Like, ‘I have my s—t together right now because I have a nightstand, and it's neat and it doesn't have a million water bottles on it. He has one and I have one, and we have lamps on them.” Derek adds, “And they match! That was big.”

“I think there was a long talk about where are we gonna put our BB comics in this space,” he says. “It’s not the first thing you want someone to see when they walk into your apartment, but I'm still like, ‘Oh, it's memorabilia. I would like to find a space for it.’ And Claire's like, ‘Yeah, there's a closet right here.’” (Oslo Charcol Table Lamps)

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Storage Space

One of their musts for the bedroom was enough storage space. “Me and Claire have a lot of clothes,” Derek tells Us, with Claire explaining of their new bedroom, “It’s just a really nice place to go back to after our hectic days trying to do social media influencing, working on a million projects and being able to come back to a bedroom that's relaxed and really feels like home. And we have places to put both of our clothes. Before we were living out of my suitcase.” (Vireo Oak Dresser)

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The Loft

“Upstairs is almost why we picked this apartment to begin with,” Claire tells Us. “Living in New York City, we lived in such cramped tiny little apartments. And when we moved to L.A., we started looking at places and we're like, ‘Oh, my gosh. We could get a loft, we could have a lofted apartment.’”

Derek agrees, “We finally settled on it would be really nice to have a space where we could both work on our computers, but also have an area where we could film content. So with Article, we kind of turned the upstairs space into an office and almost like a second lounge area. It’s set up well for filming. … This upstairs space is basically just a creative space for us and this is where we do a lot of our work.”

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Housewarming

“We do want to do a big housewarming. We've had select people over just, like, casually, but we haven't had our official housewarming party yet because it's only been a couple weeks,” they say. “I think we're finally in the next couple of weeks gonna be ready to have people over.”