Name: Jason Thompson
Profession: Founder & Owner, Rag & Bone Bindery
Location: Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Size: 3,000 square feet
Years lived in: 2 years, owned
Jason Thompson converted the cavernous warehouse space above his bookbinding studio into an art-filled, family-friendly loft in a mere six months and on a tight budget — proof of what some creative ingenuity and a lot of elbow grease (he performed the demolition and much of the installation himself) can accomplish…
Apartment Therapy Survey
My style: Loft style — although I don't think we have a particular style really, except that we like handmade and fun objects, books, and art in our space. Our budget confines us to artwork created by friends and ourselves — and our children.
Inspiration: Friends lofts, loft books and blogs such as Decor8 and Apartment Therapy.
Favorite Element: Our kitchen. The kitchen was designed to our specifications and we strived to create a space where we can cook with our two small children. The kitchen is built on a platform which allowed us to save on plumbing costs as the drains, PVC and gas lines run beneath the platform. The platform kitchen also allows us to watch our children play in the open loft space.
Biggest Challenge: Budget. The complete renovation from raw space to move-in was completed within a budget of $30,000. Additionally, the large space meant we could design just about any layout. Nailing down the final design was a challenge, especially with our desire to create intimate spaces while retaining the open layout.
What Friends Say: Most visitors comment on the amount of room and the lovely light, especially in the mornings and afternoon. There are two full walls of windows facing both east and west.
Biggest Embarrassment: We have yet to install trim in the kitchen, bathroom or bedrooms and one knee wall is faced with cardboard … corrugated cardboard.
Biggest Indulgence: Countertops! More than ten percent of our budget was spent on the Silestone countertops.
Best advice: You can do it! Whatever your dream is — a funky home, a loft, green space — you can do it. Not every project requires an unlimited budget, especially if you take it one step at a time. Our loft is half completed, the second half of the renovation, which will take place “someday,” includes a master bedroom, office, second bathroom and a media room. We wish we could complete this second phase of the renovation, but we're patient! It's all part of the process. We don't ever feel the space will be "done,” there's always something else to work on!
Resources
Appliances: We bought all of our stainless steel appliances through Craigslist ads and spent a total of $1,100 for all four: a Coldtech, four-door refrigerator, a Gaggenau dishwasher, a Viking cooktop and a Delonghi oven.
Hardware: IKEA
Furniture: Antique, New, Used & Reused. Our dining table was custom table by Lorimer Woodworks using workbench tabletops salvaged during renovation demolition.
Accessories: Artwork, Rag & Bone Bindery, Vinyl toys, Uglydolls, Lots of books
Lighting: Track & IKEA
Tiles and Stone: Silestone countertops, Italian clay tiles in the bathroom
Artwork: Sabrina Ward Harrison, Anahata Katkin, Teesha Moore, Brett Cortesi, Ilira Steinman, Jason Thompson, Sonny Rolle
Paint: C2
Flooring: Maple (main space), Bamboo (kitchen), Clay tiles (bathroom)
Visit Rag & Bone Bindery to browse their handmade books and journals.
(Images: Sarah Rainwater)
We've had amazing response to our Apartment Therapy House Tour Submission Form. While we will work with homeowners of our favorite homes to feature full tours, we will also share the best as House Calls — short, quick tours of readers' homes. Submit your home here.
MORE RAG & BONE
• Good Idea: Yuzen Wrapped Canvas
• How To: Make a Rolled Paper Wreath
© 2010 Apartment Therapy
what? 30,000? hardly seems possible. great loft
view ec05's profile
I absolutely adore the outside space. Love the entire place actually!
view Limeliteshines's profile
Dreamy
view bromeliad's profile
gorgeous!
view abigailbelle's profile
Wow, the Craiglist kitchen appliances are very impressive. What a great space.
view Pixie's profile
I love your art but I so wish I could see more of the open space!!! I am greedy I know....
view msjessiemeghan's profile
WOW.
view Henrietta the Terrible's profile
fun and gorgeous!
view timmy jr.'s profile
Where are those glasses with the eyes from? I'm from Providence and distinctly remember them hanging somewhere. Where they in a book store (Myopic Books comes to mind) or something before hanging in that window?
view Will Whiskey's profile
Rhode Island is so great for affordable lofts. We hope to do this one day, buy an old warehouse building and convert part into the recording studio and part into an apartment. Also possibly a guest suite for bands to stay when they're here. It's amazing what you did with such a tight budget. Gives me hope :)
view cassielynn's profile
i dont feel i got a real sense of the loft, just the book art work
view matt manfredini's profile
Space envy love the doors, the brick the light nice loft.
view LoriSF's profile
Amazing space. I daydreamed of having a spacious, funky loft like this when I was a little kid. P.S. The glasses with eyes immediately reminded me of the billboard in "The Great Gatsby"!
view alphabetsoup's profile
I'm so jealous my stomach hurts. Love everything about the loft, especially the eyes of T.J. Eckelberg.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile
The space itself is beautiful but I was disappointed by the decorating itself. The furniture looks left behind and accessories look cluttered and young. The space has just so much potential.
view OliviaBranch's profile
Really love the space but dissappointed that there aren't more photos...you only show a very small fraction of the overall space.
view Maleaab's profile
It's a tremendous loft, and the decor stays true to the industrial roots with the bare brickwork and exposed pipes. But the actual decorating seems a little undeveloped. It's as if the owners moved in and put their stuff in roughly the right place, but then left it alone. The really vital aspects of loft decorating - scale, balance, definition of space - seem to be missing.
Still, it's a superb loft conversion, and with that basis the finessing can come at any time.
view Blandwagon's profile
Great job!
This makes my bookworm soul hap, hap, happy! I have tons of books and dream of free open spaces like this one day, lots of light, floor space to play and do art on, bits of books to spur daydreams everywhere...Oh well, maybe not in SoCal yet.
view FigurativeSketches's profile
One of the nicest tours I've seen. Thanks.
view hrhprincessfiona's profile
You've got an amazing space and some interesting accents, but you're lacking in any real substance or direction. Lofts can be tough to make work.... I'd go for sparse with some great signature pieces and tone down all the accents.
view sfdesignsnob's profile
Great appliance finds. I wonder if they were victims of foreclosures?
view Josh's profile
Lovely! Thanks for posting....
view tg58's profile
beautiful loft, but uncomfortable looking to me.
view bullyproofvest's profile
It looks like a great space, it´s just sad that we don´t see so much of it. So many vignettes, again... why oh why?
view Lillian's profile
Love Rag & Bone's work. Beautiful loft. But, and this is a quibble with the description & not the owner/occupant, this is not a book-filled loft.
I'd love to see more full images and fewer vignettes. But, again, a beautiful space.
view hybl's profile
Nice loft but it does not look like a book-lover's home to me. No bookcases to speak of and virtually no books that I can see.
view Torgny's profile
It was a true pleasure to see your art collection. It would be great to actually see more of the space.
view h144's profile
I agree with Havl- I love these home tours, but respectfully request some larger images of the space itself. I see plenty of art in my day job- I visit AT to help me learn about scale, design, installation, etc. With such a large space, I would have really appreciated some more overall pictures- how does one divide an open floorplan like that? That would be far more educational than a picture of Ugly Dolls.
And yes, where are all the books? I see plenty of pages, but books? Not so much.
Finally, the space is beautiful, but the whole loft seemed rather-- uncomfortable. Plenty of hard benches to sit on, very few places to actually live.
view RevelrybyNight's profile
Love this space but agree with previous comments: this post needs more pictures.
view sauceykat's profile
There are lots of bookshelves here -- the place is just really BIG.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile
Fabulous building with great bones! I love the book artwork.
view junklover's profile
Gorgeous apartment Jason!
I love the decor. The table is gorgeous. I think it's made by Rhode Island local David Ellison of the Lorimer Workshop. (www.lorimerworkshop.com) In fact, he's making a table for us right now. And we can't wait!
view Merlin09's profile
Delightfully fun space!
view scootergirl's profile
Hi Jason! Great job with the space and adhering to a budget. A home is never complete, but it's nice to get close, isn't it? My space still needs some work, but we seem to have had some similar ideas. And we are both named Jason... hmm...
view ArtInRuins's profile