apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i am now doubly impressed! i love before and afters. so satisfying.

woah, that's a lot of work! well done!

If only they had lofts for sale in my town under $500k **sighs** I would so love to take on a project like this but I just wouldn't be allowed to do that sort of demo in a rental (which looks worse then the before pics). I think Arthur's space is great and really not that pricey. It's gorgeous.

Arthur has taste.

Wow! That really puts things into perspective. Nice work!

Equally impressive name.

Its even more amazing seeing the "before" -
- folks with that type of vision always impress me.

Where does that stairway go? I don't recall seeing that in the "after" version.

Wow, I have been in the "don't paint over the brick" contingent, but this nearly totally converts me to the "paint the damn bricks white" camp.

So glad you painted over your brick. I did that in my last loft, and it felt 50% bigger. It was a lot of work, but the bright white was exactly what my dark loft needed to give it that lofty feel.

Honestly, it's one of my favorite house tours this year so far. It's clean, it's simple, and it has great direction. If I wasn't so bloody poor out of college, maybe I'd look into buying a downtown Davis, CA loft and vamping it up - although the view isn't much except a Taco Bell and a lumber yard.

This is fantastic. The difference between the painted and unpainted brick is startling.

This is so intriquing. Thanks for letting us take a look at these, especially after, well, the brouhaha.

If I ever come to Chicago, I'd love to see your place in person: stand there with the before photo in my hand and take a look at the differences. You seemed to have knocked down some walls, too, or made the kitchen smaller somehow.

Not to worry, though Arthur. I won't be in Chicago any time soon. (sigh).

Thanks again.

Kathryn - the stairway led to an inefficient lofted space. We tore out the stairs in the renovation and used that area to create my closet, which maximized the space of the bedroom.

I didn't even NOTICE the fireplace because I was so thrilled with the desk area. Seeing the before pictures, I had to go back through the slide show to figure out where the fireplace went. Ha!

Also, I'm amazed at how the ventilation system virtually disappears against the painted brick. I thought it had been torn out. Nope, it's still there. Right with the fireplace in Image 7.

And the brick niche near the bathroom is now the bedroom, right? And the closet is back into where the stairs were, Image 16, going off to the right, that is where the stairs were.

Image 12, the niche. Is that just inside the front door? And the area to the right, looks like storage or short closet below? What is above? Is that more closet? Or ventilation?

And is Image 13 behind your front door?

Image 6, right side of fireplace?

Great job! Very inspiring!

Brilliant! Love the painted brick. Arthur, you've made a great home!

OMG I know those lofts Ekoshyun! I also live in Davis and would love to move back to Sacramento. Did you know those lofts have a $550 HOA cost on top of the 465k price? For lofts, try downtown Sac. They will be cheaper and in a much hipper neighborhood. Or for that price, you could buy one of the small vintage central Davis homes and have no extra costs and no one telling you what you can do with the property.

Jenny in DC, Alana in Canada & Olya

Thank you for your comments. Living in a urban environment exposed brick & dirt are everywhere…… I wanted a clean, calm place to take me away from all that. Not only did it visually increase the space the paint sealed the brick mortar, completely stopping sand/gravel etc. from constantly falling.

Painting was a little harder then initially estimated. Since the brick and timber was about 100 years old, they were very dry and had a tendency to bleed. We ended up using about 55 gallons of paint. Best recommendation is to first spray 2-4 coats with KILZ, then apply Moore’s Masonry Sealer followed with your final coat of flat paint.

TRUE BLUE – you were right on with all the images…..nice! Initially much valuable real estate was being wasted. With only so much space to work with maximization of every nook & cranny was crucial.

@AjM
you were just on HGTV show , My House is worth What? or something like that, weren't you? The snarky comments on the original post are kind of ridiculous since your estimated value wasn't that much unless I completely mistook $2.9 M with $290K, which I totally could have done. I didn't see the end of the show where they gave you the actual value.
I am sorry if i am being intrusive by connecting the dots together..

Nice pictures!