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Name: Dale & Adam — Dale’s firm is DRD Studio (website underway)
Location: Chelsea — NYC
Size: 1,070 square feet — 2 bedroom duplex
Years lived in: 7 years

Five years ago, I had the pleasure of documenting Dale and Adam's home for a pioneering Apartment Therapy House Tour! Since then, they've had a few changes: a new kitchen, new half-bath, and twins!

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Dale is an architect so all the designs for the renovations over the years were home made. He is tastefully precise and biases incredibly lush materials. In fact, the wall color in the living room was chosen to match the new set of Heath Ceramics plates and bowls the couple received as a wedding gift.

Adam and Dale's office is now a nursery and while the kitchen is transformed, much of its core is original to the previous owner's 1980's renovation. The living room is reorganized with a few new pieces, and the half-bath is a gut redo.

Major renovations occurred when Dale and Adam first moved in, but inspiration for the second phase remained dormant for over 6 years! Now that the apartment looks great and is complete, Dale and Adam have decided to move. The twins need space to roam…

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Apartment Therapy Survey

Style: Mid-century Modern/Contemporary in 1900's Loft Building

Inspiration: Mies Van der Rohe, Edith Heath, Adolph Loos, Alvar Aalto

Favorite Element: The floating cabinet atop the stairs, it provides a functional solution to storage in a small space while nicely terminating the handrail design

Biggest Challenge: Narrowness, both in the half-bath and the stair. We addressed the narrow bathroom with a shelf and mirror to give the room more openness and relief, and the contractor and I recessed the wall cabinet to provide storage without taking up additional depth in this room. For the stair handrail, the fabricator and I worked to keep the handrail, guards, and posts in separate planes so the different parts ran past each other, but the dimensions needed to be tight to avoid compromising the existing stair width.

What Friends Say: "We can’t believe you finally did it" (we had been talking about renovating the kitchen for about 6 of the last 7 years).

Biggest Embarrassment: Our dog Simon provided much entertainment and opportunity for embarrassment during construction. I'm certain he dragged our underwear out to the workmen on more than one occasion, and as he grew more familiar with them, he helped himself to their lunches and building supplies too.

Proudest DIY: Removing giant built-ins that once were in the living room. Finally selecting the right paint colors must be a close second at this round (we went through lots of test samples and fully repainted twice since moving in).

Biggest Indulgence: I would say the Viking Range, but we've spent way too much money on audio/stereo equipment and speaker mounting over the past seven years for it to not place at the top.

Best Advice: I read somewhere that in working with small spaces one should keep material choices to a minimum. I try to provide interest by changing the scale of material (field tile that matches mosaic tile at a backsplash, for example) and to take care with the details which are eye catching in a cozy room.

Dream Source: For this place it must be Design Within Reach, which has such a great selection of modernist furniture

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Resources:
LIVING ROOM

    • Sofa, chair, rocker and credenza — Design Within Reach
    • Daybed — Knoll
    • Lamp — Crate & Barrel
    • Rug — Room & Board
    • Pottery — Heath Ceramics

DINING ROOM

    • Table and Chairs — Crate & Barrel
    • Artwork (above mantle) — Marc Van Cauwenbergh
    • Pottery — Jonathan Adler

STAIR

    • Handrail and guards — Europa Stairways, Installation and floating cabinet by Bulldog Interiors

HALF-BATH

    • Terrazzo tiles and mosaic backsplash — Walker Zanger
    • Fixtures, Mirror and Cabinets — Duravit
    • Accessories and Faucet — Hans Grohe

MASTER BEDROOM

    • Bed and Bench — Room & Board
    • Nightstands — Design Within Reach
    • Dressers — Crate & Barrel
    • Lamps — Lightforms
    • Quilt — Mom

UPSTAIRS BATH

    • Limestone tiles and mosaics — Walker Zanger
    • Sink — Antonio Lupi
    • Toilet — Duravit
    • Tub — Zuma
    • Faucets and Fixtures — AF Supply, Lefroy Brooks
    • Lighting — Boffi

For more details on the kitchen, check out Dale & Adam's Slick Exterior The Kitchn.

And if you want to buy Dale and Adam's apartment...

Images: Jill Slater

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