Name: Adam
Location: Dupont Circle, Washington, DC
Size: 625 sq ft cond
Years lived in: 7 years, owned
Residence Type: condo building designed by architect Harry Wardman in 1916
Adam shares his condo with his two cats, Jonas and Ezekiel (named after the Indigo Girls' song). Always a neat-freak, Adam had to make some concessions when he adopted his two cats. Adam designed a cat tunnel, which leads the cats from the hall to their litter box in the closet....
Jonas and Ezekiel love cardboard boxes, so despite Adam's preference for no clutter, he keeps some boxes around his home for his cats' enjoyment. Adam did all the painting himself and changed the colors several times to get the feeling right. Over the years, he has remodeled the bathroom and kitchen, and installed custom-built storage.
AT SURVEY
Style: minimalist, contemporary, organized
Inspiration: neat, uncluttered, simple but colorful
Favorite Aspect: the living room light and windows. You can see the Washington monument if you look through the corner window.
Proudest DIY: designing the kitchen and bathroom
Biggest Embarrassment: the doorknobs. I want to change them to nickel.
Biggest Challenge: building the cat tunnel that leads to the litter box in the closet.
Biggest Indulgence: the floor to ceiling tile in the bathroom.
What Friends Say: it's small but in a great location.
Dream Resource: a new sleeper sofa.
RESOURCES
Paint Colors: Behr paints - coffee in living room, gray in hallway, blue in entryway, yellow "Honey Jar" in bedroom
Furniture: custom-built bookshelves in the living room, vintage blue dining stools from Millenium, couch from Macy's, stereo console from Target, CD holder from Ikea; desk, file cabinets and bedroom furniture from Crate and Barrel
Rugs: living room rug from Pottery Barn
Lighting: Ikea
Artwork: the painting above the fireplace was commissioned from a local artist, the posters are all from places wit
Accessories: record album covers from my childhood with frames from Urban Outfitters (especially made for records). My mom bought me my first Dolly Parton album. The Olivia Newton John album was also one of my first. The cardboard boxes for the cats are from packages!
Appliances: dual-flush toilet, all-in-one washer/dryer from Equator
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
REALLY nice editing of items and use of subtle, muted, gentle paint colors! well done.
but oh my gosh, the photos of your black cat are giving me heart pangs because that cat looks just like my kitty Roger who I'm thousands of miles away from at the moment (extended vacation). :-)
view *heather leaf*'s profile
How does that cat tunnel work???
view kgenesius's profile
Yes, cat tunnel - details, details!
view Pixie's profile
We have something similar. If it is like ours, it is really just a framed hole in the wall that allows the kitties to go in and out of their "bathroom" without having the main door open. Ours works beautifully.
view candp's profile
Nice apartment. Beautiful cats. The black cat looks exactly like mine.
view Pteetsa's profile
The black cat on the counter reminds me of my old cat who passed away last month. I have nice memories of him.
view At Home with kim vallee's profile
I like the colors and am interested in the cat tunnel.
view creolesugar's profile
Pretty parlour panther!!
view williamsweyr's profile
Kitty kudos aside, I LOVE the painting over the fireplace--could you please give more details?
view krister's profile
nice job!
how do you keep them from clawing your furniture!!!!
view oopsdy's profile
The artist who painted the piece over the fireplace is DC artist Michael Torra. His website is: http://mysite.verizon.net/torra73/index.html
In response to your comments, we'll do a post featuring the cat tunnels in the next few days...
view rachael in dc's profile
beautiful apartment, the built ins look like quality work.
also curious about the tunnel for your lovely cats and how to empty the litter.
nice to see you tolerate some clutter boxes for the happiness of your "roommates"
view sassydo's profile
I was sure someone would comment on the dry cleaner bags in the closet before this.... AT people alway surprises me.
view That70sHeidi's profile
You have a lovely place! The paint colors on the walls are fantastic. I especially loved the butter yellow in the bedroom and am now considering painting my own bedroom in the same color. Kitties are super cute too, and the cat tunnel is a fantastic idea!
view suzy8track's profile
Beautiful apartment. But seriously, keep your cats off the kitchen counters. That's unhygienic and, frankly, disgusting. I would never let my cats do that.
view thumbelina2's profile
I used to live in that building. I loved it there. You've done a great job with the space, and I love the paint colors!
view jooly's profile
Yes, really nice color scheme, and the apartment seems to be really efficiently laid out. As for keeping the cats off counters, good luck with that. Our cats are smart enough not to do things like that in front of us...but when we're not looking, they make all sorts of mischief...
view Bolder's profile
would love to see a better photo of your bathroom sink/mirror area. i'm about to update my bathroom this fall/winter and i really like what i can see of yours. thanks!
view dabootski's profile
The cat tunnel is a wonderful, wonderful invention. I bet it also works to keep litter from spreading all over the place - by the time the cats have walked the length of the tunnel, the activity would have worked the loose litter off their paws... And here I am, sweeping my hallway three times a day, like some sort of mini-broom wielding nitwit!
My cats would have chewed through all that bubble wrap in the boxes, though. Consider getting rid of the stuff - it's extremely harmful if swallowed.
Did I mention that the cat tunnel is a wonderful idea?
view Lauren T.'s profile
Ok, maybe I'm just cranky today but I don't really see any interesting design in this. I see more of a place that could essentially have been furnished all in one store.
Not a fan of matching bedroom sets. They should be outlawed.
view ilovemymini's profile
(you definitely are cranky today, ilovemymini)
i have rarely seen a house with such a lovely balance - very beautiful home both for human and cats. human is also allowed to let cats on the kitchen counter - it is his home and his cats. it is probably a pretty illusion your cats aren't doing that anyway :-P
view maike's profile
your place looks really great, I really like the pain colours in the living room and hallway....You said they were Behr paints? can you tell me the exact names of them? thanks
view rosamware's profile
Double-sided tape put out on counters is the ONLY thing that kept my kitty from jumping on things, and it's not very aesthetically pleasing. I did it more to keep him from knocking dishes onto our concrete floors and breaking them. He jumped up a couple times and freaked out when he had something sticky all over his paws! After a while he stopped trying and we were able to remove the tape. Alas, he finally figured out that it was gone...
view Budgie's profile
BTW, LOVE the apartment! I like the idea of albums as artwork...
view Budgie's profile