Name: Eli
Location: Upper East Side, NYC
My two bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan built in the 1950s. Rather than try to turn the bland box of my apartment into an imitation of pre-war grandeur, I decided to highlight the period in which it was built and turn the living room into a 'cold war dream'. In the dining foyer there are framed original Life Magazine issues from the 50s and 60s with cold war themes that I picked up from eBay. On the bookshelf (Thomas O'Brien from Target), there is 'USA Water' designed to withstand nuclear fallout made in the 50s and a model of the 'Fat Man' nuclear bomb. There is a framed poster of an ad in Scientific American on 'How to Survive a Nuclear War'. 50s paranoia is demonstrated in the foyer with Ray Gun prints from Sean Tubridy from Etsy over flying saucer lamps...
One of the biggest issues I had with the apartment was the construction quality of the building. The walls sagged and buckled and there were many construction beams protruding from one long wall in the living room. To cover that up, I used kitchen cabinet panels from IKEA (Nexus Medium Brown) and paneled the entire wall to make it smooth and even. I put bathroom tiles on one wall in the bedroom to add interest and cover the buckling. I also liked the sandy feeling of the wall so I painted the room a soft blue to give the sense of sand and sea. There is a small photo of my beach home in Montauk on one of the shelves in the bedroom to remind me of my time at the Ocean (Trig shelf from CB2).
The TV Room is filled with robots, which started with the first robot lamp I bought from Urban Outfitters. After I finished the room I saw a post on Uplggd showing off the lamp and claiming that you can't have too much robot decor. I agree!
All of the furniture and accessories are from sources relied upon by AT readers: IKEA, Target, CB2, Crate & Barrel, Bo Concept, Urban Outfitters.
Thanks, Eli!
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i love this!
Great Job! Where did you get your "arc" floor lamp in the living room? I'm looking for something like it and don't want to spend a lot of money for it. Thanks.
Very nice!
Wow! You are so creative and have an incredible eye for design. The colors, the furnishings, the space is PERFECT. Not only did you accomplish what you wanted and created a cold-war era space with fun pieces but its just very well done and very classy.
Love the place! I particularly love the treatments you used on the problem walls. I have a problem wall as well and would love more info on the IKEA panels you used. Couldn't find anything like it on their website.
Thanks for sharing.
This is one of the best house tours! I loved how you worked with the building. The IKEA panels are ingenious and look completely natural to the time period. I also love the repetitious color scheme of green and red. I could say more, but I've used up my quota of "love" for the day. If you add anything else to your pad, let it be a tray of martinis and a poster of Bond. James Bond.
I'm not a fan of theme living, but I like your furniture and what you've done with the place. The living room is especially well done.
Great job. Love the living room especially, and love love LOVE those sofas.
love the paneling in the living room! awesome.
I really love the idea for the clocks in different time zones, that is cool!
Love love love. Especially the dining room rug. I'm torn between feeling nostalgic for my military brat childhood and giggling at what almost feels like a Dr. Strangelove reference.
I'm not a fan of the period but everything really works well, it's beautifully coordinated and really original. You made me like a style I hate !
Eli, I LOVE your apartment. Great job!
very well done. the dining room rug was a nice touch - wish it were larger though but great none-the-less.
Really awesome job! I love the living room coffee table, where is that from? Vintage? The sofa's are TDF as well!
I like that you have many things that occur in threes.
A gold star for work-arounds (paneling/tiling walls)! Nice work. And I'm digging those living room sconces.
ha! that presidential seal rug is awesome.
Can you tell me where you got the living room wall sconces? They are exactly what I want for my bedroom!! I saw something similar in a Domino story last month featuring the actor Mark Ruffalo's house and have been searching ever since. Are they vintage?
Whoaa! I am in the exact same type of apartment building but in DC.
Love what you did with yours.
Thanks very much to everyone for all the positive comments.
The wood panels in the living room are end panels for Ikea kitchen cabinetry, used to cover the cabinet boxes. You can find the style here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/64551207, but I don't think they list all the sizes. The panels I bought were 8' by 3'. Since the walls are only 8' they fit perfectly. I glued and nailed them to 2x4 studs that I attached to the walls. I put 3/4" finished molding (like you'd get for a pre-finished floor baseboard) where the panels met the ceiling.
The sofas are the Crate & Barrel Petrie sofa with a custom fabric that I bought when C&B had their semi-annual custom upholstery sale.
The living room coffee table is the 'angled leg coffee table' from West Elm: http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=17001&langId=-1&catalogId=17002&viewSetCode=E&partNumber=WE-PRODf816&retainNav=true&parent_category_rn=&cmsrc=SCH. I was going to make a table using model nuclear bombs for a base, but this was on sale for $120 in the store, and the color matched my walls, so I grabbed it.
I got the sconces from palmbeachvintage, an ebay seller: http://stores.ebay.com/palmspringsvintage. Since installing them, I've seen them in the TV shows Mad Men and 30 Rock and the movie Frost/Nixon.
I also wish that the presidential seal rug were bigger, but it's the only one I could find. It was more than I wanted to spend, but it is really soft. You can find it here: http://whitehousegiftsandapparel.com/provserug.html
Again, madsarah said it best.
I love it - I especially love the wall using ikea cover panels. I'm so jealous.
that wall is fantastic... great idea
yes--agree with madsarah!
I am not a fan of mcm, and dude, your theme is
WEIRD (and I am not generally opposed to weird themes)! But your home is amazing!!!! I love IT when people take a style they like and work in out in a personal and creative way. BEAUTIFUL.
Where did the rug come from in the living room?
You Rock! Totally Fab and great creative resolutions to your issues. Love the Bots
i wish i had taken a better picture of the atomium when i was there many years ago....did you purchase yours, or was it a personal photograph (that maybe you would care to share...)?
Thanks again for the kind comments.
In response to HappyGal, the 'arc' lamp is a Flos Arco knock-off that I got from furniturefancy on ebay. It was 1/4 the price of the original, but still pricey. I purchased it when Microsoft was offering 30% cashback on ebay purchases, so it wasn't too bad. I am very happy with the furniturefancy.com copy. It is very accurate, good quality, and the customer service was excellent.
The living room rug is the Kathy Ireland Innovations Stardust rug in Oatmeal. I bought it from rugstudio.com. Their published prices aren't the lowest, but they do match competitors, and, again, their customer service is excellent.
I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know what the atomium was when I printed the photo. I did a google images search for extra large pictures with the terms 'atomic age' and I liked the look of it, so I had it printed at Costco, where they provide a 'tint' option. The picture I used is here: http://www.alovelyworld.com/webbelge/htmgb/bel084.htm.
Wow! Great Job! Looks great!
The living room is stunning. Very Mad Men.
Fantastic! I LOVE it! Please, Eli, where did you get your robot men lamps? I MUST have for my dad! :)
Thanks
I love your apartment, you have great style.
My only critique would be to not pair everything in 3's. It looks a little too much like your trying to be a decorator and follow the rules.
The robot lamps are from Urban Outfitters. Unplggd blogged about them here: http://www.unplggd.com/unplggd/lighting/a-robot-lamp-we-would-never-hide-074662
The lamp shades are from Ikea. Be aware the Urban Outfitters often has sales. I picked mine up just after christmas when all lamp bases were reduced to $18.
I love the concept of sticking to the actual time period of the apartment.
As soon as I saw the dining room, I could hear "Hail to the Chief" in my head.
Nice place.
thanks for the source on the presidential seal rug. agreed, it's pricey but highly effective. once again, great job!
Sorry, but this looks like the living room of my grand father. If someone is interested in an arc floor lamp like this, come over to Berlin / Germany - you can buy those lamps on one of the flea markets.
This apartment is SERIOUSLY individualistic and cool.
(T-Shirt Co - Not ALL grandparents are uncool.)
Where is the bedding from? It's pretty.
The bedding is from Target, although the Euro Shams were actually made by my mother using the fabric of the bed skirt that came with the set. Unfortunately, I believe the style has been discontinued.
This is truly remarkable. As a child of that period, I find your place as depressing as those times were. Yes, you certainly captured the paranoia and the repressive atmosphere. both political and socially. I am totally amused by those younger folks who just love to blather on about how cool MCM is so romantic.
With the exception of a few brilliant designers here and in Scandinavia, the whole period was a black hole of cheap copies to satisfy a burgeoning lower and medium middle class suburbia that luxuriated in tasteless food and meaningless TV entertainment in the USA. Unfortunately Europe was too busy rebuilding from the damage of the war to regroup fast enough to brings us intelligent design until much later.
Indeed, some of the posts here as depressing as they were intended to make everyone who reads them feel.
I want that bed!
Hi. If you ever want to sell our robot lamp from Urban outfitters please let me know, i'll pay 50$ for it
Best regards Stine, jensen-stine@hotmail.com