Name: Paul and Yessy
Location: Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (above a laundromat)
Size: 900 sqft, 1.5 bdrm rental
My/Our style: comfortably cluttered
>>Enter Housetour Gallery
When I walked into the apartment, I was floored at what I saw literally hundreds of stick puppets spanning 70 years of Indonesian puppetry lined up on eight tiers alongside one wall of the living room.
When I looked at him with my dropped jaw, Paul said, I have a very tolerant wife. Over the years he has upgraded his collection, selling the less desirable ones and acquiring better quality puppets. Paul's wife affectionately refers to Paul's collection as "the Mercedes Benz we'll never own."
Paul lived in Indonesia for 10 years, then came to New York eight years ago to live here for the first time. After 2 years he reinvented himself as an eminent tour guide and now leads interested New Yorkers and foreigners alike on Jazz tours of Harlem as well as all over 3 out of 5 of our boroughs.
Clearly, Paul is a collector. His passion to amass extends beyond info on NYC and puppets to strangely named packages of Asian origin, thousands of Jazz albums (currently being transferred to MP3's) and an extensive list of roadside ephemera. "I love to put things on the wall" says Paul, and it shows. His house serves as a showcase for most of Paul's obsessions. At the same time, he is aware of ways to trim down on things that are not important. The apartment is very neatly arranged and aside from the collections (which I realize is a big statement), there are few extraneous elements.
Favorite element: my wife, then my computer
Favorite room: the one in which our music collection is housed
Most talked about element: probably that wall of puppets
Most embarrassing element: the lack of any ventilation in the bathroom --and thus a constant aroma of mildew
Best home-related advice I've ever gotten: Make sure you're fairly close to a subway station!
Best home-related advice I've ever given: Make sure you're fairly close to a subway station!
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Comments (13)
No comments? Holy Smokes what a place...I actually think its great. couldnt live there myself but what balls to do that all.
i had to go to my happy place when i saw all those puppets. he's a stronger person than i am, that's for sure.
Forgive me my stupid question, but what is meant by "1.5 bedrooms?" What constitutes a half-bedroom?
this is like some sort of torture chamber... me and dolls that have the potential to come alive at night don't really get along.
mr. marbles?
Wacky and fun! I don't think I could live with it myself, but it is interesting to look at. The most interesting places are those where people surround themselves with things they love.
I really like the wall of product packages. How did you attach it all to your walls? I think it would be an even bolder statement to just cover one (only one) large wall of your apartment entirely in products, floor to ceiling. It would be a three-dimensional wallpaper, which is what I think you've achieved with the puppets. Usually I would agree with the other posters that you should showcase individual items and store the rest, but after a collection grows so much, it ceases to be about the individual items and instead is about the number of items and the effect en masse. Very unique.
Paul (and Yessy), thanks so much for sharing your place! I love love love your collection of vintage stuff in the kitchen, as well as your office filled with books. You sound like a genuinely interesting and amazing person. Also, many thanks for sending me along to SwingStreets...I will have to add a tour to one of my next trips to NY for sure!
The puppets are amazing. The products less so--I mean, we all laugh at Vermont Curry packets, and then get over it. I think that collection isn't all that interesting.
But the puppets are wonderful and cool. I'd let them have their own room.
Do you have a space where you can use the puppets for performances? That would be something amazing to experience.
Ok, how many people on this forum would open their places to the public and then act on every criticism someone gave it? Obviously this is not what most of us would do but hey! We're not living there! Decorate how you like and to hell with visitors. You like it, great, glean inspiration. You don't, move on already.
Those dolls are fascinating. It would be great to make a museum out of them - and then Paul's wife could have her Mercedes. They remind me of Isla de las Muñecas, in Xochimilco, Mexico: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06jL0Mye3gc
There's a doll there who looks just like Amy Winehouse!
I love those masks! But wouldn't put it next to family photos. I have a friend who collects similar ones and has them on a wall that is just meant for them. (Also love the masks at the entrance of the office)
Why are the leather puppets there if you are not so fond of them? Either way, the product collection - not the dolls, is what I find a bit disturbing.
I could never live in a place that is so cluttered but it is the kind of place where I would go bonkers taking photographs - and more than likely, listening to obscure jazz .
Wow, this is the biggest collection of Wajang dolls I've ever seen!
Wow... I don't know if that's good or bad... but wow