Name: Amy
Location: Washington Heights
Size: 1000 sqft Junior 4 (1 big bedroom + office/small 2nd bedroom)
Lived in: 1 year
To salvage --to find a quality object that has outlived its original calling in life and adapt it to your own needs--is a skill at which Amy excels.
Amy salvages professionally in that she writes and does video demos for This Old House. Inevitably many of her DIY projects end up in Amy and her husband Jon's home...
Do you have an idea for a house tour? Let me know! jill@apartmenttherapy.com
The apartment is high over the hudson river with incredible light and unusual views for NYC! Each room is spacious and feels well tended to.
Amy's projects run rampant through the house. Just a small sampling includes the Newel Post Pilasters that flank the entrance to the sunken living room, the widened doorway for the salvaged French doors, and the garden tool holder made from a
terracotta cornice.
Amy and Jon moved in just a year ago and they have been dragging Amy's varied collections out of storage ever since. This is, by far, their biggest space shared so they can finally display all the things Amy hoped she could one day use. Amy is the first to admit, however, that her sidewalk trolls have cut down significantly. The bedbug scare has really curbed her otherwise insatiable enthusiasm for the unjustly abandoned item.
AT Survey:
My Style: Harmonious hodgepodge of retro and rustic
Inspiration: The views of the Hudson River and Palisades Park from our windows. We painted the walls white to maximize reflected sunlight, and decorated with earth-toned furniture and rugs that echo the colors of the water and trees.
Favorite Element: Waking up and seeing sailboats on the river.
Biggest Challenge: Designing a new kitchen. We have a limited budget, but high-end aspirations. To keep costs down, we plan to use salvaged materials like an old cast iron farmhouse sink (our friends saved us one from their recent remodel). And we just bought a white enamel 24” Viking gas range from Green Demolitions in Bethel, NY (greendemolitions.org), for less than half price. It was a floor model from a dealer’s showroom.
Biggest Embarrassment: Having to spring a guest from the bathroom during a party in April. The old lock was busted, and we had to remove the knob to release the latch. We have yet to fix it.
What Friends Say: : Our 10-year-old nephew, Connor, upon seeing the yellow plastic Panton chairs in the dining room: “It’s like the future.”
Best advice: Keep rearranging until you get it right. That piece you got for the bedroom might look better in the living room. That’s how it worked with the chocolate-colored chaise.
Proudest DIY: Building the plinth block bases for the wooden pilasters (actually, two halves of a Victorian-era newel post) flanking either side of the living room passageway. I matched the custom profile of the original 1930s baseboard trim by putting together multiple stock pieces from Dykes Lumber.
Biggest Indulgence Those yellow chairs. Besides the sofa and chaise lounge in the living room, they were the only new things Jon and I purchased for our apartment. The rest are hand-me-downs, and inexpensive finds from thrift stores, salvage yards, and antiques shops.
Dream source: Asbury Park, NJ. We both spent our childhoods vacationing on the Jersey Shore, and this is the one place we still like to visit. It’s a long-past-its-prime beach resort with a lot of character. There have always been good music venues there, but now there are also art galleries, sophisticated restaurants, and vintage furniture stores. We bought our dresser and desk at House of Modern Living on Cookman Ave.
Resources:
Area salvage dealers: Demolition Depot in Harlem; demolitiondepot.com
Olde Good Things in Chelsea; http://oldegoodthings.com/
Recycling the Past in Asbury Park and Barnegat NJ; http://recyclingthepast.com/
Oil paintings above sofa and in bedroom: Jon’s sister, Liz ; http://elizabethschuppe.com/
Vernor Panton chairs: The Vitra Store on 9th Ave. in NYC; http://vitra.com/products/home/dining_room_chairs/panton_chair/default.asp?lang=us_us
Chaise lounge: Design Within Reach Annex in Secaucus, NJ; http://dwr.com/studios/dwrannex
Sofa: The 89” Andre from Room and Board;
http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product.do?method=get&id=022892&coll=378104&cat=27
Club chair fabric: This Laurie Smith print is discontinued, but I was able to mail-order 10 yards of it for $80 at one of Hancock’s big retails stores in Mississippi. http://www.hancockfabrics.com/gateway/2987.html
Upholsterer: Jon’s mom took the club chair and the Brno-esque tubular chairs (got ‘em both for $10 at the Salvation Army in Jersey City) in our bedroom to this great guy in NJ; NEU Interiors, Livingston; 973-992-5610
Apartment Therapy's Sofa Shopping Guide
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Stanley Console by ...
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Summer Recipe: Brown Butter Peaches & Chantilly Cream
Wow! I'm completely jonesin' for that magazine rack/side table in the living room ... so cool.
And I agree on your plug for Demolition Depot ... that is my favorite place in the city.
Thanks for inviting us into your home. You've done a great job. I have been thinking of using several of the same items you've chosen to a similar effect. It's great to see that someone has done so this effectively. Congrats again!
what a lovely home! nice job.
You have a great eye! Everything looks great together and then (so often untrue) everything looks great on its own. I am especially impressed by your ability to make black look intentional.
What is the white branchy-coraly thing on the wall behind the armchair in the livingroom? It looks awesome, and I miss the branches I used to have at my ceiling.
I really love the Vitra chairs and the wood table combined with the carpet you have going on underneath. Yes.. I too am a fan of demolition depot.
This is just amazing - great work, great eye, great everything. You've done a beautiful job. There is so much personality in your home and I'm incredibly jealous of some of your finds.
Btw, my bf and I are obsessed with The Wire as well - that mobile is too funny!
I'm not a fan of the dining room (especially the plastic chairs), but I love everything else. It has the warm, sunny, and welcoming feel that I'm hoping to achieve in my new bedroom.
love the backsplash over the stove.
great place!
i looooove your style. thanks for sharing!
lovely--a warm, inviting place with loads of character....i like the eclecticism and layers of furnishings and objects from different eras. looks like a true home where interesting people live.
LOVE this place. Such great DIY work, very warm and welcoming and full of character.
Oh how beautiful! This is truly one of my favorite apartment tours. Bravo!
WOW those yellow chairs brighten any day! Perfect example of using well made furniture in a neutral palette with artsy well designed accents that POP!
I love your home. I love the yellow Patton chairs. I've always wanted some pink ones. Are they actually comfortable to sit in? I've often wondered that.
I also really, really love the owls. What a great eye. I think I would've missed those had I seen them. They look adorable lined up under the table. I am a big fan of architectural remnants hung as art.
And, the paintings in your bedroom are lovely, did you do them? I like how your place looks uncluttered even though you have a lot of stuff. I am envious of your great job. Wish I could make a living doing that, but I'm not very handy!
Thanks for sharing your home.
i cant say how much i love it..cause there will be too many words.
the yellow throughout the house is awesome ( are those custom brno chairs?)
very nicely done. but what made me go from " i really like it" to " i love it" is the stockings holder.
lil details make my heart go pit-a-patter
Must...contain...envy...
What an amazing job you've done. I love how everything comes together beautifully without being loud or overwhelming, but then upon closer inspection, I notice all the really cool, different, riskier things you've done. Love the pillows on the bed and the backsplash over the stove. That's it - I'm planning trips to Olde Good Things and Demolition Depot right this moment.
This tour really makes me happy, I'm also punchy with yellow. I'm going to try preparing Maria's beets---and follow your example with the chalkboard in the kitchen. Thanks for sharing this.
What a fabulous apartment!
I feel weirdly proud every time I see another bathroom with those tiles--we have them too, on the walls and the floor (although in just black and white, not green) and I feel like they're all over AT. Whoever manufactured those in the 1930s or whenever must have made a bundle.
Hate to sound repetitous, but I have to echo everything above. It 'feels' sunny, and just looking at the pictures makes me happy.
Congratulations on a very lovely home.
The best thing of all is the mobile of characters from The Wire. I love it!
This is a truly gorgeous home. I'm jealous of so many of your vintage finds and love the way you've put it all together.
Fabulous!
What a beautiful home! It has real personality and style. I'm inspired to start looking for a similar side table/magazine rack.
Wow, what a cool place. I love it when an older place retains it's period details, in this case, the original built in hamper and drying rack. I've lived in places that still had their original undercounter fridges, mind you, no longer work as the compressors were long ago removed from the basement, retained their original cooling cabinets and currently, my building, built in 1960 still has it's built in Nutone scale in the bathroom and of course, it's period luminous ceiling and most of it's blue bath fixtures.
Amy, please comment on the white table next to the green chair with the upholstered legs (i think it was slide 28). That was my favorite piece. Thanks.
I'm beaming. Your comments are all so nice. It's nerve-wracking to put yourself out there like this. Home is so personal. And you all make me so happy that I did it.
I'm just getting to answering some of the questions. Here goes...
Ridge and Heps: Jon and I bought that magazine rack/end table from a woman in our building for $100. I'm pretty sure it's from the early 40s. It's flatpak in that you can loosen these little screws in the base with a hex key and the whole thing can be disassembled. Eat your heart out Ikea.
Miniature Dance Party: That coraly-branchy stuff is about 40 pieces of Algue from Vitra. It all snaps together to form a screen in any shape you choose. Our old plaster walls are a little lumpy, so I used them to cover a particulalry uneven spot.
Bellaknollie: I found those chairs for $10 at a Salvation Army in Jersey City (near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel). I call them brno-esque because they didn't have a maker's mark under their seats. I had them recovered in that yellow fabric—the original red canvas was badly worn.
Peggy: My sister-in-law, Liz, is the painter. I love the oils we have, but most are from her art school days. Her new stuff is really amazing. elizabethschuppe.com
-Amy
I swear I didn't read the write-up before I looked at the slideshow (never do) and thought I recognized that DIY light-box from another TOH article. Then the bedside shelf gave it away.
I want your job and your furniture.
Any other TOH subscribers on AT?
Damova, a salvage dealer built that little table for me last year. It's made out of old porch rail balusters. Here's the link to the step-by-step should you want to make one for yourself:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/knowhow/interiors/article/0,16417,1532612,00.html
-Amy
This is a great and warm home. I am so jealous of the great lighting and that drying rack in the bathroom. Just so much wonderful period detail. On top of that Amy has a great eye for mixing texture and color into a unified whole.
Heres my question to Amy- how much and long have you been paying for storage for your salvage finds? I see great things on the curb, Craigslist and fleamarkets but I cant justify getting storage to keep beautiful pieces that I MAY have room for someday since I only have a 1 BR. But the whole thing with salvaging and thrifting is you may never see that piece again. Does that make sense or am I just seeking reassurance so that I can be a packrat?
You had me at the dining room picture!!! Having grown up in a family that tended to buy sets of furniture, until I started lurking at AT, I never really *got* that you can successfully pair plastic with wood, a lucite chair with a more traditional couch, heck, dark wood and light wood! I am stiill pretty dismal at mixing styles, materials, colors, and patterns into a cohesive design. Amy has done this perfectly, IMHO, and has created a warm, eye-catching, and very personalized home that is well designed yet doesn't looking patterned after a catalogue. Definitely going into the inspiration file!
Trumystique: I'm lucky because Jon's wonderful parents have let us store things in their basement in Jersey for years. When we lived in a 450-square-foot 1br in Hell's Kitchen, half of our stuff was at their house. We also had a small rental storage unit ($60/month), but it was mostly filled with seasonal clothing, our bikes, and cleaning supplies, as we had NO storage whatsover in our old place.
I'm also pretty good at giving stuff away as I find new (new to me) things that fit in better with the mix and style I've been cultivating.
That said, the reality of apartment dwelling is that you will always have to pass on something really great. Jon will kill me for dredging this up, but I still lament walking away from an amazing, c. 1910, cast iron kitchen sink with these shapely legs that I saw on the street in Brooklyn. We totally could have fit in the back seat of our Civic, but Jon was worried that he would then have to drive around with it back there for an eternity. He was right to pass on it, but man it was gorgeous and we could really use it now. It would cost about $1000 to buy one like it at a salvage shop. I still don't think it's a good idea to rent a storage unit for those someday pieces, though. I regret that we wasted our money on one for so long. Try that method of swapping out the new for the old. This nice thing is my sister has gotten some cool stuff as a result of all my editing. And her apartment is really looking great these days, which makes her really happy.
Oops, look patterned, not looking patterned...
I know that sal's by the tunnel...great find there.
well they look very good for being brno-esq
i love that yellow!
Thanks, Amy. I already know getting storage was probably bad news. I guess that means I should stop pestering my sister to get her inlaws to store Craiglist finds in their basement. Will try to swapping out trick.
This is such a warm, personal home-- love it!
Great place. Love the mix of old and new. Very well thought out in a natural, easy way. And the cat's not on a table!
Peggy: Forgot to tell you that those Panton chairs are very comfortable. Pink ones would be so pretty.
Amy, I'm so grateful that you swap out, share, give away, etc. It's only stuff, and the beauty is that there is abundance, so we don't need to fill spaces with things that are too beautiful and useful to be crammed into storage.
Why has no one yet mentioned that Amy is a total cutie?
quote: Why has no one yet mentioned that Amy is a total cutie?
I was about to, but I figured I would be banned so I didn't.
I am in love with your apartment, especially the dining room! What a fantastic collection of vintage finds.
p(too) -- she's even cuter in person. And very nice, too! Oh, and brilliant. Basically I wish I could be her.
wow (ok, so late to this thread, but wow)!
Amazing. This looks not only like a well-designed place, but moreover, a real home. It's warm, it's textured, it shows evidence of someone actually living there.
perhaps Apartment therapy could get Amy to write a column! I love what she's done to her place. Maybe readers send in pictures of stuff they're planning to get rid of, and Amy suggests how to salvage it?
this is so great. not overthetop, or too messy, or too staged. just perfect, and lived in, and bright and lots of character. i love it. you've done an awesome job!! thanks for sharing.
I love this! such a great collection of modern and vintage and so well placed with everything.
I am especially in love with those owls! Are they thrift? I could of sworn I saw something just like them someplace but I can't remember where.
Once again gorgeous apartment
I think this apartment is lovely. And I was excited to recognize the cabinet in the dining room from the new issue of TOH.
tornangel012: Thanks for the nice note. I got those owls for $40 at a resale shop near my mom's house in Stuart, Florida. They kind of remind me of Jonathan Adler's new ceramic animals.
I love, love, LOVE your apartment. You've given me so many ideas.