I like this house. I'm a fan of street finds & this place has some interesting ones. I live in Houston & I can only imagine the street scavengers' paradise that is NYC.... & I like that one of your major influences is "Mad Men". Me too. (Just watched "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" last night. Check it out--it is the paternal grandfather of "Madmen".)

What a nice place - warm, comfy and so much daylight! I like your furniture, the only thing that irritates me is pic 17 - the cabinet looks imho a little wide for the wall between the doors. Normally I'm not a fan of green colour, but in your kitchen it looks really great!

Wow! Cool space! I'll be using it for inspiration for my new similarly laid out Brooklyn pad. And it's not too small at all!

Very Interesting!

Dear Ansca irritated by #17,
I totally agree with you! Maybe you and I can convince Joanna to release the yellow cabinet back into the environment from whence it came.
cheers,
Ger

I live in Park Slope and I hear you about street findings. In my apartment, i have to say 90% of the stuff are from the streets. I keep picking things up and have no room for them.

I love your findings! wish i got them before you did, lol

I love all the little (and sometimes big!) armories and hutches scattered in all the rooms. Great finds!

For a home that is comprised largely of street finds and inherited odds and ends, I will say that it is arranged very well, but there are a few things that bother me, too, such as the aforementioned pic 17 , and the hutch in the kitchen that encroaches upon the already very tiny space. The curtains tacked haphazardly to the windows in the bedroom aren't working for me, either (an apparently, aren't working AT ALL, given that the one on the left is barely hanging by a single tack!); I'd rather see nothing there at all, or at least spring for a couple of $1.99 tension rods. And really, speakers are not end tables; an open table solution like the one on the left repeated on the right would be a vast improvement if smaller speakers aren't in the budget.

your library reminds me of a mark dion installation.. i love

super fun! i love the old medical cabinets. i recently found a school nurse's cabinet at a school that was closing. it still had the instructions taped to the inner door, for taking a temperature, back from the 60's. and it still had that medicinally clean smell when i opened the door. excellent!

I looked at the tour before reading the interview and thought about Obscura immediately, so to see it in your dream source is quite fitting.

I'm a huge fan of your style and feel as though I could wander around your space for hours finding little treasures I didn't see at first glance around every corner. Just lovely.

This is exactly the kind of apartment I like to see! Eclectic and less about money spent! Also, the size is perfect. I own a 1914's bungalow that is only 850 sq. feet and I love seeing how folks fill their tiny spaces! More please...

The way that you take advantage of your space and really make it your own is really inspiring. Seeing this makes me more excited to actually decorate my new place which is tight and cozy to say the least.

That's what I'm talking bout street finds. Bet you have a very nice bank account.

I love the "shoulder devil/angel" angle of the "best advice". Actually, the whole survey was pretty amusing. XD

Love that hanging light in the living room. Where is that from?

p.s. a little freaked out by the foot outside the kitchen! :-) looks almost real in that light!

I have the same dentist's cabinet. I love the glass doors that have ridges one way on the inside and the other way on the outside.

Too.Much.Stuff....

nothing wrong with your place only one thing though get decent drapes from IKEA for the bedroom, not expensive and nice patterns and easy to do byyourself

Your answers are my favorite ever for the Apartment Therapy Survey! I like your view of life ;-)

@ fernieart I am pleased to see a place like this and not a show place that is staged to look marvelous but behind closet doors hides the clutter. This is a great home that is lived in! I only wish people where I live would put things outside....envy !! I hate to hear how people live on a budget but have Eames furniture....like ya, okaaaaaay, sure! I would rather see places like this where real people live.

I am surprised this apartment is lived in by young people.

Howdy Home Improvement Fans,
On behalf of Joanna and myself, I'd just like to say thanks to AT for making such a fuss over our homely little house. And, thanks to all of you folks out there who've made a virtual visit. We sincerely enjoyed your encouraging words and good humored advice.
Cheers,
Ger

I hate dead animals of any sort hanging on walls, I even hate dead flowers, and the picture of the man in the casket is just the last straw! Ghoulish!

Thanks Joanna and Gerry for letting me peek into your space. I miss my hometown and the architecture of the Park Slope buildings. You have an amazing place surrounded by the things you love...all interesting bits and pieces...large and small. Kudos.

Reallly fascinating. I love homes like this that show such original minds. And Mad Men is a great inspiration. It also seemed very Victorian Mod to me. Just made that phrase up so probably doesn't make sense! This is like something from The Selby which is a big compliment from me.

SJP,

I like to see places that are lived in. This is beyond lived in. It's a museum (in good ways and not so good...)

Wowie wow. The first pictures remind me of mid century modern almost with restraint, the last pictures remind me of a Sherlock Holmesian Victorian library with no restraint. This is truly a lived in home and I appreciate that but in all honesty this is exactly what I need to see to keep my inner hoarder in check. And I loves my stuff, just don't want it to OWN me. But fun to see ....

i think your place is fun and homey... i too love your answers. i only wish that the bedroom drapes were either fixed or changed

Wonderfully inventive but I agree with previous post: too much stuff.

I love all of the display cabinets/ shelves/ cupboards/ drawers... nothing that interesting on my local streets! *sigh*

L/O/V/E !!! ESP: 1. green chest of drawers. 2. frame over the mantel 3. medical/oddity display cabinets 4. taxidermy/bones/oddities.

favorite house tour to date.

What a great aesthetic! Mind if we borrow a few of those eclectic items to photograph? This space has a warm yet slightly twisted personality, but not overbearing. Great experiential design!

Some interesting things, but just too much. I agree about the casket pic & the trio above the fireplace creeps me out alittle.

Great home! I would very much like to visit the Morbid Anatomy Library.

I love this place- so stylish, yet homely. Really well done!
As for the yellow cabinet that is a bit too big for the space between the doors- it looks pleasantly idiosyncratic there, and should not be moved, let alone (shudder!!) given away- shame on you Gerry! Anyway you probably won't be living there forever so it may find a roomier home one day.

Great living room! Everything else, not so great.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please read the whole artical before commenting. The final pictures of the post are not from their home!! They are from Joanna's Morbid Anatomy Library.

As for their home, I love it, wether it's my style or not is irrelevant. This place has style and plenty to inspire. Plenty of variety on apartment therapy, so I'm not complaining, though I'd love to see more homes under 1000 sq ft and small family homes!!

Love your sense of aesthetic. It warms my heart that others have just as much 'clutter' as I do and are not affraid to show it off! I am very jelous of your street finds.

Hmmm...a little too late to be posting April Fool's Day jokes, no?

I truly think you can't appreciate this sort of house unless you have lived in either Manhattan or Brooklyn.

You have some beautiful pieces, but I am more of a "Less is more" person. Some of the photos made me feel like I was in a haunted house for a second. It is hard to see the great pieces with everything else going on. But still nice to see someone "Step out of the box"

Very nice,,,,,,you have some nice rooms to do alot,,, it's just you have too many books all around,,you should make one room,, just strictly for books,,this way I think you would have much space to out your pictures a little more spread out..Very nice roomy place,, thanks

I find the colors to be very romantic. The Morbid Anatomy Library is kind of freaking me out, but I'm also totally loving it. I imagine that is the anticipated reaction.

Darn, this looks fun. I live a long way from New York City and Proteus Gowanus, sad to say. It is good to see the owners crafting their home in a way that pleases them, and it happens to please me, too.

I absolutely LOVE how you've effortlessly blended modern colors with mid-century pieces and just a hint of gothic mystery. Well done!

I disagree to all those screaming "too much stuff and looks cluttered". That is a matter of opinion and is not fact. This just isn't a minimalist design.

Collections are a personal thing for most people, and how to display them is always a challenge. And sometimes an editing eye is needed to make the most of those collection displays.

At least this space has personality.

Reminds me of my mother's garage .... She has been collecting for decades....why would you take Prada shoes off someone else's stoop? Or any shoes for that matter?

This place is lovely and warm. I love what they have done with the space. I am embarking on a renovation of a small terrace house in Sydney and will be using some inspiration from this article. I was reading an article recently about the use of space and was interested about the tips re kitchen space in this article which may be of interest http://www.completehome.com.au/Articles_and_Advice?cid=12287&pid=8863114

I want to re-hang everything on the walls...the individual pieces are hung too high, the grouped pieces are too close together and/or don't have a very pleasant composition. In the living room, I'd lower the piece behind the couch about 2 feet, then hang a clock or something else roundish above it. To the left, I'd take the picture with the eyeball and put it lower and in the blank space between the red chair and the cabinet. Then I'd put a mirror above the cabinet to reflect light from the windows. After that, lower the portrait of the kids, so it interacts with the chair, lamp and bookshelf.

I could go on, but those are easy fixes.

Very cool place with neat stuff...but the spacial reasoning is lacking.

I love your space - it belongs to you and if it makes you happy, go for it! I have to comment on the old picture on your mantel of the man, woman and child. Does anyone else think the man and woman are like twins? Or have they been married long enough to look like each other? I'm scared that my hubby and I are starting to look alike and that is NOT a good thing in my opinion and in our case! lol I guess going thru all life's bumps and eating the same food and having the same environment might make you look similar to each other. Maybe the couple are twins and are sitting with their nephew or something. That's what I'm going to believe! lol thanks for sharing your personal space with all of us!

Way too much stuff for my taste, but then again it's not my home. I love the airiness of the first picture, and was lured in with that. I love that light fixture! The rest just needs so much editing to let the real gems show. I couldn't tell which were gems because nothing is allowed to breathe.

I like the living room. But some of the other areas look a little too cluttered for my style. I am not a fan of the tacked up, mismatched window curtains in the bedroom. I do like the idea of street finds, however. I'm sure must be lots of fun and rewarding, too.

I know a lot of people really like this style -- collections and a lot of stuff. It's a style that has been around for a long time. In that vein, this apartment is nice and very well done. But while I am by no means a minimalist, this is just too much stuff for me and would make me very uncomfortable.

Wow! Kindred spirits, for sure. I, too, enjoy and collect vintage morbid items. I can't wait 'til I have a place without careless roommates, so that can take my stuff out of storage and display things proudly.

Ummm.....

I can appreciate the eclectic style and sense of art that permeates this space. Kudos for personalization and self-expression.

That being said, I think it's freaking creepy. I couldn't be inside it more than 5 mins without getting an uncomfortable case of the willies and politely excusing myself.

But that's just me.

Recognizing this home is desgined and lived in by someone who founded a library dedicated to the morbid, I would expect nothing less.

So while it's not for everyone, it deserves points for intentionality and execution.

love everything (except the severed leg) awesome :)

Clutter, clutter everywhere! As a former 'collector of things' I get it...surround yourself with things you like to see. As a newfound minimalist, I can say that nothing is more liberating than freeing yourself of clutter, possessions and "things" that bog you down. I have moved four times in the past 15 years, and each time I packed up and lugged with me all of my things, I started to see them less as things and more as baggage. I had to care for them and clean/dust them. The more I had, the longer it took. Once I understood that, it became easy to shed it all! I am no longer a slave (or Curator to use AT-speak) of my things. I keep my space sparse and the chi really flows. I shall now step off my soap box. Other than that I like the lightfixture in the living room.

Oy.

Yes. They certainly maximized their space.

The yesteryear charm of the home is alluring.

Your house tour provided more passionate comments than any I have seen in a long time. It is what I love about Apartment Therapy = real people and their style.

Loved the house. The foot scared me though.

Agree with EdithGeorge about the art hung too high or just not in a pleasing arrangement. And what's with the curtain falling off in the bedroom?

I know that all things Brooklyn are supposed to be cool now, but this is really just a very ordinary place decorated in a very ordinary way (with far too much stuff for my taste). I don't have anything against the owners or what they have done--just not sure this is tour-worthy yet.

I really REALLY love this home.

I totally get these folks, and I totally am the same way. I too, am constantly striving to inject wit and whimsy into our spaces. We have five kids and I love nothing more than to make our homes places of wonder so our kids can project their imagination into the spaces and have fun, and not feel like the rooms are grown-up and stuffy.

Life can be so boring and drearily relentless in its routines and social judgements and expectations.

It's so liberating, so truly fun and great, to be able to play and have fun with decorating, behind one's own closed doors.

Plus, all the nostalgia and curiosos from the past are endlessly fascinating. Not so much creepy, as truly bizarre and magical.

Such a creative and stimulating series of rooms. LOVE.

This is my favorite house tour ever!! So lovely and homey. I'd like to read every book.