apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

this is HANDS DOWN one of the most gorgeous apartments i have ever seen. you guys have wonderful taste and are handy with a camera too. well done!!!

Wow! I can't believe your place is so beautiful and clean with a 4 year old! Hats off to you! I really like your son's headboard...was it custom made?

Ben made both the entertainment unit and the bed. Both were beautifully crafted pieces, alongside all the overhead shelving that wrapped all around the main living areas. He's available for commissioned work, if anybody is interested.

stellar stylin', for sure. this is so fresh, so clean :)

light, airy and chic.
it has a personality and a point of view.
well done!
C

(unlike the Dwell sponsored brownstone on AP:NY that looks like a catalog of over priced stuff)

WOW! All the white looks great! I am inspired...

This place is sooo cool! I love all the interesting details that make this place different.

Proof that the valley can be cool. I'm really impressed with the way the space has such beautiful colors but overall has that modern crisp white look. I just keep adding color until there's no more white!

Good Job!

this is one of the best hours tours ever! i especially love the above-the-door shelving. and that dining room storage unit. i want!

Also love the little details - the retro phone, the bird on the shelf next to the Bullfinch books...even Spongebob looks cool in this place!

WOW this apt is BUTTER! It looks cozy but very glam too without being over the top. Love it!

that is one awesome apartment. the custom built furniture is way cool. and even with all that white it looks comfortable rather than cold.
ditto on the dining room storage unit love. was it also custom built?

WOW. absolutely GORGEOUS!! I love the white and how warm you made it feel. fantastic lighting! It seems very happy and cozy and super fresh and organized too. amazing

Great place. Wonderful choices all around...

your color balance is exceptionally good. I like all I see and more over it feels like home and not like someone's apartment that was made copying the copy of a modern catalog. Very unique and really lovely...

I'm going to steal about a hundred ideas from this place. Great pics too!

gorgeous and amazing.

the custom credenza is my favourite part.

truly inspirational house whose owners seem to have a super clean, whimsical eye, and they make it look effortless.

Such great style. Beautiful work!

Fun, serene, ingenious -- I LOVE it!

What a warm, clever, amazingly lovely home you've made. A billion kudos!

The white cabinet in the dining room was used in an elementary school in the early 70's and was gunmetal gray. We had it painted white to give it new life and make the colors come to life.

Also, thank you so much for the very kind comments and for letting us share our home on the site!

Polly, Ben & Cyrus

P.S. I realized I used the word 'life' twice in my last post (ha ha) ... I of course meant to say, that we painted it white to make the colors in the cabinet 'pop'.

Wow! What a wonderful, calming place to come home to!

Working big time. Love the dining table. Where did you find the chair with upside kid attached? Very cool!

I love how this place feels like a real home and not a showroom. You actually have stuff! Love all the custom built furniture, very inspiring!

Love the place! Where is that dining room table from? It's gorgeous!

Can I get the name of the grey on the bedroom wall? Thanks!

What a gorgeous place! I love the simple airy feel of it. You have some beautiful art as well. I really love the turquoise lamps. I am very impressed with your lack of clutter, and amazed at some of your custom pieces, like the credenza (is this for sale? :-)

I wonder, however, is the storage cabinet safe over your child's head? I would probably move that.

Can you please tell me the source of the Vietnamese sculpture on your dining table? Lovely.

Thanks for sharing.

The dining room table is from H.D. Buttercup in Los Angeles and the bedroom wall color is an old Martha Stewart color swatch from Sherwin Williams that I had color matched - 'Midlands', #8323.

I just took another look - gosh your place is beautiful. I really love the way you placed the furniture. The elementary school storage unit in the dining room is genius.

I am also totally in love with your bedroom. Love those lamps too and the suitcases displayed as art. You've done a great job.

P.S. - I just wanted to mention - maybe you just really love white. I know I do. I go through color phases and always return to white. I love how you have pops of color.

OK, after seeing this place, the house I've been trying to infuse with color looks dowdy. My husband will kill me if I tell him we have to repaint it all white. Gorgeous.

Cyrus is one lucky kid!

White couch. 4.5 year old. *does not compute*

Sorry, I meant to say: what a gorgeous, light and expressive space. :D

The headboard above Cyrus’ bed is built with safety magnets and is also at an angle so it's very safe. . . The sculpture on the dining room table is from Pier One. . . and my husband loves a challenge, and replacing our credenza would be a good one, so yes, we’d consider selling it.

Gorgeous wall colour in the bedroom. Would love to track down something similar. Polly, would you describe "midlands #8323" as being grey?

I would call Midlands (bedroom wall color) a medium taupe grey. It is definitely more of a brown/grey than a blue/grey so it makes the room feel warmer.

Email(s) if anyone would like to contact us directly:
polly.wilson@gs.com / or / pollydesigns@hotmail.com

Wow!! What a refreshing space! I'm amazed by how uncluttered it is. How do you guys organize cables? I don't see offensive power cords. Love the credenza. Is there any hardware on the front panels to help it slide? Or is it unnecessary?

Excellent, perfect, nothing else left to say.

Typically if I heard white, white, white, I'd be guilty of rolling my eyes, but this is fantastic. It's clean, uncluttered and modern, but the woods warm it up and there is undeniably humor everywhere. Thank you for sharing this.

I love the couch, chairs in the sitting area, the dining room cabinet, and the blue lamps.

I love the high shelves that ring the entertainment center and kitchen. Are they as simple as they seem to be? Brackets and some plywood? They look fantastic. And super smart, too.

I think I'm in love...

The light!
The colors!
The vintage California vibe!

Just beautiful, Polly and Ben.

The high shelves in the living / dining room are solid pine. The brackets are reverse hung so you don't see them underneathe and they double as bookends.

Wow! It's like you are living in a hotel...and I mean that in a good way. Where do you keep all the stuff?

this is absolutely positively amazing. i love all of it! i covet those turquoise lamps (and just about everything is this apartment.)

is the plant next to the tv real? what is it? it is a banana plant? it looks great.

Thanks and yep - it is a banana plant. They are so easy to care for..we have two!

Where did yo purchase the hanging clock in the kitchen? So beautiful

The doors on the credenza are lightweight and slide easily so they don't require any hardware.

The clock was a gift from NYC as we say - it was left out on the street one night as we walked home from the subway.

love it.
what about that small wood credenza / chest you have in the hallway with the big square knobs? flea market? very cool.
thanks for sharing.

LOVE IT!

I was going to say that the color palette that seems to have the right vibe for your place was the one Martha did for K-Mart back in the '90s (guess it is not still around?). We had a similar vintage apartment and used Martha Stewart's Clay to great effect. As I recall, she had a number of such colors... Midlands is absolutely perfect in your bedroom!

I'm amazed. I lived in an apartment like that when I was in LA and it was just a box. I couldn't figure out how to deal with the eight foot ceiling and or the typical fat LA blinds.

You've really made a beautiful place.

This place is drop dead gorgeous. I am honestly dying to know, how DO you keep the couch white with a little boy running around? Is he not allowed on it??!

Brilliant idea storing the suitcases on the wall like that, by the way!!

A lot to love, but I don't love the two velvet chairs tub chairs.

I love the door handle and would loved to have seen that vibe flavor even more of the apartment.

Just nitpicky stuff in a pretty swell place.

Hmm, I vaguely remember what 1100 square feet feels like...

But, as afar as that tip "If a room feels overwhelming, remove everything and bring back only what works." Um, where do you put it when you remove it?!?

ps: I also really love that you "get" "white as a color". And demonstrate its power so effectively.

Hoorah!!!

What a warm and inspiring space, I love your lighting and storage/shelving - thanks for sharing! Can I ask where you got your lovely curved sofa? I'm moving into a small studio and one half of your sofa would be perfect!!

Your suitcase storage idea (brilliant!) has already inspired my next round of cat furniture designs. Love the space.

Really nice. Your use of color (including white) and light are wonderful. Particularly like the living room sofa (very Dick Van Dyke show), dining room table (love H.D. Buttercup), and media storage unit. We're in NY, but if Ben would consider designing a unit and cutting all the pieces so it could be shipped flat and I could just assemble it, I might be interested. I've made furniture myself in the past, but i don't have the time, tools, or space to do it now.

We would definitely consider cutting the pieces for a credenza and shipping it flat. You can contact me at pollydesigns@hotmail.com.

The sofa is from Room Service in L.A.

I'm interested in locating the brackets used for the ceiling shelf. I like how they look and that they hold some great weight. I've been wanting to do something similar to my living room. Love the whole layout. Was that a double oven I saw in the kitchen? Kewl!

Hi - the brackets were from Home Depot. You can likely find them at most home stores and they are definitely rated to hold quite a bit of weight!

your home is SO lovely, and very inspiring! have to admit, i have had brief lusty flings w/ color, but always end up coming back to the whites & neutrals.

i am so inspired!

Hi - beautiful home! where did you find the large round mirror in the entryway?

Polly,
Wow. You two have done a phenomenal job. I usually find both white walls and mid-century decor cold, but you have made me a believer. I can't even believe I'm about to write this, but I don't think you need color on the walls. In the space that you've designed the white is the perfect.

Very nice, all of it. However, the books should be moved to lower storage and the high shelves removed. Perhaps single white lacquer cubes along the wall? The high shelves make the ceilings appear to be lower than they are/ need be.

The white is beautiful - go with it! Add color through accessories like pillows and finishes on furniture. The warm tones on the wood finishes are similarly complimentary.

I just love the cocktail table in the living room. I know that I have seen it before but I can't recall the maker. Does anyone know? Are they still making it?

I have gone through your slideshow a dozen times to steal ideas for my office! :) THANK YOU for sharing it! It looks as if you have small glowing lights on your high pine shelves -- is that right? Are they cans on the ceiling or some kind of little fixture on the shelves?

I looked back to see if this question was already asked, but didn't see it. Where did you get the lighting that illuminates on the high shelves? It looks to me like they are hard-wired fixtures. Is this correct? If not, what are they called and where can they be found?

thanks!

I would trample small children to get my hands on those two blue lamps. Any information on them???

The lighting on the high shelves is the 'Grono' lamp from IKEA - usually very easy to find. We ran one extension cord up a corner seam in the wall and hid the cords behind books.

I bought the blue lamps separately on eBay and they just happened to be a 'pointer sisters' pair. I've seen similar ones on eBay since so it's worth checking out. I made the shades though as they are difficult to find in decent shape.

Thanks for the nice comments!
polly

Hi Polly and Ben
I just love your place! Very fresh and clean....Lovely
I'm in love with your Vietnamese sculpture - Can you please
tell me where you got it? Its Adorable.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.

The Vietnamese sculpture on the table is from Pier 1.
Thanks for the nice comments! -polly

Your apartment is beautiful and very inspiring, so good to keep your palette simple, think I'll go and have a clear out! Could you tell me where you found your curved sofa? It looks great.

The curved sofa is from Room and Board in Los Angeles, and you can pick your fabric as well as get it in a slightly smaller size.

Very nice. I can't believe I finally saw a mid century in good taste. I hate that period, but you folks certainly are the exception. Probably because you kept away from that woody Scandy look. Thanks. Proves that quiet good taste can be execute in any period or style.

This house just seems to sparkle with light and lots of positive energy. Love it!

Does anyone have any idea where I can find a wine rack like the one in the background of the kitchen image. A wall mounted one that holds 12 or so bottles vertically?

Wow, what a great apartment! Kudos to Polly and Ben for creating such an unique space. I love the way it's so light and white and yet so warm and playful - not an easy feat to pull off.

I do have two small nitpicks, though. The first is that living in earthquake country, all of that high shelving makes me really nervous - it seems like not only are their belongings in danger of being damaged when the big one hits, but there is also a good chance that someone would get beaned in the head by falling objects. The other is the misuse of the word simplistic in the writeup - one of my pet peeves - simple is good, people, simplistic is not!

This is one chill pad. Well done.

This is truly one of the most beautiful apartments I've ever seen. Polly, can you tell me the paint color in the livingroom? And what the lamp is in the corner?