Style on a Budget: Combining Two Pre-War Apartments New York Magazine

The newest Great Rooms feature from Wendy Goodman and New York Magazine shows us the apartment of photographer Annie Schlechter and bookbinder Russell Maret — it's a budget-conscious renovation on the Upper East side that combined a studio and a one-bedroom. But the story gets more interesting because (surprise!) the two apartments were in different buildings that were combined in the 1940s...

After initial demolition and scraping away the plaster, the owners and their architect, Joe Serrins, discovered mismatched ceiling heights and a parapet wall — which, due to budget, they embraced in the final design. Our favorite part? The creative and inexpensive kitchen renovation:

We didn’t have the budget to do a fancy lacquered job,” Serrins says. The cabinets and countertops were done on the cheap with plywood and Formica, but that’s a plus, he adds. “The surfaces have a patina that I think feels very New York.”.

Check out the full story and more pictures at New York Magazine: Wild Blue Yonder.

(Images: Annie Schlechter)

Comments (16)

i ::wolf whistle:: at that couch!

The couch, the blue wall, the kitchen...love it all.

I love the kitchen peninsula - particularly the differences in countertop materials and the combination of display and storage

I like how in the full print story, the kitchen is described as a Lichtenstein without the text bubbles.

That was a very cool apartment, wished they showed more than they did.

I love how they got creative to make the difference in ceiling heights and such work and utilizing inepensive materials in a creative way to make a very cool and colorful kitchen.

The whole color element works well.

I would like to see more. I feel like of the two main elements of this story (the architectural obstacles and budget), neither is explored.

I love the first photo, but the blue wall looks Photoshopped!

Fab, I've painted walls that color--mostly requires three coats of good painting and good paint (and it helps to surround such a wall with light and that pink!).

Weird, that pink sofa and blue wall...LOVE, but with the red stove...PUKE!

BTW, there's a place in Seattle (actually Tacoma) Dead Man's Attic that is selling a pink settee like this

found the link. right on!

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/fud/1128655848.html

I love this place -- the use of colour (the love of Yves Klein Blue and Pink), how they relate without being overly coordinated. The enamel red stove, the green chandelier the yellow kitchen. All masterstrokes.

Very British -- very Living Etc.

Very happy to see something new and different like this.

I love furniture that hasn't been reupholstered. Sofa is great!

The sofa was reupholstered, she inherited it from her grandmother and it was in white fabric and she decided she wanted the pink on the picture.

The sofa fabric actually looks like Designers Guild stuff

This is such a cool blend of great colored stuff.