apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

A word from your friends at Social Workout, who believe in taking care of both home and body. We've been quiet in this space of late, though we have written a few items of interest for A.T. loyalists -- like about how fitness and staircases are all the rage among the Renzo Piano set, and how barefoot running is all about de-cluttering, and, weirdly, has a lot in common with D.I.Y., not to mention Raw Food. But we're prompted to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming now just to pass along a single important message: This Sunday is the Summer Solstice, and we will kick off our unusual Feats of Summer Challenge. The Challenge will run through Labor Day, and is engineered to induce feelings of extreme wellness. Should you be looking for a mind-body push, please join us.

Crucially important bits of exercise-related intel for those that like to take care of their body as well as their home:

• Madden NFL yesterday released its would be Wii Fit-killer: EA Sports Active.


• The Kombooch is good for you, and helps the digestion, but, at $4 a bottle, it's also brutal on the wallet. Not to panic. If you like DIY home design, you'll love DIY Kombucha.


• Also playing: Amazing Exercise Ball Tricks (not to be done at home)


• New York State tells yogis to bend over


• Forget about the IEDs, there's a gym craze busting out in Baghdad


• Finally, NYU Profs Attack Oprah Nation

AT regulars will have noticed the recurring "Home Workout" posts. You may have enjoyed the links, ignored them, or thought, "Get your fitness junk out of my design blog?"

Ouch! And fair enough.

Back story: Way back in 2004, when Martha was in the Big House, Maxwell and I launched AT.com together. Time passed, and then one day in yoga class, I thought: "This crazy urban fitness scene -- gyms, yoga studios, Lululemon, etc. -- needs a blog too."

"Modern rural" design might seem to be somewhat of a contradiction... At least in the U.S. But for Irish design types like Sasha Sykes, it seems modernity wasn't quite in such a rush to sell the family farm and move to the city.

Sykes' response in 2001 was to found Farm21, a furniture and art operation that is one part minimalist lucite and two parts hay bale. Think DWR meets Andy Goldsworthy.

Fall colors in ceramic. Edith Heath began throwing her simple, modernist bowls, cups and plates in 1948, before Sausalito became the land of cheap trinkets and stunning, tourist-obscured views. Now, Heath Ceramics have become a "Hot Product" but we love seeing them creep back into design stores, where they rightfully belong...

Patrick McKeon is the Tibor Kalman of thrift shops... Ever since Housing Works introduced the concept of "Salvation Armani" in the mid-1990s, NYC thrift shops have been drifting upmarket. At Angel Street Thrift Shop, McKeon, a soft-spoken man who did his "display" training at Bonwit Teller, has turned the merchandising of used clothes, furniture, and odd domestic artifacts into a small art form.

"I put stories together," says McKeon, who redoes the windows every two weeks and turns over the entire store inventory seasonally. Thanks to McKeon and his staff -- and a wonderful, bright location on 17th Street, a.k.a. Thrift Shop Alley -- Angel Street is perhaps the most sophisticated thrift shop in town.

Update: Angel Street Thrift Store has added a new location at 67 Guernsey Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The hours are Wed-Sat 11:00-6:00 pm and Sunday 12:00-5:00 pm.

Don't ask why, but we were in the County Clerk's office last week. Locked the bike up in front of 1 Center Street, proceeded past the security guards, into the basement, and there we were in a wonderful world of enormous leather bound books, high ceilings, and obscure, old school filing systems.

But it was Eileen McAleavey in room 109B who reminded us about the nearby Municipal Archives. "You can get old pictures of your block there," she said, and we remembered the pictures hanging on the brick wall of our mother's kitchen.

Schrager Home is closing and putting everything on sale. As a result, we are retiring their posting and replacing it with this one sans comments. If you have any more news about Schrager, please email us directly.

Schrager is selling off everything at discounts aroud 50%, with floor samples going for even great discounts. They've got modern and contemporary sofas, armoires, lighting, floor mirrors and more:

Chelsea sofa, was $1,695, now $745; Soho sectional , was $2840, now $1499; dining table with 4 chairs was $1395: now $499; Gus sectional was $2750; now $1499; Spring Street sofa was $1785:now $885.

All sales are by cash or check only. The sale starts today and runs throught the end of the month.

By conservative estimate, I've visited 30 sofa stores in the last week. It's kind of embarrassing that I only discovered Carlyle yesterday. Part of the reason is that I was steering clear of sofa beds. The weight. The metal bar. The agony. So, I was somewhat unprepared for how much I liked their stuff. Many good looking couches, all available in every possible permutation.

Carlyle, it seems, would be the Cadillac to Jennifer Convertibles Chevy.

(Note: This is an update review for DWR. First reviewed on 3.3.04)

Company chooses friendly name to soften just-out-of-reach prices. Started by the San Francisco modern furniture mafia in the late nineties, DWR is an easy modern antidote to Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel when you need one.

Specializing in classic modern designs, the once strictly-catalogue vendor now has three SIX stores in New York and is the local place to go for modern furniture staples -- sofas, beds, and an impressive selection of "seating solutions."

A typical DWR sofa will run you between $2,000 to $3,000. Look also for their handsome mirrors & the famous Eames plywood chair (pic above).

Problems? DWR is rapidly expanding to become one stop shopping for the modern design world and it has three effects:

Nostalgia has a place in home furnishing. The Apt. Therapist generally looks dimly on vintage electronics. Technology doesn't age well, and however giddy you may get as you eye the 8-track tape player at the thrift shop ("Wouldn't that be a laugh? Wouldn't I be cool?") he says it's best to move on. Clutter is your enemy.

But we propose there are exceptions to the rule, and some of them can be found at Wave L.L.C., a first rate "antique" electronics boutique on West 30th street.

This is not exactly the Deep Throat exclusive but...the web is all aflutter this morning at the upcoming Vanity Fair cover story in which Martha tells all about being on the Inside and how the uber homemaker finds house arrest "hideous." What's she been up to in her spare time? Apparently Googling up ways to lose the security bracelet. C'mon, this is a woman who can make Christmas tree ornaments out of Campbells soup cans, did they really think they could keep her down?

Another reason to move promptly to Brazil. Thanks to Todd Jatras at Wired for pointing out what is apparently the world's only rotating skyskraper. Get this: 11 floors, eleven 3,000 square foot condos, and each condo spins independently 360 degrees. Fast or slow, clockwise or counterclockwise. We're really not sure about the feng shui on this one, and worry about families bickering over the remote as it were, not to mention the possibly traumatic implications for late night trips to the bathroom. But it's refreshing to see such a willingness to take risks, such playfulness, such grand engineering style. (Dare we pray that The Donald would be so inspired before our West Side has been further wounded?) Ahem, anyway, the real story here may be the lovely Brazilian city of Curitiba, where urban planners go to samba. OHR
Photo: Nelson Kon

ApartmentTherapy.com winner goes straight to the top: Budget Living magazine announced this morning that it has hired Angela Matusik as its new Editor. Loyal readers will recall the triumph of Angela's Bright Orange Crush last March. If the woman can do that to a kitchen, imagine what she'll do to a periodical.... Matusik replaces founding editor Sarah Gray Miller who left in April. Naturally, we're re-upping our subscription. -OHR