Name: Joel
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Type: Loft, rented - a sewing factory in a previous life
Why I use color:
Color makes the room feel warm & inviting and gives it more interest than just having white walls. You don't need a lot of money to create a room that looks finished and sophisticated with color. For example, the orange chairs were picked up off the street and all they needed was a good scrub to bring out the orange underneath.
2 Good color tips:
1. Try and keep the color palette to 3 colors. More makes the space look less cohesive. If you decide to use more than 3 colors, keep them within the same family.
2. Don't believe everything they tell you at the paint store. The guy at the paint store asked if I was sure if I wanted to buy a gallon of Dark Lime. "People have a hard time with green," is what he said exactly. I hesitated for a minute, but I'm glad I went with my gut. I think the wall turned out pretty nice!
2 good color resources:
1. Anything Mexican.street graphics, food packaging, Lucha Libre, Cinco de Mayo.
2. The produce section at Fairway's market. And if I could throw in a 3rd, the 28th street Flower District in Manhattan.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
OH WOW
I really really love that green and the second picture looks like it was taken by a pro. I love the shelf with those funky letters on it. This is so my style...I want it. Insta for me!
oh, also, That blue cushion is too cute!
Is the blue pillow an Ugly Doll? Soooo cute!
Love the mocha couch and dark wook pieces against the bright green.
Whoa! I LOVE it! And where did you get those letters? Definite Insta-finalist for me!
Hey, wanna come design my boyfriends place?
I so do love lime green and grey!
Lime green can be really hard to decorate with but this is fabulous!
That couch is pretty sweet against the lime. Good choice.
The colors are beautiful, but the overall aesthetic is wonderful. Having great furniture and a good eye for design never hurts. Absolutely a finalist for me!
I love the medley of colors...mint chocolate comes to mind!!
I love the way this one uses lime green in a way that is sophisticated instead of bonking you over the head with it. And I adore the mix of pillows on the gray couch. It doesn't stick to just 2 colors - despite the poster's own advice - and i think the color concept excells because of it.
I love the vintage letters on the shelves! Works well with the print above it. The green wall lights up everything in the room. And those pillows are adorable. Are they hand-made, or where can I get them? Fabulous!
I just love it!!!! Definitely an insta-finalist as far as I'm concerned!
Nice table, nice couch, nice interaction between the green and the grey. But thats about all you're showing us. We have two shots of the same area of this room - with no idea how you've handled the rest.
The pillows are the most interesting in their use of color, but not enough to carry this entry past "in contention"
I love the green, a fun color that looks so elegant in this space. The pillows are wonderful. I really love that couch though, where's it from?
I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS ROOM! It's so relaxing and homey, yet so contemporary. I just want to move right in!
Very, very nice. Your photos convincingly demonstrate your "three-color" palette advice, and also effectively demonstrate that "less is more." Restrained but lively at the same time, and tons of fun to look at!
I am glad you went with your gut too -- what a great room!
what exactly is the picture on the wall? (above the cool letters). looks interesting.
This room looks great. Fantastic use of an accent colour. I'm curious about colour usage in the rest of the space...
Hi all, thanks for the votes and comments. All of them, good and bad, are welcomed critiques! I have more pics of the place but this is my favorite area.
To answer some questions... the couch was my grandmother's and has the original fabric and color from when it was bought new in the 50's. When she passed away, I got it.
It was actually the base for the 3 color scheme: brown, green, and orange. The lime was picked to offset it and then other greens and oranges (keeping in the same families) were used to compliment and enhance those colors. Aside from the blue pillow (and background white) I tried to stay in that scheme.
The letters were found at a street fair in NYC. They're old marquis letters from a theater. The poster above it is an invite to a graphic design event that my girlfriend randomly picked up. The side tables and chairs were found on the street in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. Yes, all the pillows are home made from various fabric scraps we found that we thought would go with the couch and wall.. and yes, that's an ugly doll.
The lamp and bottle are also both home made.
The coffee table is really the only thing that was purchased and we got it at a big discount as a floor model... It really was done on a tight budget.
I am sick to death of lime green. SICK, I tell you.
But that didn't stop me from voting this an Insta-Finalist. Whatever I may think of the color, you've done a fabulous job putting this room together.
LOVE it! I want to live here. And I'm jealous of your street finds .. I never find anything good ;-(
What do you do for a living? Are you a graphic designer? You have meticulous layout and color sense.
i'll always vote for chartreuse. seeing it in a more mies/retro interior is advanced.
Bonus points for a nicely done photograph!
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes, this is great.
I am especially intrigued by your (looks like forged steel) corner protector thingy, very cool.
Bright and refined at the same time. Good job!
the apples in the foreground are a nice touch and picks up on your color scheme wonderfully.
it's great when people put fruits or flowers that pick up on the color design of their space.
I love that your sofa pillows aren't all matchy-matchy. I also like the color, the furniture, the layout and pretty much everything else about it. Very nice!
Can we talk about your lovely chairs?
lovely use of space! in addition to the wonderful aesthetics of this room, there is also an emotional appeal to invite you over and sit down :)
Joel, It looks absolutely marvellous. I love the colour and the choice of furniture. You have managed to create an earthy down to earth look with those apples and flowers. The apartment also has a cutting edge cool image about it with the furniture. Well done. Sanita.
THIS is what a couch with throw pillows should look like.
love this lime green and grey scheme. this would go well with that basement kitchen.
Joel - well executed, very skilful use of color! The color is incorporated in the design, and the whole looks very cohesive. There is some MCM, but you've managed to have a very modern apartment that is also warm and inviting, and with the organic elements (flowers, apples) also not too plastic. You have definitely articulated a personal style, not just a copy of a catalog display.
Insta-finalist all the way. But maybe I am biased since I LOVE this house and personally want to live there.
Awesome job!
The colour is great- and although not a huge fan of massive amounts of throw pillows these are all so adorable and cool I can't help but love it.
hi again, everyone. Thanks for all your comments! I really do appreciate them.
To answer some more of your questions:
I love to cook so having any type of vegetable or produce and using it like a flower is very interesting to me. Whatever it is usually gets eaten but it's replaced with something else. it always feels nice to have an organic (and for me edible) item around. I find it comforting. Plus, you can change it a moments notice depending on what's in season.
Ridge, your comment is very kind, thank you! I am an industrial designer (product designer) and my girlfriend is in graphics.
Colleen, it's really funny you noticed the corner guard! :) While working on the space I was continually hitting that corner with furniture, hand trucks etc. That piece is a 4" x 4" aluminum angle from a hardware store and I took it to a local metal shop to cut and grind and round the corners. It has saved that corner a million times.
Angela, I'm not crazy about pillows being identical either so this was a good solution for me.
Athalie, this is my pillow limit :) ha!
Babystrange, fabulous comment. love it.
and Angelune... what is MCM?
thanks again all!
Fabulous! As can always be expected from Joel - extremely imaginative fellow! Girlfriend also has magnificent taste. When do you open a shop?
MCM = mid-century modern. Eames, Nelson, etc. Bascially, nearly everything at DWR (which I love, but agree that it is overused when magazines, etc. showcase great design.) (As if there's nothing outside of that.)
But your fab sofa is vintage MCM! (And with a nice personal attachment to boot!)
Love to see such creativity with inherited and found objects. Proves you do not have to be wealthy to be stylish--but talent surely helps.,
Wow - I'm a fairly well known designer in the NYC area, and the different colors and color combinations are new and fresh. You need to have an agent!
Nice room but I'm tired of lime green, unfortunately. At this point I am only getting excited about it in unexpected combinations with other non-neutral colours. I do like the variety of textures here. Also, it's neat because you can just paint your wall whatever the next trendy colour is (I'm thinking citrus yellow?).
This is probably the best I've seen so far. This room is so zen. Your color choice is calming but has some zing to it at the same time. Maybe the simpleness of the room makes the color seem calm but the actually color gives it the energy.
Either way, I'm really, really digging this room. I like everything about it. Everything.
I agree that this is well done, but I wouldn't give it 100%. Green, white and black is trendy as is the table. I've noticed that most of the top-runners in this competition use some form of green and black, which seems to be in all of this year's catalogues. I think that the wall needs some work. The hanging art is undersized for the space and what do the letters mean? Still, great pillow choices and Joel looks very organized.
Cool joel, that corner guard is really a great design.
meant to say, "design element." Also, I should say, great that you used something so very common, it just looks great with the other sort of industrial elements in teh room. Love it.
Love the whole look. Lime has always been a fav.
Is that G. Leuga's couch? Loved her!! Best of luck--hope you are the big winner!!
Great looking apartment. Who would have thought I would like this lime green, but it really works.
Great job. Love the color scheme, and love how the apples match the walls.
This is definetly the best room I've seen so far.
Oh yeah, and this room is so clean and free from clutter and the furniture is modern and simple. Great.
Great apartment - love, love, love the lime green. Very clean and uncluttered. Love the look. Susan
Loved the lime green wall. I also really liked how you tied in the green with the apples and enhanced the color scheme with the pillows and books. Great job! Fabulous design!
Right on!!! Love the pillows, the table and just the whole color scheme. GREAT JOB
My only complaint would be to ditch the overused/overexposed noguchi. Otherwise, this room is fabulous.
Awesome job! I love it!!
I adore this one, but wish I could see more of your place! I love graphic design. The lime green really works for me with your graphic punches, including that cute ugly doll pillow (can I have it please?) And somehow you've managed to use a bold color, graphic punches AND achieve simplicity. Kudos.
You are an insta-finalist my friend! I don't usually like lime green but it looks fantastic here and the room has an over all cozy feel. Love everything about it!
Love the colors you've put together. Like the circles on the pillows, reminds me of cute little sea urchins. The room is very graphic. Lots of clean lines. Are the floors concrete?
Love it. Never be afraid of bold color. Bravo.
perfectionism is not part of living well.
the design needs some "lived in" quality.
i can't exhale in these rooms
Hi again everyone, thanks for all the comments and votes! Tomorrow is the last day and I'm looking forward to seeing the last entries.
If I'm fortunate enough to be a finalist, I'll be posting more pics showing the rest of the space! and if not, I'll submit some pics to AT anyway and hopefully they'll show it.
Tricia, yes the floors are concrete. I'm a huge fan of concrete but it often feels cold so I try to warm it up with the color.
Susan, you're right, the hanging art is smaller than I'd like. I'm looking for something a little larger but this particular poster happens to work well with the letters and couch color. In the mean time I use vases and flowers on the shelf to help with balance. I've tried spelling words with the letters but any time I do that, the word itself draws focus and takes on too much meaning and importance so I've learned to keep them abstract and use them only as a visual elements. I re-arrange them occasionally when I feel like a change.
Kel, living well is a good thing. We do, indeed, live in this room. It shouldn't be any surprise that it's cleaned up and organized a little for the picture :)
thanks again everyone! if you ever want to chat feel free to email: aerendir at hotmail.com
oh and one more thing, sorry:
Peggy, your comments are very intriguing, are you in graphics?
The ugly doll pillow was made by my girlfriend, who happens to have Wage and a Stupid Creature from John Murphy. :)