apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I keep revisiting this one. I love that little pumpkin by the window and the collection of stones and the gold of the Buddha fac on the wall. It's making me think of Sugimoto.

I realize this may not be the image everyone holds foremost, but the overall impression I had from this image was: this is serenity personified. And for a bedroom could anything so serene be far short of heaven?

Wow! Sophisticated use of color especially in the bedroom. Color doesn't have to be BOLD and BRIGHT as Bryan has demonstrated here.

what a beautiful place to live! So warm, calm, and cozy, yet contemporary! My ideal home. This is the feeling I am trying to creat in my home now! I'm partially there.

One of the most elegant entries to date. And I love your taste in bed frames! (We have the same.)

Must confess, I had to look up diurnal, but haven't held it against you! LOL!

"1. I keep a thin line of white at the top of the wall. For me, the line helps to balance/ground the color in a space where the ceiling and remaining walls are white. ItÂ’s also easier than creating a clean edge directly at the wall/ceiling transition."

This is my favorite tip so far from the color contest - I am going to use it next time I paint.
This entry isn't about over-the-top color (which I can't do myself anyway) but about thoughtful choices. Although this isn't the smallest-coolest contest, this is also an excellent example of how to use color in a small space to define areas/activities. Bryan definitely hasn't compromised any on style in this small space!

This is a beautifully thought out space, but the colors are so subtle and subdued that they are not the first thing that register when looking at the images. So I don't think it really fits a contest for colors very well.

That being said, I really do like the reasoning and rational for entering the contest...the sensibility being somewhere between scientific and poetic .

White, black, grey, beige...BORING

just lovely. sophisticated and minimal but at the same time relaxing and cozy. my favorite tip regards matching the alcove paint to the darkest morter in the bricks. when i was aiming for that in the trim on the outside of my stone fronted home my friends and neighbors thought i was anal and crazy. but when it was done they said 'oh the trim matches the cement in between the stone, how nice'. bravo to you

well done, I think this might be my favorite entry.

I will defintely be using that paint tip!

Love this one and am inspired by it for my own place. Must see more pix. Entry for next Smallest, Coolest? House tour?

Thank God. I was beginning to think the AT definition of color was gonna remain narrow (and neon). Subdued tonality is deceptively difficult to do well. The line between stylish serenity and dowdy drab can be awfully fine. This work is exceptional. Rich, inviting, sumptuous yet casual, with wonderful details that bring it all to life--the bright patterned throw pillow, the white ceiling line (brilliant! I'm totally stealing that!) and white-framed artwork. An example of smart color selection: The blanket on the bed is not brown or olive or cream (the more obvious choice) but looks to be a charcoal--this choice both grounds and balances the warmer shades. Just beautiful.

I think these are two lovely images and the rooms seems to be quite wonderful. However, while the walls are not white ... I consider the colors to be neutrals. While white walls have become so common in our world that anything not white seems like a stretch - gray and buttercream walls are neutrals IMHO. So, for me, this isn't a good canditate for THIS competition - and I voted no.
However, I do think the owner has done a very nice job mixing dark and light, warm and cool neutrals in the apartment to create a rich space and should be proud of that.

Very nice entry. Serene space, not as vibrant as some. Good use of color to define areas, and in small spaces bright colors can be overwhelming.

Erin T: While I agree that there is a difference between thoughtful and careless use of color, I dont think it simply a matter of neutrals vs. brights. There have been some very good examples of bright colors used effectively: Trish's Dressed Up Palette, Adam's Kaleidoscope, Johns Harmonious Hues. And there have been some very poor choices made with neutrals: Anessas Fine Line, Julies Black & Silver Kitchen, Matthews Serene Dream.

Thoughtful use of color is about good choices...Like we see above!

Isn't that sofa from DWR?

Reallly beautiful, serene and interesting.

I love the serenity and minimal but not boring choices in colors and furniture. I would move into this apartment in a heartbeat. So nice to see a place that isn't garish, jarring, and randomly furnished.

Not to my taste, but your color sense is undeniably sophisticated and the scheme beautifully executed. Very restrained and balanced, and I like the white border tip. I have seen a similar approach used by the founder of Thomas Paul in his home, but he used black borders to suggest the influence of Mondrian.

Beautiful place to unwind after a stressful day.

This feels very beautiful and complete, in spite of (or because of?), the severity.

Absolutely love it. Would have loved it in the smallest contest even more.

Wowza. Can you come and decorate my place in Marrakech?

This is the most sophisticated entry yet. I'd love to see a complete house tour!

Thank you, Rascal, for your post. Color is color is color. Bright, bold, subdued, grey, white, day glo, pastel, earthtone, neon ... It's all color! The contest doesn't specify which colors are eligible for competition and which are not!

This entry uses color in a very beautiful and understated way: navy blue, yellow, gold, brick, white, taupe. Very Calvin Klein-esque. And then a certain feng shui element added in with the smooth stones and green plants, brick walls. It's got texture, light and color. I love it.

I do like gray but personally the bedroom is too severe for me -- makes me think of a cell. I would need something to soften it. But I can see how it would encourage sleep!. I do like the living area very much though. Is very warm and I like the way the design on the pillow is sort of echoed in the picture on the wall. Can I ask -- where did you get that sconce and what make is it?

Regarding Robert Smith's comment that the colors are boring, I think the right word is tasteful. Bryan have made a small apt feel serene and easy on the eyes. Color is not always about bright and bold. It's like choosing Armani over Ringling Brothers.

I would love to see a floorplan. I love what I see so far.

260 sq ft??!! That is the size of my living room! Your furnishings and subtle color choices (and photos) make your space seem a lot bigger. Bravo!

I would love to see a floor plan and more pics. Not to many other people on here actually have a "really cozy" NYC Apt like you and I ...

Truely lovely but I have this sinking feeling that the artwork on the walls was chosen to fit the decor. Too much "tastful" not enough "tasty" for a colors contest.

Modfan - I think we are on the same page. I certainly didn't mean to imply that you can either be bold or you can be thoughtful, one or the other. I think you can be thoughtful with choice and placement of any color - bright or more subdued. Likewise, you can be careless with neutrals just as you can be with bold colors.
My other favorite entries from this contest use very bold colors. With this entry, I was trying to say that even though his colors were less bold, I felt like his use of them was thoughtful in how they defined the areas of his studio.

I love this. It's subtle, and layered, and textured and personal without being cluttered, and I'm finding myself saying things I would say about my favorite in the Smallest Coolest Contest, but I do like the coloring, so I'm VERY fine with it being here.

One thing that I LOVE is the thing where you leave a VERY small border of ceiling paint at the top of the wall. The way the light hits that really helps define that edge much better. I shall steal that technique.

I love love love the living space. I like your use of the light creme/yellow and the white flooring against the dark olive sofa. I love that you have plants and sun and the rocks, and everything is very minimal. It looks very organic, but sophisticated!

Your bedroom is a bit too dark for my tastes, but I bet its great for sleeping. I love all the naturalist renderings. those are always so great.

Would you mind letting me know where I could get samples of the Glidden paint, and where you got the woven rug on your living room floor?

thanks so much,
Lisa

Is that moulding or a white stripe at the top of the wall?

I love vibrant but this sophisticated subdued color scheme makes sense for such a small space. Very well thought out and very masculine. I too have bedroom walls that match the mortar! The white you left at the top almost gives the illusion of molding.

Please do tell us where you got the couch!

I'm with Pixie - Is it too soon to vote for this as an Insta-finalist in the 2007 Small Cool contest? I do feel that this is the winner of the color contest, though I think that the thoughtful use of color is very pleasing - but what an amazingly sofisticated (but not sterile) design for a very small space.

I love it- masculine and sexy.

I just think it needs a bright splash of purple or something and some knicknacks.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Definitely an insta-finalist. For everyone that things that grey is not a color, I wish that you could have been a fly on the wall in my apartment for the last few weeks.... I've been trying to get the perfect shade, and let me tell you, it is NOT easy. Bryan, you got it just right!

Lisa, I know that you can get Glidden at the Home Depot on 23rd Street (and the other one too, I assume) if you live in the city. A quart is the smallest they come though, unlike the BM sample size.

House tour please.

Insta-finalista. I love this. Simple, clean and elegant. While, I think some bold shots of "colour" in art/cushions would look great - I love the neutral scheme.

Would love to see the rest of this apartment - seeing all of these wonderful sutdio apartments is making me think twice about insisting on a 1 bedroom!

This is what I'd call sophisticated color palette. (remember that Porto apartment?)


Excellent scheme, to let the brick play the center stage, in color and texture.

Grey, cream and olive - so calm.
Thank you, B.

I think purple or a kick knack would ruin it.

GORGEOUS! I am in love with it so much, I'd trade my 800 sq. ft 2-bedroom for this "teeny" studio. :-) I would like to see a floorplan, but just from the pics, it looks cozy, not small. It's edited just right for the space, and I disagree with the people who think it needs knicknacks. That would just add clutter and make it feel cramped and busy.

You have shown here that paring down need not mean living without art and beauty... every object is perfect where it is, yet very human (note the lamp cord)and the colors form the underlying base for them.

Is that a bird pillow on the couch? I would love to know the source for it!

yes - elegant. and i'd love to see a floorplan and more pics. do you have a balcony or outdoor space? do you have a kitchen?

the exposed brick and wooden window frame are beautiful, and it looks like you get a lot of light. nice and cozy!

Nice! I'd have no idea that's such a small space. It's uncluttered, the proportions and color are just right, and just simply elegant. And it actually looks lived in. Gorgeous.

Love it! Very elegant.

Does anyone know where the bed frame from?

Carol,

it's the Parsons bead from room and board.

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/collection.do?method=get&id=377436&cat=45

This is fantastic!! It's minimalist and lived-in and the same time, and that gray in the bedroom is quite inspired. I also love the organic elements of the rocks and plants. Definitely among my favorites for the New York entries.

Oh, btw: same principle (click on my signature); it's a kitchenette I designed @my former townhouse.

I'm with all the others: We want a HOUSE TOUR!!!

HOUSE TOUR! HOUSE TOUR! HOUSE TOUR!

THIS IS BRILLIANT. DESERVES TO WIN--HANDS DOWN. Kudos. Also, I too would like a house tour.

perfection.

Every large element works. Every detail works in harmony.

It has that glow and specialness and subtlety that was missing from one of the entries I commented on yesterday.

I remember reading an interview with Albert Hadley once in which he said he never was able to achieve the look of a floating wall in his own apartment. Bryan, I think you could teach Mr. Hadley a lesson. Seriously elegant and modern.

There is only one thing I'd change, just one thing, I'd put a cord cover over your sconce cord; but that is just my personal pet peeve.

Very subtle and peacefull use of colour!
I'm a huge fan of greys, beiges and taupe, and your colour palette seems to be chosen carefully. It really brings out all the different textures you used esc. in the bedroom.

I think I'm in love...you created exacly the elegant menswear feel I want in my next bedroom (with exactly the R&B bed I'm saving my pennies up for). And if those are Blossfeld prints over your bed I strongly suspect we were separated at birth.

Your space has a sense of personality that the more minimalist entries are usually lacking, without screaming "LOOK AT ME" like the supersaturated ones sometimes do. For all you neutral bashers out there, consider the relationship between the olive sofa and the exposed brick. Observe the way the light at different times of day changes the appearance of a more complex midtoned neutral like the bedroom wallcolor. To me that's the most exciting part of choosing a paint color - finding one that changes with the light, but always gives you the feel you want in the room.
This is exactly what I come to AT to be inspired to create in my own home. Well done, Bryan.

I really really like this, it's subtle, fashionable, masculine, etc as everyone has said. I also completely appreciate the gentle gradation of tones; however my gauge for determining whether or not this is a insta-finalist in the "color" category is whether or not it would lose value in a black and white photograph. Do I need to go pick up some Vericolor to photograph this room? Honestly, I think your place would look stunning in black and white (in all kinds of light situations) and therefore can't vote it the best "color" entry. That said, I don't think that means this contest is for bold, bright colors exclusively.

My advice, get yourself in Metropolitain Home, that's where it deserves to be showcased.

It's a great apartment with lots of style, but this is a use of color competition, not a great apartment competition. It's very neutral. I'm not seeing any color. sorry, i vote no way.

I am so in love with this apartment. Great job, show us more!!!

Um, Tat, that design of yours is nothing like this apartment, are you sure that this was the picture you meant to share?

cold, masculine, hotel room. where's the color? and no, it doesn't have to be neon. in my opinion, "use" of color denotes more than beige paint. the sitting area looks relaxing and there's designer furniture, but no soul.

Nice and tasteful. Not enough use of color for this particular contest, however. Best Small Spaces, yes.

stunning, thanks so much for the tip about the thin white line dividing wall and ceiling plane. How tall is your space? About 10 feet, from the photos? I ask because i wonder whether the white line would work in a shorter space; my ceilings are only 8'8". In any case it is obvious that your off the charts exquisite taste indicates you are in a visual profession translates to you are being categorically unfair to all of the amateur contestants. But I appreciate your post and look forward to implementing the paint conceit.

Very well designed space but not enough color here.

One great look for such a small space. This contest is about color, but for this area neutrals give it a huge presence that would be overpowering in any other color.

Although it's sophisticated and tastefully done it's not my style. I do like the colors in the bedroom what's the color and who makes it? Also, love the throw pillows as well as the color in the living area! Good luck!

This is majorly cool. I'll be darned if I can figure out why it works, but it really does. Can you give lessons, or something? Gosh -- designers really know more than the rest of us, don't they.

I'm not sure that color is the main ingredient of these rooms success. OK -- the grey bedroom is severely edited to grey and white; pretty much no other colors are used, so that is a severely restricted use of color. It's a little too restricted for daily life, I think. What if you had books in your bedroom? (I have hundreds of books, and love them.) They wouldn't all be the right colors, now would they? So, you achieve a kind of color perfection at the cost of eliminating everything that isn't the right color. I appreciate the results in the photo, but I'm not sure I'd want to pay the price to get it or to live in that room. (I know you said you deliberately edited stuff out to eliminate distractions; it's just not my taste.)

The living area is less obviously restricted; it seems to have a more normal range of colors and a normal amount of "stuff", it's not one of those spartan-looking, minimalist places. Therefore, I'm at a complete loss to say why it works so well. Everything seems to harmonize -- there's a range of mostly neutral colors, one squiggly-patterned pillow and 1 painting but otherwise mostly solids, different textures (plant, stone, rug, TV)? I really can't see what the magic ingredient is, but it all seems very harmonious to me. I wouldn't say color was the main ingredient to the room's success, but restricting the colors to a range of (mostly) neutrals is certainl one of the ingredients.

Well done, and can you explain how you did it?

Holy crap, I totally missed this beauty first time around.

That is one sexy bedroom.

Re-enter this in the next Smallest Coolest contest!!