Name: Diana and Mark
Location: Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, NY
Size: 860 sqft. 1-bdrm condo
Years lived in: almost 3 years
>> Enter Diana and Mark's Gallery!
Some seriously loyal Apartment Therapy fans may remember Diana's first house tour back in 2006. Since then, she got married to a musician/filmmaker and bought an apartment in a beautifully restored seminary faculty housing. So, again, Diana is faced with assimilating a modern leaning aesthetic into the turn of the century detail of a classic Brooklyn brownstone.
>> Enter Diana and Mark's Gallery!
Diana is a designer of all shades--graphic, urban, industrial, interior, fashion. The problem with being multi-talented and married to someone who is also multi-talented is that you end up needing a lot of room. If you aren't fortunate enough to have a 5000 square foot live/work space, then you learn to create overlapping, multi-purpose nooks. Such is the fate of Diana and Mark. Both do a lot of work from home. So, home becomes studio becomes home.
Looking around Diana and Mark's apartment, there are so many things to explore and in which to find inspiration. Diana likes it like that. She wants to be able to sit down and start sewing at a moment's notice and she wants her tools and supplies readily available. The challenge then, is how to incorporate a working studio into a comfortable home.
The solution is to move through the process with patience and an understanding that compromises are part of the deal. Streamlining materials used would make it simpler but not if a budget and a consciousness of unnecessary waste are priorities. Diana and Mark work with what they have. As seen in the before pictures, they prefer to pare down their belongings rather than acquire anything new.
Since they moved in, Diana and Mark have used wall paint to create cohesion and add warmth to the apartment. The furniture has been arranged and rearranged ad infinitum. Diana has sewed some great curtains and wall hangings to add texture and to soften the edges. She has also built furniture and functional art. Her handmade elements inevitable turn a generic Brooklyn apartment into a personal 3-d canvas. There is no final chapter. It's still evolving, always improving and always giving Mark and Diana a chance to newly appreciate their home.
AT Survey
Style: Eclectic, cluttered, handmade. A work-in-progress, slowly evolving. I wish we could have more of a cohesive style to our furnishings & décor, but I can't identify any dominant style among our current belongings. We don't want to toss everything and start all over again, so we have to find an emerging theme in what we have.
Inspiration: The idea of a home that is also a workshop, a studio where we can always be puttering & creating and making things. Love the idea of Charles & Ray Eames, working together.
Favorite Element:: Seeing our homemade furniture and lamps. The paint palette of deep red, blue-green & black, yellow, and grey-beige. The cluster of Japanese art and Mao pins around the dining table.
Biggest Challenge: Whittling down two apartments' worth of stuff after we moved in together, and making space for some childhood keepsakes – we couldn't leave them with our parents anymore. A continuing challenge is how to accommodate all our hobbies / work in such a small space – Diana's office, sewing area, small tools, and random craft supplies; lots of vinyl and books, stereos, bicycles; and Mark's photography stuff, piano, guitars, amp, etc. Also the location of the fireplace and the long narrow shape of the living room make it difficult to arrange furniture.
What Friends Say: That it is a comfortable, cozy, and interesting place. And that our cats are more polite to guests than they are to us.
Biggest Embarrassment: Right now some elements seem particularly incongruous, cluttered, or sloppy (e.g., the clashing rugs in living room, the butcher block storage, the boxes on the bedroom bookshelf) but they are part of a long-range plan where they will be incorporated in a way that makes sense, or replaced / upgraded. Eventually we will convert the living room alcove to a second bedroom, add some built-in cabinets, and rearrange our work / hobby spaces.
Proudest DIY: We installed lots of wall shelving everywhere; this was tricky because all our perimeter walls are brick. Also proud of all the things Diana built – desk, media cabinet, cat scratching 'plank', and especially the jewel case chandelier.
Biggest Indulgence: We haven't indulged in anything in the traditional sense of the word.
Best Advice: Live in your space awhile until you understand how you'll use it, then make your changes gradually over time. Sketchup software is a great way to show your partner what you have in mind next and discuss it before you start rearranging! Also, we make a big effort to give our unwanted things a new life (craiglist, ebay, freecycle, salvation army, Grand Army Plaza Sat. textile recycling) and keep them out of the landfill.
Dream Source: Well, we like midcentury modern and scandinavian furnishings from various places, but would prefer to build our own things at Brooklyn's 3rd Ward using sustainable and/or reclaimed wood and metals. We'll be heading over there soon!
>> Enter Diana and Mark's Gallery!
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I'm always jealous of people who are able to successfully hang clusters of prints - bravo to you!
If you need any jewel cases let me know - I'm transitioning away from them to plastic sleeves.
view Tobermory's profile
the sequence of pictures really confused me but it may be that i haven't had enough coffee yet ..
view tabithacat's profile
That seems way bigger than 860 sq ft to me. Our apartment is about the same size and also one bedroom, but our layout is nowhere near as amazing. I'm jealous.
view cassielynn's profile
no, the sequence is confusing. this apt appears to have several rooms, each more cluttered than the last. you'd think they would've tidied up prior to the shoot; on the other hand, a cluttered home (like this one) is often a happy one.
view Fjorder's profile
i just don't get it? very confusing, not sure what i am supposed to be admiring.....looks messy before and after
view icedesign's profile
I too do not get it. I find the pictures and sequence really confusing. I'm sorry but I also find the space cluttered and disjointed.
view katszeye's profile
All - please pay attention to the captions in the Gallery. They explain and clearly label the many pictures that showcase the BEFORE.
view Aaron's profile
Very lovely! Excellent arrangement of furniture. Your home looks more spacious than 860 sqft. Love the jewel case light fixture...very clever! Too bad I gave away all my jewel cases!
view suzy8track's profile
Ahh I was just going to put what the other posters were putting abt how confused I was and what a mess the place looked. After reading the one comment abt it being a before and after, I went back and looked again and it makes more sense now.
The after does look much better.
Maybe for before and after pics, put the before and after pics side by side so we can clearly see what is going on here.
view designpirate's profile
Great job on the office reorganizing! I like the print clusters as well.
view Lizzykewl's profile
My favorite thing is the TV cabinet in the living room. It's like a modern twist on "I'm going to hide my TV in an armoire".
Overall, I get a nice vibe, but it does seem a bit cluttered for my taste. That office is pretty darn messy.
view jyw's profile
Any info on the picture rail between hallway and front room?
view speck's profile
thanks for all the comments, everyone! the picture rail is the "picture ledge" from west elm.
view diana m's profile
Where is the rug from and the couch? I love them...
view Lolita's profile
question...where did you get the holder for the ironing board? Would love to get one. thanks...Love the color of the living room, nice.
view EileenB's profile
hello again, thanks for looking! Sorry, the oriental rug in the LR is an antique, my mother bought it in the 60's. the other rugs are from ikea & crate & barrel. we have too many rugs, we really should part w/ the newer ones. the ironing board hooks and the daybed sofa are from ikea too (we have too much ikea stuff too, but it's so great!). the loveseat in the bedroom is from Bo Concept.
view diana m's profile
Thanks for the floorplan! Went to the gallery first and nearly missed it. Wish every tour had a floorplan as the first picture.
Your seating area in the bedroom is a lovely calm spot in your hardworking home. Could that two seater sofa possibly sit with its back to the foot of your bed? That is where I would like to watch tv with friends - guess you'd need a few floor cushions (or folding umbrella canvas/camp chairs - I have a red one I take from room to room as needed!)
Is your dining table the Ikea convertible table that twists and then flips to double in size? I am so sorry I didn't get one while they still carried it. Do you remember their catalog that had 2/3 of them, with chairs hanging on hooks on the wall, so that it could become a long banquet table?? Let me know if you want to sell it (judexnatverizondotnet).
The window illusion in the bathroom is so nicely done, especially with the lower wall painted black! (Reminds me of Ikea floor displays where they use a mirror behind a window frame to make the room feel more spacious). And, because of your floor plan, I can see you have enough space to fit in a w/d!
Go slowly with any rugs you really like; they are such a nice way to make an area cozy or define an area.
Does your fireplace work? If not, there are lots of simple ways to make it "work" for your decor. Currently, I have a large mirror in front of mine (which is gas and costs way too much to use!) that reflects a cozy corner of the room and makes me happy because I can now see it and out my window. In the middle of the winter, I collected every silk flower I had (and got more from the thrift stores) and put them all in a big basket to "warm" up the room.
view justjude's profile
hi justjude, thanks for your long & thoughtful comments! re. the sofa in bedroom, we can't put it at the foot of the bed b/c then it nearly blocks the doorway into the room. we do watch TV (movies, actually) on the sofa as it is; the TV is in a rolling cabinet so it's easy to put it in place.
our table is IKEA, but just pulls open -- no twisting. i do love it & all their stuff in oak. if we ever want something bigger i'll see if you're still interested!
yes we do have W/D hookups in the bath -- but there's a common machine just downstairs in the hall. this is really the cat's bathroom!
our FP does work, though we rarely use it. i love having all the open space in front of it though, to lounge on the rug.
view diana m's profile