Welcome back to Ashley! Comment away....
Name: Kay and Leona
Location: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Size: 1 bedroom, 1050 sqft
Years lived in: 1 month
Rented or Owned: Rented
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I was shocked when Kay and Leona told me they had moved into their beautiful top-floor apartment only a month ago. They've hung art, curtains as partitions, and even come up with an attractive and functional closet system. The couple's furniture and décor comes from a wide variety of sources, such as flea markets, antique stores, Ikea, Art de vivre in France, Christie's, and Lumas. I was really impressed when they revealed that the headboard for the bed is actually an Ikea mattress.
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I thought it was a real upholstered headboard! The apartment has a surprising loft-like feel, as they've chosen to embrace a more open layout, including using what most would consider the bedroom as a living room, and the living room as a bedroom. They spend the most time in the living room, so they designated the larger room with better light to serve the purpose. Kay and Leona also enjoy the almost exclusive (nobody else ventures up there) rooftop with a great view of the Statue of Liberty!
AT Survey:
Your Style?
Although we like modern design, we wanted to give this brown stone (pre-renovation) apartment a special touch and combined modern and vintage elements. Because our lease is limited to one year, we couldn't structurally change anything in the apartment.
Favorite Element?
The open bedroom with fireplace, the kitchen that opens to the dining room. The almost exclusive rooftop.
Biggest Challenge?
The open bedroom without a door to the dining room and the lack of storage / closet space.
What do friends say?
Love it
Biggest Embarrassment?
He: The old IKEA sofa and the cheap lamps;
She: the 1995 Baywatch centerfold in the office
Proudest DIY?
The classy (we think) but inexpensive and easily removable walk-in closet.
Biggest Indulgence?
The art (photo art mainly). We love our custom-made walnut dining table from France, which combines a modern shape and warm wood color combined with chairs from the mid 19th century. And the 50ies modernist bar and all the photo art for the walls that is yet to come
Dream Source?
Christie's (they actually have very interesting stuff at their furniture auctions)
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Resources?
Furniture: Custom made dining table from Art de vivre with 19th century chairs
50ies Formica diner table and chairs for the kitchen
Chest of drawers, daybed and sofa from IKEA
Walk in closet a combination of Home depot & IKEA
Vintage and antique furniture shops in Brooklyn
Glassware and chandeliers from flea markets
Beds: Standard spring box and mattress with a twin mattress (our guest mattress) used as a headboard
Artwork: several galleries, Lumas
- Ashley White (ashleywhitedesign.com)
(This is the third of Ashley's four trial posts that we'll be rolling out over the next two weeks)
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that's a very pretty apartment. lots of room to move and the lighting is perfection. a photographer lives there! of course. now get those photos up on the wall! (heheh, i should take my own advice...)
view kdkaboom's profile
Very nice - lot's of light. It's a touch white for my taste, but I like the splashes of color that do make appearances - to that end, where are your sheets from?
view amt230's profile
I am completely jealous of your kitchen dinette set (amongst other things). a lovely place
view Kat1's profile
i like the kitchen table as well. I dig the apartment but i prefer color....too much white for my taste.
view LittleRock's profile
That shower curtain is genius. Also love the mattress-headboard.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile
I just noticed using that ikea(?) twin bed on its side as a headboard. I also put my mattress/boxspring directly on the floor, as I like the height, but unfortunately, my bed width fits perfectly in front of a jut-out (previously a fireplace). In my next apartment I will be sure to bite this idea. Well done.
view amt230's profile
amt230 - I believe their sheets (the small flower print) are from Ikea as well, but I will ask them to be sure. The headboard is an Ikea mattress on it's side
view ashleyjane's profile
Really nice, especially for having just moved in. I like your style.
view Sydney's profile
Hey guys,
thanks for all your comments. I was actually a bit nervous when Ashley wanted to present this pretty unfinished apartment but she sold it really well and her pics were great (she missed the Baywatch centerfold though - which is pretty colorfull and counters the 'too white' criticism a bit but I agree it is also a bit tasteless ;-) ). So special thanks to Ashley for doing such a good job.
Some comments and add. info:
The headboard: we defintely wanted to make our own headboard but could not find a good base so we came up with this and experimented with a couple of matresses. The cheapest IKEA twin bed does the job best (as a headboard, definitely not as a mattress). It is thin and hard enough to stand on its own and the greyish cover does not let it look like a mattress (and you can wash it).
The idea behind it is actually to get a nice custom made cover (we are currently thinking about a dark red & gold brocade fabric) for it to make it a bit more custom and get some color in the bedroom.
Sheets: from IKEA indeed.
White: Point taken for the livingroom but that is supposed to change with some pictures on the wall and a walnut coffee table that is in the making. We liked it for the bedroom though. The other rooms are actually not too white, the photos jsut focus on the white elements. And there was no option to paint the walls as this is a short term lease.
view Kay_Brooklyn's profile
I love it!! Are those tree covered linens/curtains/wallpaper? Could we please have the source:)
Beautiful home!
view hanako66's profile
The mesh curtains covering the closet are from Ikea, and the print is of trees. :)
view ashleyjane's profile
this is a beautiful home, especially for only being there a month. i love that you created your own closet, genius! i really like the curtains separating the dining room from the bedroom. makes me miss BK!
view universal mod's profile
Kay - love that dining room table. We are looking to have something similar built for our new house (we've been in ours a month, too, but it is still a disaster!). Is there a website for Art de vivre?
view Funnelcloud Rachel's profile
a floor plan, please... it looks great but I'm so confused about the relationships between the various rooms...
view LuckyMonkey's profile
nice place..i know this style floor plan well, sorry to inform you however, this is not an almost 1100sf space. Maybe 700 or 800 max..
view recon1's profile
The mattress headboard is a great idea for extra sleeping space and probably great to lean against. Really lovely home. Thanks for the tour.
view hrhprincessfiona's profile
Hi,
checked Art de vivre out and it looks like Eric Ruffet,the owner, moved back to Paris and does not have a website anymore.
We unfortunately do not have a floorplan but it is a classic railroad apartment like in most brownstones in Brooklyn.
To michaelc: I thought it was only 800 sqft when I signed the contract but I looked at several similar places in the last months to buy with 1000 sqft stated on the officical floor plans and they looked smaller (which corresponds with what propertyshark says about the size of the building). The challenge with these type of floorplans is to make the sqft really usable which worked surprisingly well for us.
view Kay_Brooklyn's profile
I LIKE photos on the floor - paintings too, lamps, mirrors - heck I'm an old hippie! LOL
Gorgeous apt, most inspiring for me is that you;ve gone to this trouble on a short term lease - coz I have "security" issues and never normally unpack completely until I;ve been 3 years in a place!
What you've done is nice, and you thoroughly deserve to enjoy it.
view yeti3a's profile
It's so light! Lovely! And where's the nifty shower curtain from?
view Esther414's profile
Nice clean and simple. I am currently suffering from too much color in my space. And I'm going to try making my bathroom less cluttered, so I think that pocketed shower curtain would do well.
Good job!
view Spiderbite's profile
Kay, as you say it is a "short term lease," I would LOVE to know when you are vacating! It's a lovely apartment and you've done a beautiful job with it.
view saharawi's profile
The shower curtain is from a local hardware store (Pintchik) and was actually one of the cheapest available.
view Kay_Brooklyn's profile
Love this air-filled, decluttered sunny place, but I have to admit that we have to much stuff for such a minimal zen like place ;-)
view nicolezh's profile
I love that apartment - I want to live there!
view haleyjen's profile
Wow, what a great space. I love the framed art along the baseboards -- looks good and keeps the sun off the prints, rock on!
view k8lane's profile
Very calm and peaceful. The light throughout the apartment makes it so appealing. My only "concern" is the lightbulb hanging over the shower. Isn't that dangerous? Overall - I love it. Makes me want to go home and de-clutter.
view tara1979's profile
I like the apartment, but I'm not a big fan of "light" Sure, light of the right kind, coming from the right source is wonderful. But when it blasts through the upper story windows it overpowers the interior. Glare disturbs me.
I covered my windows, and I rely on dim artificial light. Am I the only one who feels this way?
view ebanfield's profile
ebanfield: I'm similar, in that I prefer soft artificial lighting. I'm sensitive to bright/glaring light. I enjoy finding/purchasing a variety of soft lighting solutions to place throughout my living space in order to avoid the "cave dweller" effect.
I love the look of light/white/airy spaces. It's just not practical for me personally, so I admire it in the spaces of others.
Kay and Leona: Excellent job in such a short amount of time! I'd love to see an update once you've had time to add more of your clever personal touches.
view alisonK's profile