(Back in the Bay Area, this is Lisa's second to last post. We had some trouble with the order in the slideshow. Apologies. Comment away).
Name: Lisa & Jack
Location: San Francisco, CA
When we moved from a tiny 550 square ft one-bedroom apartment in New York a few years ago into a one-hundred year-old Victorian in San Francisco, it seemed like we were moving up in the world.
Not only did our new L-shaped apartment have high, coved ceilings, but there was an extra room, one that the previous tenants had used as an office and that we planned to use as a living room because of its beautiful bay window and dazzling light. [more below]
Do you have an idea for a house tour? Let me know! jill@apartmenttherapy.com
But as we moved in our furniture, we found that the usability of this room was marred by a strange diagonal wall. It ran the length of what once had been a grand parlor room and now was a living room and separate bedroom. In the living room the wall shortened all the sight lines, making it impossible to have a conversation or see a TV screen depending on where you stood or sat, and forcing us to configure the furniture in a tight little grouping; in the bedroom it created awkward, wasted corners where the 90 degree angles of our queen bed abutted the diagonal.
So we focused initially on the things we could control: we covered the red, green, and mustard yellow walls with white paint and hung mirrors to maximize the sunlight (only the front room was bright; the long part of the L is quite dark). We removed two layers of old, filthy wall-to-wall carpet, revealing shopworn (but still nicer than the carpet) hardwood floors. And by the time we were done with all this physical labor we were tired of renovation. The work came to a premature halt, and a couple of years went by.
When we learned last spring that we were having a baby, the renovation bug reared its head again, this time as a nesting urge. But since the apartment is a rental and we still hope to buy a home, we decided to limit the effort and expense this time to things that we can take with us when we move. So part II of this renovation began with that limit, and also with reframing the diagonals and the other architectural peculiarities of the apartment as design features instead of flaws.
The first big challenge: finding room for the baby. Our home office had to go. To make way for an abridged work space, we divided the living room, this time with furniture. By adding a sleeper sofa (for visiting relatives) and using it to create a boundary, we made better sense of the tightly-grouped furniture. Now the built-in shelves behind the sofa could be transformed into a functional workspace.
Other architectural flaws throughout the apartment became opportunities for serendipitous beauty: a weirdly-angled corner in the living room created by that cursed diagonal wall became the perfect spot for a fishtrap lamp that casts web-like shadows on the obtusely-angled walls at night, and a sliced-out corner by a window in the new nursery formed the perfect cozy niche for a nursing rocker. And by the time the baby was born, just this past Christmas Eve, the apartment finally felt like a home.
I don't get it. Unfinished, torn up, untidy spaces get 40 photographs. Beautiful, liveable apartments (w/cute baby!) get 14 photos. Why? Anyway, it is a lovely apartment!
The white walls have lightened up some of the rooms, but there is so much disconnected clutter. Reminds me of a thrift store...
loving the table and chair in photo #11 - really nice taste, that table has the best shape and height ever!
holly
Love that rocker -- can I have it?
Reminds me of my place -a work, lovingly, in progress! Well done - the fold down desk is a great solution.
What kind/brand/ of white paint did you use? -it really brightens and cleans up well.Do you remember the name and brand? I've got bowling-alley syndrome -dark in the back of the apartment.
Thanks for the peek into your space -your baby is mucho cute!
I heart the unusual lamp. However, the space seems really cluttered and unorganized? My eyes don't know where to focus when I look at the room, and the mix of styles doesn't hold together well.
I'm sure it's very cozy though.
Nice job with a challenging space. The sunlight from the bay window makes it worth the effort!
Who is the manufacturer of that convertible coffee table/dining table?
That picture of your baby on the sun rug is so so great! I really like the rocker too. Question - where did you get that lovely whale picture over the couch in the baby's room?
What's the square footage? I'd love to see the floorplan.
Thanks for all the comments everyone! Here are a few answers to questions that came up:
David: The coffee table was manufactured by Castro Convertibles, famous for their sofa bed advertising ("so simple a child can do it"). The coffe tables are no longer made but they do pop up on eBay every now and then. We got this one for about $600 and probably overpaid by a lot!
rr: The whale poster was created for the NYC subway cars a few years back by childrens' book illustrator Peter Sis. I noticed it on the subway on a visit and called the NYC Transit Museum when I got back to SF, because they often sell posters fom this program in their store. They weren't stocking this one at the time so I begged and pleaded for an actual used poster and they evenually complied.
I'll look into the paint color for tanya...
I'm still having a problem with this one because it doesn't fulfill all the requirements such as floorplan submission and we don't know how big the place is.
But damn, what a cute baby!!
Where did you find the rocker?
Now that this has been moved from the contest to House Tour the need for sq. ftage and floorplan are moot. So my last comment is irrelevant now.
please please please where did you get that rocker??!!
Where did you get the rocking chair?
Love your place! Thanks for sharing!! I'd also like to know what color white you used on your walls?? Your place feels looks like a home should feel; cozy n comfy.
My apartment is all white except for my daughter's room which is tinkerbell green. I love white walls they can accomodate many colors and styles without overpowering a room or mood. I also like the rocker and I agree your baby is adorable!!