Name: Mike
Location: West Village
Size: 500 square feet — 1 bedroom
Years lived in: 15 years total (this was my college apt that I shared with roommates). I have had the apartment to myself for the last 7 years
Mike’s home may look familiar. He first made our acquaintance in a recent house call. Mike is lucky enough to live in an amazing neighborhood in a great sized one-bedroom apartment. Luckily, he had the forethought to move in during college!
Since then, roommates (the living room once served as a 2nd bedroom) have come and gone, leaving Mike, eventually, as the sole lease holder. And since then, he has been honing his skills as a designer…
Working as a professional store designer has helped Mike develop his keen understanding of space and the blending of styles and materials. In his own home, he prefers to soften hard edges and bulky pieces with delicate organic elements. He also prefers to be as hands on as possible. If there is a space that needs filling, he will either hack IKEA or pull together street finds with sample sale pieces to get the desired effect.
Mike knows he has to “evolve things” in his home to keep it fresh. So whether it’s a new coat of paint, or additional seating, the apartment continues to adapt to his lifestyle needs.
He’s not giving up this apartment any time soon, so Mike is comfortable making significant improvements to the space. Pre-war detailing, good sized rooms, warm colored walls, and carefully selected décor all combine to make Mike’s home a place anyone would want to stay in for a good long while.
Survey:
Style: Modern eclectic with natural and organic influences
Inspiration: Clean modern lines with an eclectic mix of natural materials, furnishings, textures, pattern and color. My living space is made up of furnishings that I found, made, modified or had the opportunity to purchase which helped me to create the comfortable environment that I enjoy coming home to and entertaining in.
Favorite Element: My RM Schindler reproduction sofa. I was able to purchase this (as well as the table) for a minimal price when the company I was with was replacing it in one of the stores. I bought high end Kravet couture fabric off of ebay for less than the price of one yard(!) and had new cushions made.
Biggest Challenge: Creating and utilizing storage space to the best advantage.
What Friends Say: Comfortable, calming, inviting, great energy, Feng Shui in look and feel. I often get asked “When is your next get together?”
Biggest Embarrassment: Bathroom. Still haven’t painted or did much since apartments above me seem to let their tubs overflow!
Proudest DIY: Closet in kitchen/living room panel. This used to be an additional double entry to the kitchen from the living room, although I made it into a closet accessed from the kitchen. This ‘closet’ has about 4”D of space and is perfect for glassware, candles, bottles and other misc items and has increased my storage needs!
In the kitchen I used two bi-fold doors and installed aluminum angles that I salvaged from an office conference room renovation. I fastened the angles on the backside of the ½” plywood installed on the living room side of the entry. On the living room side I covered the raw plywood with an inexpensive roll-up bamboo shade and added a vertical weaving of the bamboo material. I love the natural and modern linear texture it creates! I finished off on the sides with corner wood molding that I stained a color called "bamboo" to match.
Biggest Indulgence: LCD TV
Best Advice: Only you know what you love and what you can live with to make your living space an extension of yourself. Making even minor changes at times will continue to make it special, interesting and even more personal.
Dream Source: 1STdibs.com, because I love the challenge in searching for interesting pieces!
(Images: Jill Slater)
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This seems like a great, small apartment, but the photos are horrible. They look like underexposed cellphone photos.
view visualingual's profile
I was immediately drawn to the sofa, nice piece. Your place is handsome, restrained, very nice sense of space and flow where everything works together yes I can feel the Feng Shui.
view LoriSF's profile
Mike is hot.
view HUNDREDS OF YEARS of oppression's profile
Is the bamboo behind the couch one purchased piece? Or DIY?
view robino032's profile
I love the hippo on the windowsill.
view aaakid's profile
Yeay !! Guy place, and no pizza lying around, no ugly computer cables, gorgeous design !! Love, love, love it !!
Can you teach my husband ?
view Loora's profile
mike IS hot.
so is the off-center placement of the Jere-esque wall sculpture. i love that.
view Bobbycat5's profile
Yikes, how many roommates can you have in 500 sq ft with only one bedroom?
view dmh's profile
Great place! Only one nit-pick -- the boot/shoe closet could use a little work. I say this - tongue-in-cheek -- as the "Imelda Marcos of the Upper West Side" -- it's a constant battle for me.
Sorry about the bathroom -- leaks are a given in my place -- but just had my bi-annual flood so time to paint. Yours has great bones -- looks pretty good as is.
I, too, am curious about the bamboo behind the couch -- do tell us more!
view Mid-C Frank's profile
Just read the earlier post (house call) and got the answer re bamboo -- great work!
view Mid-C Frank's profile
Mike is one lucky guy. Scoring a great (and probably rent-controlled) place in the West Village?? A dream. I am very inspired by his use of natural materials and texture in his place. I need to bring some more of that into my own small apartment.
http://www.tangiedecor.blogspot.com
view LTangie's profile
Great job!
view carrefour_ny's profile
Love how you've covered up the former French doors.
view carrefour_ny's profile
excellent. I was very interested in seeing more pictures of this place when it was first posted. so many great ideas-expensive look, ingenious solutions. well done Mike.
view ec05's profile
Mike is a hunk - I love his place too...
view bepsf's profile
Hubba hubba! (I could be talking about Mike or his place... who can say in this modern day and age??)
Seriously though, I think his retro 50's dresser is killer. Love that.
view DrTheopolis's profile
What kind of bed is that?
I loved it!
view Lore's profile
Did they use a camera phone to shoot these photos or what?!
view BruinToo's profile
So sorry. Mike helped out in a pinch with his camera when mine died of battery loss syndrome. I'll make sure it won't happen again.
Jill
view jill's profile
Mike, you have a great eye, and the rest of you ain't bad either! Seriously, each corner and surface is a study in impeccable design. Thanks for sharing
view Beautyeverywhere's profile
I love it. Wonderful eye for putting everything together, and so many creative ideas.
view deniseb's profile
Mike is hot, indeed. Dude, get a laptop! You can use one shelf to store/charge it, and more space for shoes. I love the print above the bed.
view alisonK's profile
Very handsome. I loved the flat panel wall light, the twig treatment on the radiator, and the sofa/sofa table combo. I will confess however, that by the end of the slide show I was longing for one bright spot a color. A blue bowl, or a red picture frame. A brilliantly colored orchid or potted geraniums in the kitchen window---give us something, man.
view SunnyBlue's profile
Great place! Love all the different textures.
view mayabee's profile
Mike is hot.
mike IS hot.
Mike is a hunk
Mike, you have a great eye, and the rest of you ain't bad either!
Mike is hot, indeed.
Good grief, people. And here I was thinking that the commenters who gush about kitties were bad.
Mike is to be congratulated - there are so many clever solutions to common problems here, like the twig radiator screen and the bamboo french door cover/extra storage space thing. My only suggestions is that there is perhaps a little too much literal dead wood - I counted at least four sets of dried twigs in vases. Maybe he could branch (ha!) into something living?
view Blandwagon's profile
Great design ideas. I love the lamp next to the bed. One small suggestion, the shoe storage looks a big cluttered. Other than that, great job!
view latinwaterpolo's profile
Blandwagon, I was thinking the same thing...about the branches. And I thought the living room was too thematic. I liked the places where unexpected things were juxtaposed against each other. The living room looked like something from a furniture catalog.
Overall, though, it is very nice!
view sally305's profile
What a wonderful home tour! I initially skipped this post, actually, because it looked too expensive for my casual taste (and budget). I was shocked when I realized how much was salvaged.
Covering the french doors to make a usable wall is absolutely inspired. I was really impressed by all the design tricks the tenant uses to conceal his apartment's "design flaws," as well as his space-saving storage ideas. Wow! (Also, I find myself doing similar things with covering windowsills with fabrics and plastics.)
view jennatar's profile
LOVE the bamboo/plywood/door/shelves creation! Brilliant.
It IS a comfortable looking home, with restful and serene colors and textures.
Hack potential (depending on it's measurements) for the closet/computer:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99854429
Mount a power strip inside, drill holes for ventilation, hard drive and all wires inside. And the ironing board top could be replaced with wood for a small, pull-out desktop for the keyboard and monitor
I'm not sure how that board goes back in the unit though. There has to be a way for it to go in...because it's a base cabinet, and a counter top would usually go over the top. I think it lowers and some part of it folds. You might not need or want it to fold, just to be a pull-out shelf/desk.
You wouldn't have to have that counter top over the top, though, have the monitor and keyboard Just a quick thought.
view #9's profile
Hi Mike -
How did you make that sleek & stylish lamp? I want to make one just like it! And nice decorating too.
view gah3231's profile
LOVE the Abstract Art!!
view laura trevey's profile
I like the print of petit Marcel.
view hrhprincessfiona's profile
When i first saw mikes apartment in the house call below , i actually skipped the description part thinking the house was too high end .
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/house-tours/house-call-mikezs-organic-modern-apartment-new-york-087582
Just love the apartment and mike's clever DIYs , i am sure he must have doubled the sales of the CK store when was working there :)
view hima_vasu's profile
awesome!~
http://pearlsandgreentea.blogspot.com/
view mrslee's profile
Really enjoyed this tour. Thanks Mike. I, too, think you could "prune" the twigs, find other natural elements to incorporate. But it's your place, and it's obvious there's a lot of love there.
view jen_g's profile
A very nice job and I particularly love the variety of textures. Sources, please, for the woven light fixture in photo 1 and the stools in #37?
view DigNDesign's profile
I dunno... I like what he did with all of the "dead wood". And I'm not even the organic sort. (more of a glass and steel gal). I especially like the way he used twigs to cover an otherwise ugly heater....
Yay for for Mike's design sense!
view modern on long island's profile
Hi DigNDesign, the woven light fixtures I bought from ebay as a hardwired hanging pendant a couple years ago, but I just used the shades in both the entry and hall. Sorry but even the seller no longer has an account with ebay and I dont have any further resource info for you...
The stools are from designer Hans Sangren Jakobsen that I bought on clearance from DWR about 7 yrs ago. Unfortunately when I did a search on google they are now almost 4 times the price that I paid.
view mikectnyc's profile
very, very charming.
view timmy jr.'s profile
Thanks so much, Mike. Lucky, lucky, you with those gallery stools. The current price is painful. However, a girl can dream...
view DigNDesign's profile
Sorry- me again- Mike I was hoping you still check this- I have been looking to replicate your bamboo shade behind the couch but am only finding VERY cheesy/cheap-looking roll shades. Do you remember where you got your materials?
view robino032's profile
Hi Robino032, I hope you get back and read this! I originally purchased mine at Pier 1 a while back so not sure if they still have them or not. I did a google search and it looks like matchstickblinds.com, the 'BL802 Series' looks very much like what I have, and they come in the wide widths. Very inexpensive, but I hope you can still find them locally.
Make sure you leave enough string length at the top and bottom to secure the bamboo once you trim the shade to the panel size you want. I secured with very small nails at the top and along the vertical strings to the bottom. Since my panel comes out 2" from the wall, I was able to secure as needed at the top as much as possible since it was not visible which made the rest of the installation a little easier. I hope this helps!
view mikectnyc's profile