apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Curtis, your place is sooo beautiful! Nice to see it in its entirety, as opposed to the bits that are on your Flickr.
Nisha, it looks like the bookshelves slide to the sides when you want to lower the bed. Is that right, Curtis?

Hmm. Hideous.

wow! just wow!
and now, a silly question for curtis: the books in the murphy bed, the part that pulls down... are they glued onto the shelves? or is that more trompe l'oeile?

We finally get to see the whole thing! Curtis, you are truly a creative one-of-a-kind! I esp. love and am intrigued by the communal way you painted the Paris scenes over a number of months; as Jill wrote, not only do you have the finished product, but also, "many painting memories." Also, I love the kitchen wall design. Did I miss the pic of the hamper?

Wow factor indeed!
Hard work pays off... bravo!

Bravo! I love the detail in everything single corner of the place, well done!

Curtis is still my hero.

Awe-inspiring. Warm, comfortable and luxurious.

I noticed and liked the few modern/mcm elements were incorporated into the apt. The dining room retro-office chairs, the contemp still life painting with a coat.

This is crazy! I LOVE it!

I like the idea of leaving blue line guide markings (no mural) - and hanging the two (framed) Paris paintings on that wall.

Crazy for the bathroom and kitchen - it just goes to show you don't have to be a millionaire or get some bankrupting renovation to have a fantastic space.

Curtis: Impressive to say the least. We spoke last year at an AT event and discuss our mutual faux finish/design experience (I was in black with blonde hair) but I have to say I had no idea your work (or anyone's) was this perfectly beautiful! I consider myself talented but I think you're heads above me. (Eeeeek.....can I be beyond envy?)

Your apartment is stunning. The craftsmanship, the design, everything - stunning. Hmmm....I've been doing jewelry for a year but I might need to look at some things in my apartment now and revisit some interior design. We should talk again.

Stunning. Good for you.

Incredible! Did you just get plain white wallpaper and stencil on top?

Curtis, your idea of paint by number murals should be patented. It's brilliant.

Thanks everybody! And thanks, Jill, for capturing the place in such a glorious way.

And yes, bubble is right -- the middle shelves slide to each side on a track, so the books aren't challenged in any way.

And Jackie, of COURSE I remember you. I'm very e-mailable at generalaesthetic(at)yahoo(dot)com

Wow. Just a staggering dedication to style and an amazing talent. (Coupled, I'm sure with a great deal of patience.) Thanks so much for sharing this.

HAVEN'T SEEN THAT APT SINCE WE WERE THERE TO PAINT AND IT LOOKS EVEN BETTER NOW. CURTIS YOU ARE SOOOO CREATIVE. I WISH I HAD A SPARE WALL IN MY HOUSE TO DO WHAT YOU DID.

amazing. really inspiring. I love the television and the bathroom the best. I mean really though I love it all. . . what does the hamper look like? It is so great to see the entire place!

Incredible!

I tried to access rollerpaint.com without much luck. Is that the right URL for the source for your patterned roller?

Thanks

Marci -

It's rollerwall.com that I found it on.

Wow. I'm not doing Art Deco in my own home, but if I did, my mind's eye would have it looking like this!

I love the console TV, the painting (and the community aspect of it), and the way everything is brought together.

It just exudes "classy"

:)

Oh Curtis, wow!
As the song says, it's "Too beautiful for words!" You did a superb job, and it really LOOKS like wallpaper, :)

Stylish and truly original... this looks unlike any apartment I have seen on AT, and while it's totally not my style, I can't help but think it's one of the best I've seen on here. I am dazzled.

So great to see Curtis' entire apartment. I'm especially awed by the level of detail in the kitchen's wall treatment.

Curtis, what is the uplighting you use at the bottom of the walls? That street scene just glows perfectly with those lights.

I love you Curtis!

Curtis, you're a rebel! Murals and decorative paint techniques defy the minimalist tide. Bravo...Your place is a celebration.

Job well done! Fabulous!

And he put the toilet seat down too!!

Such awesome pictures of your awesome place. Maybe we inherited our artistic talent from you!
Mother and Dad

Curtis, I've always enjoyed the features about you and your artistry, but this blows me away! Also amazed at the similarities between your apartment and mine - tho I'm up in Massachusetts. Mine was built in 1936 by the Boston Gas company to showcase uses for this new fuel. All of the details match - the step down livingroom, wrought iron, kitchen sink and even the bath floors and tiles. I've got the built in metal hamper, too. Anyway, I think you deserve your own column on AT. I'd love to learn some of your techniques so I could use them for smaller scaled projects.

Gee, Mahhh, not in front of the guys (wiping lipstick from forehead)!!!!

Thanks, everyone, and if anyone wants to see the hamper in question, you can click on my name in this post and click on the set called "Loretta Loo" and you'll see a before and after of horrible the hamper looked before I took it out of the wall and brought to MAACO, and how it looks after.

Jill took a squillion photos, and I'm so grateful for the care she took in telling the story of my apartment so well and so comprehensively.

Wow. This is pretty incredible stuff, Curtis!

Pixie -

And the lights? Well, the truth is that they have just about driven me to drink, because they're a VERY thin kind of fluorescent that I bought on Canal Street, and which can be plugged into the ends of each other so you only need to plug in the last one. So, it's plugged into an outlet that is powered by a wall switch.

BUT... the lighting place that I went to on Canal says they're not going to carry that brand anymore, because they've had so many defective ones. I, for one, have had to make at least 5 or 6 trips down there to replace defective ones, each time hoping that it's JUST a bulb that's burned out. So, this past time, I decided that the NEXT time it happens, I'll special order them from the new company that they can get them from, which hopefully won't be so troublesome.

You can probably do some that aren't as thin, but I like having them not stick out very far from the wall.

I made a little trough with an extra baseboard in front and had some black plastic "egg crate" specially cut that width from edee.com; that's why it looks like that. Altogether that lighting project was around $400 or so, including the $250 worth of fixtures.

I have to ask. Curtis, do you have to put in work hours too? The detail involved here is amazing.

Nothing, I mean, nothing beats the human hand. I remember some friends who dedicated themselves to a complex hand-stenciling ceiling border, only to have another friend ask them why they didn't just do a wallpaper border. Needless to say once the border was done there was NO comparison to what it brought to the room.

Bravo Curtis. Your place is an inspiration.

Curtis, received this via you Dad, we go back to Riverside Dr/Delhi St in B.C. Had seen your 'flika' collection and was really impressed and with this am really, really impressed' - it is awesome. I did figure out movement of b/shelves on rod to reveal bed, clever, clever! Yes like 1 comment said you should have a column, NO 'YOUR SHOW' on HGTV. Do they know about YOU??? The 'paint by #' idea was great, would love to do one behind the buffet in my dining room, would lend great interest. I'm sending this to everyone I know. Miss Vi would be so pleased her wallpaper is in NYC.......digress: the train cake was quite a tribute to you Grandfather, they were both wonderful people. If I should ever 'get up your way' would love to see it 1st hand. You have quite a gift and thanks for sharing it. Good Luck and God Bless.
Lynda Beauvais Jones
232 Wedgewood Drive
Shreveport, LA 71105
Oops! Almost forgot, everytime I see a 'Maggio truck' in town I think of you. You had 'great talent early on'.

Having seen Curtis place in person, it is even more incredible than on the slide show.

Lynda -
Gee thanks! I have a huge collection of paint by number paintings that we could use as source material for that dining room. You can certainly e-mail me at generalaesthetic@yahoo.com about all of this and more!

This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!

It's not my cup of tea design wise, but I applaud the absolutely impeccable execution.

curtis, if I had an award to give, it would totally be yours.
I wish it could be an installed color mixing uplit LED wall, which would be super sexy.

Most amazing small space art ever. Hands down.

I knew Curtis was talented, but not THIS talented! WOW! The very notion of his Paris paint-by-numbers mural was brilliant.

Curtis,
I just noticed that you've only lived there 3 years? I can't believe you did all this in that amount of time. And you always seem to be working on other projects as well. When do we get your regular AT column?

Curtis-
Love the apartment!
We have a lamp similar to the one in your dining room, and I'm looking for shades. I was wondering if you had a source for restoring the deco lamp?

Curtis is original and inspiring and a main reason I read this site everyday.

The guy is a genius. Perfect NYC Apt

"paint by numbers " will live in splendour as long as Curtis has touched it.

where do you normally hang out ?

Thanks, folks, again! Lauren, that lamp shade in the living room came from Bed, Bath & Beyond for like $25 or so back in 2003. Their stock keeps changing, so keep having a look. I've also seen lamp shades sold separately from their bases at some Wal-Marts and K-Marts, which might be the best first place to look, since they're not all that expensive. Always make sure you have your lamp with you when picking one out.

Gracious Home has loads of shades, although they're NOT cheap, and catacornered from the West Side branch of GH is a Pottery Barn which has some, as well.

I've never had a custom shade made, although in the archives of this site, I'm sure that someone has told us where you can get that.

Curtis,
Will you marry me? Seriously though, I am in awe of you. You are totally amazing. The love that went into your place is apparent.

I also really love your flikr space and was totally inspired by the bedroom makeover where you painted the cheap clapboard furniture and ended up with such a lovely room.

Love the apartment, it looks as if it would be lovely to live in too, not just pretty to look at. The wall idea is so original. I love the green jug in you kitchen. I'll be going to New York for a holiday in April where can I find one? Congratulations!

My favorite thing EVER on Apartment Therapy. Go Curtis!

Curtis,

Your apartment is simply spectacular. When the introduction said it was a studio, I wasn't all that excited, but I knew since it was your's it would at least be interesting, and it is amazing. You have created a space so nice that even though I love big spaces, I could live there.

Wish you all the best in your apartment. Thanks very much for sharing.

double eff -
I got that green jug in the kitchen Macy's Cellar, and I recently saw they still had it when I went there to get a couple of extra platters for Thanksgiving.

But it is actually a current Fiesta Ware color, and you can probably find it on fiestafast.com so that it doesn't break in your luggage when you come.

Curtis,
Jane Cooper from FUMC/Bossier sent me the email with your apt. Fabulous! Your grandmother was always so proud of your talents and this is just "extraordinary". Enjoyed seeing all of the pictures. I have known your parents since college. You are great! mary lou hughes

Curtis, I definitely think you're ready for House Beautiful, or at least Metropolitan Home.
And altho I love everything, the mural looked like 19th century NY to me-a la Jack Finney's time and again. Except you don't have to sit in a time machine-you can just sit in one of those lovely chairs. Where do you find all those beautiful pieces of furniture by the way?

Curtis-

You truly are amazing and to do all that and still get to the gym. I have a lot to aspire to. Will you train me? :-)

Devlin

Green jug,
Thank you for the information, Curtis, but as I am coming from SW France a personal trip to Macy's would be more fun than ordering on line.

Oh, Peggy! I wanted to propose, and you got their first!

I just have to stop being so shy!

Horrors! Peggy got *there* first.

Flusterated spelling!

I love it when I see a space that makes me excited, and challenges me, to do something new and different in my own home. The pics of Curtis' home did that for me. It is amazing. I love that he took something so ordinary (the paint by number set) and so transcended that to create something really magnificent.

Very wistful sigh. It's beautiful.

Jean, maybe there's a Curtis Groupie Club we could join. I'm sure there's already one established-- is there a chapter in Boston?

[looks longingly through the flickr photos again]

I live next door to Curtis. He's a wonderful, nice guy and has a great sense of our building's style and period. Our building has magnificent apartments and his is the best laid out studio. And I can vouch that everything was meticulously planned and beautifully executed personally by Curtis.

Curtis --

Absolutely amazing! Cynthia and I haven't stopped talking about it since you gave us the tour during the Christmas party in December.

The photographs are great, but it doesn't come close to how great it looks in person!

If a weaker person had tried this he would have gone insane.

Fabulous work!
Myles

How sweet! How fun! My neighbors have found this, and I don't even have all of their e-mail addresses, so I they must have heard about it from the ones whose addresses I do have.

Meanwhile, aj, jean, or peggy, or anybody else who wants a big old paint-by-number mural in your place, just e-mail me and we can figure out some kind of logistics to get me into your place and at least create the "kit" for you, and then have your friends help you paint one. I have a stash of about 200 of the vintage paint-by-number paintings, or you can find one you like off eBay, yourself, and we can get it going!

Now that's the way to make the most of a 'flesh pink' art deco tile bathroom!

The hamper is pretty cool... what would it have looked like in pewter or nickel colored paint?

One more question... is your paint-by number mural available to the general public for duplication? That would be incredible in my Art Deco building's front entry!!

Wow, really remarkable.
I use Super Sculpy all the time and had no idea you could boil it... I would love a more detailed explanation of how you decorated the TV.

Hi Curtis!
I think your idea of using paint-by-number as a mural is so outstanding and the effect of the done piece is amazing. Having seen it in person, there is great warmth to the room which enhances the beautiful colors in the mural. I love the uplighting effect as well. I think to spend an evening there would be sublime. I think I will invite myself over the next time I come to NYC.

Curtis, this is beautiful! You have a telephone on a shelf in one of your pictures that reminded me of the one Mom and Pops had in their bedroom in Baton Rouge!Thanks for that memory...
Your apartment is fantastic, I would love a tour... Let me know the next time you're in Louisiana, I would really enjoy seeing you.

Lynne -
Get yourself up to NYC and you'll definitely get a tour, cuz! But if you want a phone like mine, Pottery Barn is where that was came from ('twas a Birthday gift -- the kind where they actually asked me what I wanted), and they still have some, although they might not carry black any longer. The numbers are push-buttons; it doesn't do the rotary thing.

By the way, your father, Uncle Bill, is the one that made the base of that lamp in front of the mural; I turned it into a lamp in college, and the shade came from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Samantha -
For the TV, I sculpted those filigree bits for that TV by basically just figuring out which kind of border, etc., would fit on which part of the TV, and I used a Dover clip-art book of Victorian borders for inspirations. I just it did it while watching TV. And I boiled each little bit, and glued it on with black silicone glue. Before I painted it red-and-then-gold, I painted it black just to even out all the color.

click chick -
Go ahead and e-mail me at generalaestheti@yahoo.com; we can get something going in your building's entry, but I don't think I can really mass-market this and have it happen like I'd want it to.

Fascinating apartment. I'd say it must be some kind of neighborhood (either cyber or brick and mortar)treasure.

This website about the social history of paint by number is terrific.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/paint/rembrandt.html

Curtis, this is stunning. When is your new show on the HGTV going to be on? - Mike R., from Centenary :)

Having remembered painting in the numbers 18 and 19 and maybe 22 it is stellar to see Paris comletely finished. Love all the other stencil madness big time. Brilliant Curtis......

So, so PROUD. What a magnificent talent you have, Curtis! (And to think I was the one who started you on Flickr!) You deserve all the accolades, and (Benjamin) Moore.

Curtis,
I am in awe...I bow down to you.
By the way, like the witty touch that the pic of the coat and hat adds.

Hi Curtis

Loved your murphy bed and the colours and design of the covering on the bed and wall. Also loved your silver 3 sectioned chair and your round glass topped table with chairs. Your mural is beautiful and with the street starting from the bottom of the mural it appeared as though your apartment was an extension of the street scene - as if I were sitting in a plush restaurant at street level.

Curtis possesses a colossal talent; he should be doing this full time. Many have vision and creative solutions, but few have the tenacity and the ability to think outside the box if that is what it takes to transform the vision into reality. Curtis has all that and more.

My humble contribution here is to suggest that each poster recommend someone to him, to be the recipient of his awesome talent and simultaneously have the home of their dreams. I volunteer to be the first. Curtis deserves to have the fulfillment in his own life that he has brought to so many "objects" - i.e. to spend ALL his time doing what he loves so well, and so wonderfully.

Curtis, I was so inspired by your apartment that I started a web search about paint by number, then, because I saw how delicious they are and so fascinating in an social historical and art historical way, I decided to to a whole show about paint by number at my art gallery in Vermont. So, first, thank you. And, second, may I show some photos of your apartment in the exhibit? It will be in August 2007.

Let me know. You can reach me through my website www.pinestreetartworks.com.

wowie zowie! so much fun to peruse through your wonderful home. your creativity and artistic ability are impressive to say the least. i love the tree/branch shelves that are on your walls... where did you get those?


kudos to a work VERY well done.

anna -
I got those at a little antique store on Broadway and 93rd Street about 9 years ago, when I lived in my most recent former apartment. They look like wood, but are actually some kind of strange wood cellulose molded material that seems kind of like plastic or something.

I agree with poster #2.

wooooooooow

i love art deco and i really love your vintage wallpaper book....that is some serious dedication you've got!

I would love to see some more large-scale paint by number works....wow.

The living room mural remains my favorite of everything I've ever seen on AT.

I could look at this all day (not so good for productivity, but extremely therapeutic).

Curtis - You need to bottle that patience and passion, it's worth more than Bill Gates.

I'm on vacation at my folks house for my niece's graduation and I happened to log on to AT and I see my apartment up on the main page again! Fun surprise!

I did something like this in my apartment too. But my place is even smaller, so I could not do it as big as his. It sort of started to look like the walls were caving in, especially with the piece I was putting up. So I had to stop before it turned out completely disastrous. Maybe I'll post some flickr photos. His looks really nice though.

I remember when Curtis was an audience member on TV (Martha Stewart Show?) and mentioned painting by numbers.

Until now, I had no idea the scale of his paint-by-numbers project. Nicely done. I especially love the "only-paint-with-a-friend" social aspect of the wall project. What wonderful memories you and your friends must have.

Love the dining room wall.

Hi Curtis

It looks just great!! just great!!

Just awesome. What a talent!

The small pix look cool! I just wish I could open the "see all pix at once" or even the damn slideshow...