Name: Sarah and Hal
Location: Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Size: 950sqft.
Motto: "when you have space, you can do anything"
Favorite Element: The bathroom sink
Sarah is best at recognizing potential when desperation is a major factor. She's apparently the only person who called the landlord after seeing what is now her 950 sqft, 2 bedroom apartment in Fort Greene. That is an incredible fact in this day and age of cut-throat real estate angling.
Sarah says it could be because the apartment seemed dark and dingy. Every wall was painted orange, there was a refrigerator in the middle of the dining room plugged into the wall, and there were no doors anywhere. In Sarah's words, the apartment "really looked awful."
Desperation combined with a creative eye enabled Sarah to see beyond the space that lay before her. In December, she and her partner Hal, moved in. Over the next 6 months, they painted, 'shelved' and 'lighted' with a very soothing, comforting, and chic aesthetic. Sarah and Hal, along with their once doubtful friends and family have come to see the apartment as a livable space.
Sarah likes the result so much that she has a fantasy of raising children here. The closet, she believes, is so big that with the addition of a transom to let in light from the hallway, it could be transformed into a nursery very easily.
Hal and Sarah furnished their apartment with hard work, street finds, vintage shop purchases, and hand-me downs. The combination works very, very well. Sarah, an artist and gallery manager still marvels at the extent to which color can affect the space and its inhabitants.
The mere act of painting over all the orange except the one dining room wall as an accent, caused her to come around to the wonders and joys of the space.
It is the marble sink in the bathroom, however, that has and continues to be Sarah's anchor, icon, and inspiration towards stability and good design as she and Hal transform a less than user-friendly space into their home.
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
It's Adorable! That sarah is a genius!! she should moonlight as a dingy apartment fixer! Kudos.
I love it. Comfortable, welcoming, pretty, light, creative. Shows off the personalities of Sarah & Hal. What more could you want in a home?
This is SUCH a cute apartment! Well done, Sarah and Hal. The bathroom sink is great, and so is the orange rug in the living room. The only things that could be changed are (as already pointed out) the toilet seat, and maybe the bathroom light fixture. Those round globe lights look like they date to the seventies.
Love it, love it, love it.
Where's the guest room, guys???
Oh my, Sarah is amazing... I'm sure she must be smokin' hot. Sarah, will you marry me? Hal, don't get jealous, we can all live together.
That apartment is beautiful!! Can't wait to see the beautiful kids running around in their "nursery." Nice job Sarah (and Hal of course)!
Daaaaaaaamn, sit is mad fly yo. I like all of dem paintings and sit up in that piece. I'll wear them hoes like a sombrero.
Respek
the optimism is contagious, yes...and yet does the place not seem a bit cluttered? old CRT monitors on the floor, a dangerous level of knick knacks floating about, and i worry about the red throw carpet.
It's a nice space, but I'm not sure I get the all the fuss. (Sorry, I don't mean to be negative, but to me, the star of the piece is the space and not the decor.) It is definitely cluttery. The bathroom sink and the paintings are very nice.
Very cozy. I would never pick the colors for myself but jeez, I really love the light blue and white kitchen cabinets with the yellow paint.
way too cluttered in a very "hippie" sort of way. And it's not very hygienic to keep shoes that look like they get a lot of wear on a shelf over your clothes. Although, I do like the lamp they found on the street.
I would have liked to see before pictures to really appreciate all the hard work that apparently went into this. I do like that the apartment seems accessible and creative...a lot of apartments I've seen on here give me a complex about having, for example, a cup of pens on my desk!
I really like the 3 paintings. Sarah, are they yours? Do you have them up on a website?
gorgeous shower curtain!
love the orange touches...a little bit of orange, or in perfect places, like the door to walk-in closet/possible extra bedroom, makes most places more sublime, imho.
(i highly recommend sleeping in alcoves, lofts, walkin in clostets; i've slept very well in them.)
thanks, enrique.
they are mine. unfortunately no web site up right now, but if you, like i can email you some images.
Is there a name for that style of bamboo-like chair just as you come up the stairs? I am looking for a table like that, but am having a hard time doing Craig's searches and stuff, since I don't know what it is called.
My boyfriend and I just found a loft this weekend that we're thinking of purchasing and I was searching apartmenttherapy.com looking for examples of transoms when I found this. I was surprised to see your statement about the nursery because we're expecting and that's the exact same reason I was thinking of putting a transom over the door of a large closet in that space.
Please post again if you do end up with that gameplan. I would be curious to see the results and to know I'm not the only parent willing to store her child in the closet.
Very lovley home. Amazing how many people cannot see the potential. Apparently for you and I that is a good thing. My husband and I just bought a 2800 sq ft house that only needed new carpet, kitchen dropped from the upstairs (yes, it was with the bedrooms) and some serious TLC. People can't believe the way it is transforming. I absolutely love the exposed brick!
Love what you've done. What wonderful sense of color throughout the space. Question: Where did you get that great shower curtain?
I love the space and style....Sarah's brilliant...and Hal is HOTT!!
Sarah has the BEST luck in finding discarded lamps, it seems. That tall one... envy envy envy.
I really like the yellow wall/blue cabinet combination in the kitchen. It really works well!
Two things though. My eyes were drawn very quickly to the pull up bar and the cords dangling everywhere... which you probably don't want to be focal points. I'd suggest putting the pull up bar in a closet doorway to hide it, and investing in some cord management of some type to clean things up.
Keep up the good work!
i'm with Fiona on the 'meh' reaction.
it's nice enough. looks a little like my place, like the apartments of just about everybody i know who lives in brooklyn and is in their 20's or 30's. i'm glad they had the sense to paint and move the fridge back, but all in all, i don't see how that's an acheivement.
there's a lot i like here -- the french doors, the light. painting the cabinets is a great idea. i like the scavenged aesthetic. i don't think it's 'too' cluttered, though i guess it's not to everyone's taste (and i especially don't get how this space is cluttered but Puppet Master's apartment last week was totally fine).
has a shabby charm - comfortable, lived-in - I also would've liked to see before pix
"Sarah looks forward to replacing the toilet seat with a white one"
You are going to take out a solid wood toilet seat and replace it with a plastic white one??? - are you mad????
I think the apartment is really cute, but has even more potential. Maybe just some clutter control or stash n' hide storage to disguise the clutter. Looks like there's great light too.
view ashleyjane's profile
I think the apartment is really cute, but has even more potential. Maybe just some clutter control or stash n' hide storage to disguise the clutter. Looks like their's great light too.
view ashleyjane's profile
"although there is minimal built in cabinet space, the sink and stove are practical and much appreciated"
Yes, I too appreciate my very practical kitchen sink and stove! Unlike all those other apartments I lived in with the un-practical types. Or was it that the apartments did not have sinks and stoves and were thus un-practical? I forget.
I'm sure that caption made sense in someone's head.
view Marie's profile
I really like your vintage desk. Great windows and lighting the spaces feel bigger too.
view sugarplum's profile
this place looks like a home -- a place where people actually live. not just a space that was copied out of a magazine. that's why people are enthusiastic. thanks for showing!
view Kat1's profile
I don't really see anything special about this place. Yes, it looks like a home--like the home of everyone I know.
view jooly's profile
Very cluttered, but a ton of potential.
view charlenemcbride's profile