apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am so sick of these obnoxious Manhattan apartments renovated during the luxury housing boom (is it over yet) that look like no one lives there. My favorite AT postings are about how people really live, using innovative, creative solutions and heartfelt design, not about these gross vanity-holes all done in white with unrealistic finishes and $2,000 toilets.

Gimme a break.

It looks like a very liveable space to me. I love the small circular basin in the half bath.

Lots of people like white interiors, especially for small spaces, as it makes the space feel less cluttered. Personally I can't stand cluttered spaces with random paint colors etc because it makes me feel stressed out. Anyone else feel the same way???

I think this is beautiful and very liveable. Someone had a wonderful vision to create this space! It is calm and clean and I dream of calling a space like this home.

I have a philosophical problem with the whole paint-everything-white scenario. However, if one MUST paint everything white, this is the way to do it.

I like this shot.
Though I probably would have made the same argument at one time, I now think it is unfair to say that an all-white space is one where no could live or does live. We all have different emotional and aesthetic needs and I've come to see that just as I am agoraphobic, sad and agoraphobic in many minimalist spaces, some people are claustrophobic, distracted, threatened by my colorful, global eclecticism. Some people have a deep and abiding need for order. Others have a deep and abiding need to be surrounded by hue and precious objects. It's really nothing to take an absolutist stance on.

A sink is a sink - except for one like this one. When does one put the tootpaste, after you put it on the brush? Oh, I forgot, the bathroom is really a shrine to the Goddess of Poop and My Success.
Striping the cieling down (or up) to the beams must be real fun, when you have upstairs neighbors. Heh! Lets all remove ALL of the insulation from our homes! Let'um know how sophisticated and rich we are!
But I admit, the place is really quite pretty.
Kol Hakavod, Ghiora

Absolutely beautiful apartment... well thought-out and it looks very livable. The airy whiteness grounded by the dark floors and low bookshelves along the entire wall works well here. This really makes the big space coherent, allowing areas to be defined mainly by furnishings. That's a great way to create pockets of intimacy within the openness.

Big spaces have their own problems and solutions, often distinctly different from small spaces, but just as heartfelt and creative.

Love this space.

Preposterously overdone, and self-conscious in every crevice.

Where it isn't sterile, it's just plain creepy and dehumanized.

There's nothing "respectful of the building's history" in slathering it in white; doing so is the equivalent of dumping a bucket of paint over history's head.

I think this space can handle all the white. So much texture and pattern (the brick fireplace, wood beams, bolts in the steel beam, v-groove flooring) along with the extensive use of dark wood and the variety of artwork. All of this combines to not make this your average stark white space.

love it. want it.

OFF THE HOOK!!!!

I will take it now. I don't understand the furniture layout but this is a beautiful apartment. I love dark wood and all white space.

love this place! i could move in right now. and i think the sink is in a powder room, where one is expected to evacuate, wash one's hands and rejoin the party, not get ready for bed.

This place has some serious issues, aesthetics aside. The 'snug' bedroom (which looks more like a large closet) is just off the kitchen? Really? Creating a proper space to actually sleep was not in the scope of this extensive renovation? Why is there no furniture anywhere near the fireplace? Typically a hearth creates a focal point. Here it's strangely isolated. And seeing how beautiful those old iron beams were before being slathered with characterless white paint is just heartbreaking. I'll never understand why people invest in a space with unique and irreplaceable character when what they really want is something that looks 'new' or 'fresh.' I hope the owners enjoy their home for a long time because they may have a difficult time finding a buyer who shares their tastes and priorities.

beautiful, but too much like a furniture show room, remember to add something disheveled or random

Loved this apartment reno as soon as I saw it in NYMag last week. Though, what floors me most is reading the small-minded comments by people who only see things through their narrow, subjective prism. Are you the same people who rave about mundane, depressing apartments with sad plants and window treatments from Crate & Barrel? God, I've got to quit reading the comments and just look at the pictures.

I love it! He is done a great job, I love the all white and wood look.

I don't mind the small bedroom but I never understood American obsession with big bedrooms. What for? You only sleep there, you need a bed and a dresser/wardrobe.

I really love the openness of this space and i think the white looks absolutely gorgeous. But I do have a beef with the styling. If you were to actually sit on one of those awesome beautiful stools at the kitchen counter, wouldn't you be roughly nose-level with the counter?

I'm with amed studio.

All was fine until I actually clicked through the slideshow... whaa?! All that space, and you make the bedroom the size of a cupboard (doesn't look like a double bed even!)?!!! (I'd get claustrophobia! And the kitchen so tiny??! With only 2 burners??! Not very clever if you ask me...

Oh, and really, really dislike the glossy wood floors.

Having clicked through the slideshow, I have to say that the rest of the space is a disappointment. I would never live with a bedroom off of a kitchen and while I don't mind a small bedroom, that space is like a tiny cruise ship cabin. I understand that some people place a lot of import on the public spaces in their homes but this seems like a really bad compromise.

@mia_nyc: I mostly see legitimate criticisms of the layout and decor choices. If you disagree, fine, but don't dismiss people as not knowing what they're talking about or having (gasp) boring taste. I don't think gutting old buildings and covering them in white paint is a particularly avant garde choice either.

Love the light but wish they had kept more texture and patina -- I especially mourn the bare brick fireplace that was painted one-dimensional white.
A bit too clean for my taste.

the dining table needs light above it for ambiance and that sink looks like it splashes all over you!