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Queens Rowhouse
The New York Times 5.11.08

Did you all see Kermit at our Small Cool Meetup? He showed us his new product: Modern Hangups...

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Did everyone see the amazing renovation of the 1908 row house in Sunday's The New York Times? Kermit and Azadeh Westergaard's home in Ridgewood, Queens is a great example of how a simple approach can have dramatic results. The majority of the home features white walls and floors — allowing the natural light and sparse furnishings take center stage...

 
 

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The couple did the mjority of the work themselves and have recently started their own interior design business, made by two & co. For more pictures and the full story, see A ‘Farmhouse’ Near the L Train from the Real Estate section of The New York Times.

(Pics: Gabriele Stabile)

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real estate, Blogging..., white, renovation

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Comments (21)

Love the red floors in the kitchen.

posted by Cassidy06 on May 13th 2008 at 5:28am
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I want that kitchen! Those red floors are gorgeous.

posted by Melissa82 on May 13th 2008 at 5:31am
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I was a classmate of Kermit's in industrial design at Pratt. He's a great guy with a great eye for design, obviously. I loved reading this story.

posted by abb_brooklyn on May 13th 2008 at 5:54am
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I don't know, that's a lot of white and not much else. It's not really doing it for me.

What is that white ball on the floor in the first pic?

posted by jooly on May 13th 2008 at 6:56am
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Beautiful.

Are the floors actually white? They look light gray to me.

posted by Anna at D16 on May 13th 2008 at 7:24am
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This is lovely. The red floors are awesome.

posted by suzy8track on May 13th 2008 at 7:28am
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More pics on their design website, including before and after of that staircase!--I love their choices.

posted by jen_g on May 13th 2008 at 7:39am
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I love painted wood floors but I'd never have the nerve to do it. I like the white space, very clean.

T8
www.strangeclosets.com
When design takes priority, the result is often strange closets.

posted by t8 on May 13th 2008 at 7:56am
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Jooly --

I think that's one of the paper lampshades available at Ikea and elsewhere -- nice use of it on the floor as long as you don't have cats.

posted by kvh on May 13th 2008 at 8:40am
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My girlfriend and I probably looked at their slideshow a good four times, completely in love with what they've done.

posted by trygve on May 13th 2008 at 10:19am
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Renovation is beautiful. And when they furnish it, it will be even more so. Now it just looks like they ran out of money.

posted by patrick (the other one) on May 13th 2008 at 1:48pm
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Uh. Top picture looks empty. Agree with P(too) on that.

Kitchen has too many lines for me. Skinny lines on the ceiling, beams on the adjacent ceiling, wide lines on the walls and breakfast bar/island and cabinets, with more lines on the floor and grids on the doors. For some reason, it's "too much" for me. Especially with all the dark punctuation marks of hinges and pulls.

I'm extremely sensitive to visual things. All those lines would be like a room filled with ten different plaids in neon colors of varying scales on the walls, floors, ceilings for everyone else.

But I do like the shapes of the empty room in all white, if I just cover the lower portion with my hand. It's snowy, arctic, icy white. I like that.

posted by TRUE BLUE on May 13th 2008 at 3:35pm
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I'm just jealous that his name is KERMIT. That rocks.

posted by I Love Upstate on May 13th 2008 at 3:39pm
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I like it how it is furnished now-- highlights the bones and craftsmanship of the house. This is a gorgeous space.

posted by ccs on May 13th 2008 at 5:07pm
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Caricatures are a neat touch.

posted by notsocooldad on May 13th 2008 at 5:53pm
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I love it all, but the caricatures have a special place in my heart.

posted by rhiana on May 13th 2008 at 6:50pm
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The floors do look gray and not white. I actually prefer a gray ash color as the white makes it a bit too cold and fluorescent . Also the floors need some rugs to take the edge off . Maybe some rag rugs from here . http://www.rugsusa.com

posted by Franco James on May 13th 2008 at 7:56pm
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I love how sparsely decorated the rooms are. It doesn't look unfurnished (or unfinished) to me, nor does it look like it's not "lived in".

Really, it looks perfect to me! I feel even more drawn to this place after look at the rest of the photos on their website...

posted by Anna at D16 on May 14th 2008 at 4:39am
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It's so beautiful, it could make me consider minimalism as a new way of life. I was shouting about it on the open thread after I saw it online a few days ago. A couple of summers ago I went in a fancy furniture store near Design Within Reach, that I don't remember the name of. The wood floor was painted red and there was a bouncy narrow chaise made of woven grass? fiber that looked like a giant seed pod. It was unforgettably beautiful on that red floor.

posted by Kate (NC) on May 14th 2008 at 8:23am
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hi everyone, thanks so much for your positive comments. we're thrilled we made it to apartment therapy—we love this site!

actually, the floors in the office are Benjamin Moore/Wythe Blue (HC143). we love the look, though in retrospect we might have gone somewhat darker for cleaning reasons. same color is used in the nursery, but we have an area rug in there, so it works much better.

the red floors are much more forgiving. we don't have the color swatch on us at the moment, but it's a wine red and feel free to email us if you want the specific color.

as for the occasional sparseness, we actually feel the pics on our website better represent the house. here's the direct link if you haven't checked it out: http://www.madebytwo.com

thanks, everyone! and btw, abb_brooklyn — we're totally curious which pratt classmate you are... thanks for the props!

posted by madebytwo on May 14th 2008 at 12:03pm
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oops. excuse the weird typographical translation of what is supposed to be an em-dash in the previous post...

posted by madebytwo on May 14th 2008 at 12:06pm
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