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Style on a Budget: Combining Two Pre-War Apartments
New York Magazine

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The newest Great Rooms feature from Wendy Goodman and New York Magazine shows us the apartment of photographer Annie Schlechter and bookbinder Russell Maret — it's a budget-conscious renovation on the Upper East side that combined a studio and a one-bedroom. But the story gets more interesting because (surprise!) the two apartments were in different buildings that were combined in the 1940s...

 
 

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After initial demolition and scraping away the plaster, the owners and their architect, Joe Serrins, discovered mismatched ceiling heights and a parapet wall — which, due to budget, they embraced in the final design. Our favorite part? The creative and inexpensive kitchen renovation:

We didn’t have the budget to do a fancy lacquered job,” Serrins says. The cabinets and countertops were done on the cheap with plywood and Formica, but that’s a plus, he adds. “The surfaces have a patina that I think feels very New York.”.

Check out the full story and more pictures at New York Magazine: Wild Blue Yonder.

(Images: Annie Schlechter)

Tags

real estate, kitchen, yellow, blue, New York Magazine, renovation

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Comments (16)

i ::wolf whistle:: at that couch!

posted by Lady J on April 24th 2009 at 11:05am
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striking

posted by art on April 24th 2009 at 11:25am
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That couch is fabulous!

posted by suzy8track on April 24th 2009 at 11:32am
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The couch, the blue wall, the kitchen...love it all.

posted by sally305 on April 24th 2009 at 11:49am
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I love the kitchen peninsula - particularly the differences in countertop materials and the combination of display and storage

posted by bepsf on April 24th 2009 at 11:54am
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I like how in the full print story, the kitchen is described as a Lichtenstein without the text bubbles.

posted by misohungry on April 24th 2009 at 11:56am
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That was a very cool apartment, wished they showed more than they did.

I love how they got creative to make the difference in ceiling heights and such work and utilizing inepensive materials in a creative way to make a very cool and colorful kitchen.

The whole color element works well.

posted by ciddyguy on April 24th 2009 at 12:00pm
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I would like to see more. I feel like of the two main elements of this story (the architectural obstacles and budget), neither is explored.

posted by kiljoywashere on April 24th 2009 at 12:41pm
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I love the first photo, but the blue wall looks Photoshopped!

posted by fabframes on April 24th 2009 at 12:56pm
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Fab, I've painted walls that color--mostly requires three coats of good painting and good paint (and it helps to surround such a wall with light and that pink!).

posted by krister on April 25th 2009 at 3:54pm
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Weird, that pink sofa and blue wall...LOVE, but with the red stove...PUKE!

BTW, there's a place in Seattle (actually Tacoma) Dead Man's Attic that is selling a pink settee like this

found the link. right on!

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/fud/1128655848.html

posted by tifacola on April 26th 2009 at 2:17am
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I love this place -- the use of colour (the love of Yves Klein Blue and Pink), how they relate without being overly coordinated. The enamel red stove, the green chandelier the yellow kitchen. All masterstrokes.

Very British -- very Living Etc.

Very happy to see something new and different like this.

posted by mschatelaine on April 26th 2009 at 3:37am
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I love furniture that hasn't been reupholstered. Sofa is great!

posted by DesignCoach on April 27th 2009 at 9:51am
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The sofa was reupholstered, she inherited it from her grandmother and it was in white fabric and she decided she wanted the pink on the picture.

posted by Anusha73 on April 27th 2009 at 2:07pm
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The sofa fabric actually looks like Designers Guild stuff

posted by mschatelaine on April 27th 2009 at 2:28pm
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This is such a cool blend of great colored stuff.

posted by baileyb on May 3rd 2009 at 11:05am
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