apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Especially on a day like today, when it's already freezing cold here, the apartment seems 'cool' at first, but I think I still like it. It's an impresseive asceticism, which shows the beauty of the objects, rather than the space.

I like it. I agree with Rachel that all of the pieces really stand out and are beautiful. I love the wood. I wish the bed was different. I don't have a problem with it on the floor, but maybe if it had a bit more structure or color. It doesn't feel as well-thought out as the rest of the space.

I will leave the "where is all your stuff" debate to the other posters.

This entry reminds me of my old apartment. It was huge, but had very little furniture. My friends would complain about the lack of pieces to sit on, urging me to buy more. I would say, "And ruin all this dancefloor? Besides I'm the only one who lives here."

He says where his stuff is -- it's in the closets.

This is very much a place to be alone and think, though.

I looooove the absence of stuff/presence of space. A perfect place to meditate on the art and the life. Especially after fussing around my cluttered apartment all weekend, this place looks like bliss.

love love love it. love the bed just as it is - it really projects an ascetic state of mind. I see plenty of storage in the drawings. The balcony! Like Paris. The mobile! This is so fine.

I love the monk-ish cloistered feeling.

Agree that the bed is a little un-structured. A simple platform bed (or stacked boxsprings) with no headboard would elevate the mattress and I think the bedding would be less rumpled.

Wayne's space is architectural sculpture and this space is a setting for all the objects in it, which are sculpture.

I'm so impressed with the art (family-made or flea market), the placement of it, and the self-made furniture and wood turning.

Simple and nice. Considering the size constraint, I think you have done a wonderful job with the apartment.

I really like the lamp near the bed, could you please inform me of the make/model, or where you made the purchase.

Also, where's the lamp in the first pic from?

I have to disagree. I think this apartment is a successful exercise in curatorship, but not interior design. The only sense of life in the apartment are the flowers by the sink. It's full of beautiful art, but it feels like a gallery with an Andrea Zittel installation (the bed), not a home.

I love the minimalism and the focus on the art. This place seems modern and ancient at the same time, sort of timeless and zen. I like how the white bed linens make the bed sort of disappear.
That floor lamp, how cool! It's so sculptural and really energizes the space. The mobile, also groovy.

A place like this works with as little as it does partly because he had a good "canvas" to start with -- the gorgeous balcony, the high ceilings, etc. He started with some drama and didn't have to add much.

I'm always wondering what people do with their computer equipment... monitors, speakers, printers, cables (ugh, the cables!) they're kind of ugly but a necessity for some of us.

Ivar, if you read this, can you tell us what you do? Are you primarily a furniture maker? The pieces you made yourself are beautiful. What a useful skill/talent to have.

I'm guessing a lot of deep thinking goes on in this place :)

Very cool place in my book.

What a beautiful and poetic space! This remindes me of a freind's apartment in Paris...and actually I used to see a lot of apartments in Italy with a very similar aesthetic. This is definitely one of my favorites!

Love the windows, hate the apartment. AMLitt above said it well -- the place is too curated.

I want to kick all the vases on the floor.

Beauty, yes, yes, yes. Efficient? It wouldn't be for me. Maybe for living a life of the mind? Still, since the only comfortable place seems to be the bed, this would be a dangerous apartment for me, I would just sleep all the time. Very beautiful tho.

Also wondering where the lamp in the first picure comes from. Although, it looks vintage.

monk-ish was the thought i had at first...medieval. The only thing that sticks out to me is the bed. It feels like it should go in a place with big fluffy couches and big furniture. A simple wooden bed with a clean white sheets would go great with the lines of all the beautiful furniture.

People! Enough already. The guy is working with 320 Square Feet. Of-course it may seem monkish; it’s 320 square feet. But the space still has appeal, and that is what’s beautiful about it. The walls are relatively bare, except for a few art pieces. Only a true minimalist could live in such a space, and this minimalist is doing a wonderful job at defining his space.

Again, what is the make/model of the lamp near the bed/couch?

I too would like to see the bed a little different, but there is something about it that really does fit in with everything else that's going on, and I really like how the whole vision really hangs together so nicely. Kind of surprised to see so luxe of a kitchen, but it's still very, very good.

hello people, thanks for the comments, the lamps in the first picture and over the bed are both vintage and made by O.C. White, I bought one at "B-4 it was cool" on Houston street and the other is from Ebay, as for where I keep my computer, I dont, I use them at computer labs and libraries, I also dont have a TV but I do have a small boom-box to listen to the radio and play CD's but it isn't in any of the pictures, and yes I am primarily a woodworker.

This contest is about smallest, coolest, not "could I live in it?" There was one entry from last year's contest that made it to the finals that was really small, smaller than this, that had almost nothing in it, far less than this. The minimalist entries last year also got the refrains of "where's the stuff?" (I said that myself about one place, but not as a criticism; I just wanted to know in what clever and elegant way did they solve the storage issue) and "I couldn't live that way." People do live well in austerely-appointed places. Wayne's entry (the one with the pointy desk) is also really minimal. I think this one has more art, some of it is sculptural, and Ivar puts a priority on showing it off without a lot of other noise around it.

Beautiful! A place to think, to read, to cook, to eat, and to bed down.

btw i love the apartment. every corner means something. i love 'placement of objects'.

Did you study the wood-turning in NYC by any chance? If so, please give me the 411. Thanks!

-Adrienne

By far, the best I've seen. Wonderful! I wish I could dispense with books and achieve that sort of look. Ah well...
I HOPE THIS ONE WINS. IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL.

You have to look at the floor plan to see that this isn't an enormous space. The pictures make it look vaaaaaaaaaaaast!

This could easily have been in the Art contest. While monkish as mentioned before it is aesthetically very appealing due I think primarily to use of the artwork. Beautiful, though I might opt for a real daybed if I were going this route.

Ivar - I love your furniture - do you sell it anywhere?

Yawn.

The best you've seen? C'mon. I agree - the craftsmanship in the furntiture is amazing, and the pieces are wonderful. But that's not what this context is about. This is about apartment design. Here we have a studio with hardly any furniture in it - which is a choice, yes, but not unique or exemplary in any way other than the interesting pieces. This could be a room in a gallery and it would look no different. This is a small apartment, but apartments are buildings for living. Again, this is a choice, but how many of us here live with no sofa, no bookshelves, no television, no music, no lamps. How many of us would be completely bored to tears if we did much more than look at a few of these pics on the internet.

That said, nice reno on the kitchen. Like the stainless steel countertop, and I'm a big fan of half fridges. Sometimes a girl needs a half.

There, now all of you guys can rip me to shreds. Heh.

Ivar, I lived on the Upper West Side for 20 years (78th/Riverside) but tell me, please, where/what is "Guastavino Row"? Never heard of that in all those years, :)

And your space is delectably beautiful and serene...even though I don't live in a "spare" environment myself, I love to see when someone else has done a wonderful job of it, as you have.

Reminds me of a movie line: In a movie from... oh, also about 20 years ago, Crossing Delancey, when Isabel (Amy Irving) goes to the apt. of the Dutch writer she has a crush on, and when she walks in, you see it's a large pre-war building with river views, and nearly devoid of furniture. She says, "There's something so restful about an empty room," and he says, "Ah, yes, 'Le Voyageur Sans Baggage'."

mmmm, you SO Got Art.

Love the furniture,
and the bowls on the floor,
and being a voyeur to your aesticism.

thanks for the breath of fresh air

I applaud both the aesthetics and asceticism on display. Maybe the next competition should impose a minimum SOL requirement (i.e. entrants should have a dining table, couch, TV etc.). However, it's clear that Ivar literally lives for his craft, and his apartment demonstrates that craft to excellent effect. The only flaw is the bed, as others have said. Ivar should make himself a matressless opium bed to match the rest of the pieces. (He can store the matress pad in the closet).

This comment will probably set off another flame war- but I really don't think there is necessarily a lot of difference between interior design and curatorship.

Seriously, I really like this entry. Elegant, spare, beautiful. To go back to comments from other entries- there is no innovative storage here because Ivar doesn't need it. This entry points out that we can make choices about what we live without. I thought my place was approaching spare but now seems cluttered after seeing this entry. Monastic and the work of John Pawson come to mind. My only suggestion has already been said- change the bed. An elegant, spare, monastic daybed (metal?) would be nice.

Walt

"I applaud both the aesthetics and asceticism on display."

yup, what he said.
I feel like a monkey.
Or a grammar criminal.

Ivar,

Love your place. I grew up on the UWS and lived there for many many years and like Phyllis would really like to know where is Guastavino Row?

In this context, I like the bed. Its crumply messy softness is a good contrast with the lovely but hard/straight furniture and surfaces. It's also the only warm and cozy place to hang out, which seems important.

I really like this space. Each object is carefully chosen and very meaningful to the person who lives there.

I think this apartment is a nice contrast to James & Margaret's, which I found cold and uninviting. J&M's place was beautifully designed but felt like a hotel, while this space, spare as it is, clearly reflects Ivar's personality.

Not sure how it stacks up against the competition criteria, but the spartan 'curator' look is refreshingly pared down, austere and timeless. And good to see an alternative to the mid-century modern look.

i kind of love it. kept it simple, and played up the beautiful window, the space (you see, there IS space in a small apartment) and the art. it's not totally my "taste," but that's why i think it's successful - i like it despite the fact that it's not "me."

This individual has the eye of an artist and I find the apt. exceptional, a wonderful, restful retreat!

While I enjoy the furniture, I'm not really buying the "laboratory to test the physical integrity of the pieces" bit. It feels like a really fancy way of saying "hey, the bed's on the floor!" Even if this was your plan, the arrangment isn't overly creative and/or conducive for living no matter how well it's lit or photographed. I'd be interested to see what you add with prize money, though.

thanks again again for all the nice comments. to answer some questions, Adrienne, yes I did study woodturning in NYC at the Craft Students League, but is has since closed down. I can recommend a great teacher that I took a workshop with in Pennsylvania named David Ellsworth. His website is ellsworthstudios.com. Maccers, the furniture isn't in any stores right now. I sell out of my workshop mostly through word of mouth.
Phyllis and Moira, Guastavino Row is two series of brownstone and brick row houses on 78th street between Columbus and Amsterdam. They were built by the architect Rafael Guastavino in 1886. He became well known for his vaulted ceilings, found in the cathedral of Saint John, in the Oyster Bar at Grand Central, and under the Queensborough Bridge.

by the way, behind the door in the background, right side of the picture of the desk, is a closet of shelves filled with books

The apartment's subtle appeal is one that was initially lost on me, but has grown on me with each subsequent viewing. Now I'm ranking it up among my favorites so far. I wish I had the discipline to live like this.

i also have no tv and live better for that. To live there you have to have no fear--theres nowhere to hide. And to think I grew up about a block away (79th & b'way).

It was great until I got to the picture of the kitchen and the bed. Who wants to see a bed on the floor with wrinkly sheets? And they're just plain white and boring.

He really should get a bed - perhaps a day bed with an antique-y looking wood frame, since it's a studio space. They have some nice wooden daybeds at West Elm that might look good in his space.

I have to agree (cliche) with the cold and curated comment. I like the space and the windows too. Play with the window a bit . It seems like a studio display room

good god, how tall are your ceilings?

kelly, the ceilings are around ten feet high

please DON'T put any west elm furniture in here. it's great the way you have it--- the wrinkly bed-on-the-floor totally fits.

This is by far the best-looking and most efficient apartment that I have seen so far for its tiny size. I bet it's very relaxing living in this place! The beautifully-made furniture, the soft simple wrinkly bed, the high ceilings, the lack of material clutter, and the balcony all combine into the type of apartment I would love to live in. No matter how much I try to simplify my apartment, my place always seems to get cluttered.

I don't understand Betsy's critism: "Again, this is a choice, but how many of us here live with no sofa, no bookshelves, no television, no music, no lamps. How many of us would be completely bored to tears if we did much more than look at a few of these pics on the internet."

Ivar said that he has his books shelved in his closets, he has a boombox for music, and the bed looks like it acts as a sofa/bed. No lamps, dear? He has nice stylish lamps everywhere and it seems like there is good ceiling lighting. The lack of tv or computer is his advantage. It's a shame if you think it's a necessity to have a tv, internet, and Ikea couch in one's apartment. I'm guilty of having those three things in my apartment too, but I wish I didn't! I could probably do something more creative or constructive living in a place like this then being a slave to my tv, computer, or generic Ikea furniture!

What a wonderful combination of European and zen, Ivar!

Imported straight from Paris!
The bed is made for a reclining nude oil portrait. Where's the champagne and candles?
Verrrrrrry nice, and the doors/windows are fantastic!

I love love love love it! I wish I had the discpline to pare down as much as this. I like the idea that most of the furniture is custom/self designed and the fact that this apartment is not too overly "done" like many others in this contest. I think it's unique and is a reflection of what's important to the person living there.

I'm very proud of you, Ivar. this is the first time that I've really seen your work in an integrated contextual atmosphere. What an amazing person you are.

I love the little bird on the painting! Simplicity is the hardest thing to do, but you've completely nailed it. I would love to see how your space changes and evolves.

Thanks for the info, Ivar. Yes, I know your street, it's a beautiful block I've walked a gazillion times, :)

I'd never live here, but I love the apartment.

Hi Ivar,

We're interested in your space & would love to talk to you about our HGTV show, "Small Space, Big Style". Would you be able to email us at smallspaces@brainbox.tv so we can get in touch with you?

thanks,
Sage.

i love the window area!
but- this is definitely a museum rather than a place for living. i feel like someone would be lurking behind hissing "sshhhhh!!" over my shoulder.

I think the bed is beautiful.

How dare you enter a photo of an un-made bed/couch

love it! love it! love it. Bed is perfect. I do agree the kitchen is a bit luxe (as someone mentioned before) but watever, its ok. If i didnt have "another half" this would be totally me. love it!

This is perfect. I love how the chair and coffee table blend into the floor. Bed is yummy. Do you sell those chairs? I'd add a little more color...the orange of the flowers in the still life.

Beautiful!

Ivar, your apartment is so beautiful it's like a prayer. The bed appears to be covered in canvas as if it, too, will soon be a painting. I absolutely love what you've done.

jessica, yes, I sell the chairs, as well as custom commissions, and other pieces of furniture and turnings on spec.

Ivar,

Cheer up it may never happen.

I am so not disciplined enough to live here. But I might waste a new year's resolution on trying. It's gorgeous.

Ivar, I'm interested in talking to you about your furniture. How can I get in touch?

i used to have an apt this spare (tho not this pretty) -- no sofa, no dining table, few seats, and every guest i had bitched and grumbled until i realized that it was important to me to have a home my friends found hospitable. i wonder what ivar's guests think. with the one central large chair under a light (which made me think of larkin's vers de societe), there's something....denying about this.

i used to have an apt this spare (tho not this pretty) -- no sofa, no dining table, few seats, and every guest i had bitched and grumbled until i realized that it was important to me to have a home my friends found hospitable. i wonder what ivar's guests think. with the one central large chair under a light (which made me think of larkin's vers de societe), there's something....denying about this.

Me (the first one),

You can reach me at 917-690-3875.

what Walt said. ("Elegant, spare, beautiful..")

Quality rather than quantity. Your handmade wood pieces are lovely.

Rooms like this give me agoraphobia. It is completely devoid of Safe Space to me.

zen, schmen.

he doesn't SHOW the clothes (where all his crap is stored).

until he shows us the closets, i don't think this entry is fully living up to the deal.

Nice balcony. I just want see a little more welcome feeling. I can't visit that kind of place with my kid. My kids would ask "what are those pots doing on the floor?"

Ivar -An elegant statement of taste and design in a small space. It would seem to me that people who have studio apartments "live" in the city, and relax and sleep in their apartment. I cannot imagine a more wonderful place to return to after work, and an evening with friends in a local restaurant. Your furniture is exquisite in its simplicity. You are to be appauded for your effort.

i love the iron balcony, the french doors, the chair and desk, the lighting; it's truly inspired.

Oh beautiful. I would love to curl up on that bed and have good quiet conversations.