apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

that looking glass paint is amazing me

How fun!!!! It's so yummy with the pastels! It makes me want to move in, curl up on the bed and read!!

I really think this is the one. Hands down. Stop voting, cancel the competition. We've got a winner, people!!!

Love this place! Is that an incense burner made from bike gears? Nice. Not crazy about the window treatment, but overall very comfortable and creative.

Rog, I agree! I *love* the colors, and I could move right in on that basis alone. Great alternative for adding color to the wall -- and you can change it out!

I love 9th Avenue, and I love it near the PA, and I love this apartment!

The highboy is incredible! You were so lucky to find the bullseye mirror! So light and airy! Wonderful color for the bedding.

I can't say enough good things...

Can I come visit during the 9th Avenue Food Festival? :-)

your bed is fabulous! The traditional four poster is great and the color combination of charmeuse and chocolate is gorgeous.

I want to find that looking glass paint and use it on everything in my apartment. What a beautiful, calming, amazing space. Good one!

I LOVE this place. i guess as the contest goes on, I'm gravitating towards the ones that aren't so "designy" I love the interesting placement of the art and the color choices as well.

please tell us where you got the mirror paint - I've never seen anything like that.

Your apartment has such a dreamy feel to it. lovely

btw, is that white sideboard from IKEA. how is the quality?

the sideboard is definitely IKEA. i've memorized the catalog.

that's sad, isn't it?

Love the colors and the brightness of the apartment, but the bed is too "there" for me. Still, nice to see an entry that is homey and comfortable instead of super sleek and modern.

Finally some design sensibility that is not a Wallpaper wannabe with leather and a bent plywood table. With 390 square feet and two people, color is important...and yellow and pastel are a perfect combination. Bright AND subtle.

I am envious of the natural light in this place. But I seriously doubt I could live in one room with my husband without bloodshed. Kudos to you both.

I love it! I could live here.

The bed's great, though I might like it even better painted.

can we get a picture showing the kitchen... i'm a little confused about its placement. i really love this one.

As beautiful as a birthday cake! Very inventive. I love this. I had a bed like that and this makes me want it back.

David and Katy, do you live in Manhattan Plaza? It sure looks like it. I recognize many MP standards. (I live in MP as well).

I like it a lot, especially all that yellow. It's a very happy apartment.

I am really enjoying being shown places that look like a real person lives there, and not like a stylist just finished up! Love the bed. And your colors are bold and beautiful. Living in Mahattan you see a lot of gray out of your window! This must be a happy place to hang out!

pphillipp - you are not alone! I have five years worth of IKEA catalogues - and I know the Swedish names of each thing I have bought at IKEA. (double sick!)

This apartment reminds me of some antique stores I've been to. Tons of stuff in vignettes, interesting things - lots to look at - but I'm not really sure about how it all fits together.

Love the bed - but overall, not really sure that this is a space for me.

lovely luminous apartment - I especially like its resourcefulness - it's easy to forget how small the space is through the arrangement of mirrors, the uplifting colors and the division of an otherwise boxy space into different areas by simple, modest verticals such as the posts of the bed, the tallish plants and the branch that is suspended - and better than the Port Authority for waiting out a bus!

so stylish. so resourceful. these people should go into business!

Colors make this place exceptional. The attractiveness is magnified by the fresh flowers, natural light, and exceptional photography. I can't help but notice how the flowers are moved around in each photo. Is that cheating? Nevertheless, I hope you win so you can keep replacing your flowers when they wilt. You sure know how to use them.

Love how you were able to inject so much color and life into the space without painting. An inspiration to renters everywhere.

LOVE the 3 framed silk panels! What type/thickness of silk did you use? How do you secure them to the walls?

You also did a terrific job on recovering the Salvation Army chairs and breathing new life into them. That yellow taffeta is very cheerful and lucious. A perfect match for the seablue silk panels.

And then the kitchen rack made of bicycle parts ....brilliant! (couldn't see the bed lamp that well though)

Definitely not to de-signy. Not flawless but the warm, inviting, personal look totally works.

I love it!! It's colorful, light and airy. This is definately a space that is not a copy of some magazine photo but a creation of the owners. Love to see the confidence and vision!!

Yeah, I was being sarcastic with the above comment. Too many tacky tchotchkes does not a winner make. It does, however, make me dizzy and desperately searching for the nearest exit! Or, in this cas, bus.

oh thank god! color! and good use of it too. on long gray winters i bet it's a relief to walk in your apartment. so cheerful. i love love your apartment. i amazed how everyone makes their small space seem so- well- spacious.

I love the mirrored paint, but is the display case convenient for storage? I'm assuming you can only access it from the wall side?

I do like the silk panels, and you've done a nice job of adding jots of color.

And, I'm fascinated by your apparent lack of a tv. (Though I know it's done it still fascinates me.)

I would like to see more cohesion between the bed and the rest of the living space.

I really like the use of fabric and color, but clear up some of the "decorative items" and it would feel less like a shop and more like a livable space. The bed is nice, but it does seem to be the focal point of the room- Do you ever have company over? You get such nice light that I think you could use some larger matching fabric frames (maybe suspended from the ceiling?) to partially screen it, maybe also squeezing some seating in besides the dining chairs?

Exactly! You NEED A SCREEN between the bed and dining table - otherwise, it seems like you sleep in your dining room. Which is a little odd.

Something very tranlucent, like a couple of the laser cut Tord Boontje panels, or a wood piece that has lots of cut outs you can see through. Or even just stretched gauze on three frames. It would help a lot.

Also, paint the bed, get a bed skirt or hide the under bed clutter.

It would just crank your place up a few style notches.

What I love, is it seems like you guys are a fun couple and the mirror idea is great.

MY new criteria for "the coolest" is "would I hant to hang out with the people who live there."

Beautiful colors - a bright & sunny feel. I love it.

Very, very cute and cozy.

WOW. I love, love, love this apartment. My husband and I cannot organize our one-bedroom for the life of us. I am in awe of your skill.

why on earth did this apt. get so many negative votes? I thought people were supposed to explain themselves and yet I don't see any real negative comments posted.

Isn't the owner concerned that the cats might knock things down?

OK, I could post this to many of the entries, but I'll just pick this recent one. I don't care how warm/cool/edited/homey your place is. If I live below you and you don't have carpets on your floors I am going to be pounding on your door or my ceiling with astonishing regularity. I do not want to hear your hard soled shoes clacking across your hardwood floors everytime you walk. I do not want to hear your TV or stereo - I have my own, thanks. I don't want to hear about how beautiful the hardwood is. Most NY buildings require that 80% of the floor be covered, excepting foyers and hallways. Please, all of you, buy some rugs.

I had the pleasure of dining at this apartment the night before the pics were taken, so I consider myself a bit of an authority here. I personally consumed that champagne, and the flowers were for me. What a cozy haven, and so chic! Three couples fit nicely, with plenty of room to spare after we were all filled up with figs and cheese. And that big, billowy, silken bed is divine for lounging after say...oh who's counting the drinks, anyway?

This apartment has so much energy, charm, and warmth. I'm so tired of those frigid, modern minimalist NY apartments. Maybe they ARE more accomodating if you have cats. But brown and orange are SO 2002...

love it - warm, inviting & appropriately bright. also dying to know status of TV - yes/no? great improv and interesting variety of special pieces that make for a great asthetic w/o looking the least bit cluttered. really impressed.

Vermont Pat, at least in this instance the downstairs neighbor may not have to worry about tv or stereo noise. : )

I'd also bet cash money that parquet floor is laid over concrete.

Wow, great color choices!

I guess Katy and David are newlyweds? The apartment is lovely!

This is the first entry that has actually matched my personal taste.

That's my bed...It's an Ethan Allen from 1950/60 whatever right? Mine's a grandma hand-me-down, but I still love it. And my apartment is also primarily robin's egg blue and pale yellow. But, since my walls are painted the blue, I went with a pastel yellow and indigo blue accents.

Of course, I'm lucky enough to have 762 sq feet, so no contest for me.

I like the idea that you are surrounded by a lot of your personal things to make it unique. And I love the dining table next to the bed. Dinner, champagne, and hop into bed. The perfect date apartment, but I'd move the mirror from above the headboard to the ceiling!

This is such a cheery apartment! The use of color is gorgeous, and there's a nice combination of feminine and masculine elements. What a great roman blind!

I disagree about a screen between the bed and dining space. It would make the room seem too tight, but as it is there's a nice flow to the space.

I love this apartment!

Not sure, if I like the purple curtain in the bed area together with that very strong blue, almost shiny(?) duvet color.
Also, though I'm not sure about the arrangement of the hung art on the wall above the bed, I like the statement of the not-hidden-at-all bed. Sort of like, yeah, motherf----ers, here's the bed.

Most of all, I totally love the dining area. What a great, individual statement. The accents of yellow are not too much. This is the kind of eclecticism I like best -- not too cluttered and with different elements standing out (thought not too much) and juxtaposed with each other.

Elements that stood out: Chinese blue vase with yellow flowers, reddish tulips on table, the silver mirror paint on the highboy, the beautiful big mirror and surrounding mirror and art frames, the different decorative objects conrasting with the simple, plain dining table and the yellow chair slipcovers.

And when you look at the opposite view, at the calming panels with the IKEA Magiker cabinet (an IKEA piece has never looked less IKEA than in this mix) with the great silver bowl of champagne bottles(?).

This is the way antiques and collectibles should be exhibited -- in a lived-in, comfortable, non-stuffy way. The mix of new and old, expensive and cheap. You've really imbued this nice, but bland space with your own style.

I bet it'd be fun to go to the flea markets with you two. What do you do for a living? Are you artists? Designers?

This apartment is a breath of fresh air from the rest of the stuffy, cold, modern, and over designed units. The colors are inviting and the space feels so homey. I love the dining area.

has a lot of character, shows off the homeowner's personality, however it's a bit too cluttered and too much going on for my taste.

I respect the personal-ness of it.

Thumbs down. This place reminds me of what one might say about a newborn baby; all it does is eat, sleep and poop. It has no living space! Despite its lovely spring color palette and many interesting accessories, it does not appear to be a place where one (much less two or more) could kick back, unwind, read a book, converse. This is primarily due to the full size table with seating for four(!). Inviting guests to flop on the bed after dinner just isn't hospitable. Fold up the table (as it appears to be to do, store the extra chairs until needed and create some type of small conversation area. I'd find the place terribly charming then.

I love the fact that none of your stuff comes from Ikea.

Is the bedding slippery? This gives an uneasy feeling. Have you tried other colors on the bed and bedroom curtain -- and fewer pieces of art above the bed? I'd be curious to get closer and see which religious icons you've chosen, and how they relate. (How are these framed?)

Perhaps a high-backed bench at the foot of the bed would add a whisper of privacy without taking away the dining room seating. Or a canopy for the bed, with hangings at the foot? Where is "American Inventor" with an innovative solution? A friend lives in a very similar studio across from the PA, & it's too bad these apartments don't have room to fit both a bed and sofa/loveseat.

The apartment has a beautifully intimate, welcoming feeling. The owners seem to have a unique sensibility, people expressing their own sense of style instead of mimicking the page of one catalog or another. It looks like a spring day, not a bus station satellite by any means.

David & Katy, you have a really nice place. Chalk one up for Hell's Kitchen. Not my style, but you definitely have style. I'm trying to figure out quite where you are from the views from the window. We live close enough to you, I could probably hit your apartment with a rock, if I had a better arm.

We like the way the bed is located next to the window so that the sun bounces off of the turquoise bedding and brings more light into the room. We also feel the same about the yellows by the other window. The brown bedposts bring a natural feeling into the brightly colored room. The mirrors and light colors make the apartment more spacious and open. The silk panels are very creative. Lovely.

I'm sorry, but this apartment is like a medley of too much color and texture, and I could go on... I don't feel relaxed at all when I look at it. You both seem like fun people and that comes out in the decor, but it's intense.Maybe saving money for a few quality pieces is better than spending little money on lots of low-quality stuff. Kudos on taking risks though.

A little bit too cluttered, but again, I am a fan of the color scheme.
Nice design!

Very girly. This women clearly hates men. David...speak up.

Creative use of color and fabric, which give a warm, dreamy quality. I'm still laughing that you had to hire a carpenter to build the frames for your fabrics. Guess you don't do much DIY! But kudos on using colors that aren't the going trend (if I see another chocolate and blue room...).

There's nothing I don't love about this. A screen between the bed and table would be too constricting, I love it the way it is. I am in love with the silk panels. I just adore this. I can't see how anyone could be sad in a home like this.

I think I've died and gone to Peter Cottontail's grandma's flat.

Bed and wall behind bed do not match rest of the place, which is very lovely.

Hmmm. Well, it's a brilliant use of space, but the color scheme's just not for me -- perhaps toning one or two down, and limiting the bold & the beautiful to only a couple of those bright colors. In muting the other two, you can create a more calming effect. Also, all the hanging scragglies take from any serenity you could be creating with the actual materials (like flowers, roots, etc.) You could also limit the kitch - too busy for such a small space. Cluttery. But the raw idea is good.

--Kaden

I love it! Especially the rooster! :)