apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Fabulous credenza! What's its backstory? Antique? Repo? Where did you find it?

I want your kitchen! Gorgeous tile work in the bathroom. The sofa seems a little large on the proportion side for the space, and some art would be nice for the walls. Clever storage concealment though to let you hide all your things. Nice, clean lines overall. Cool!

as an out-of-towner, my question..........what is a "tenement building" considered to be in NYC??

Carolynapplebee, see the entry for "Vaso's tenement"...people (uh, me) went on and on. In short, it was built in early 1900s for the swarms of immigrants. Gen. small units, walk up...the tenement museum is great... gives great history of them. http://www.tenement.org/

This entry's very cheerful. I like the marble detail in the shower.

I love the neti pot in the kitchen. It almost reminds me of my kitchen. :)

"was built in early 1900s for the swarms of immigrants"

Some of them are a lot older. I lived at 27 Avenue C and that was built in 1870. This was before indoor plumbing when the courtyards contained a pump and outhouses. I can't imagine the stench, esp. in the summer.

Kimberly and Zachariah, I lived in a space that size and configuration with my husband and two cats, so I know the challenges. Nice job! I esp. love the kitchen and curtained closet.

I have a problem with photos of toilets, especially with the seat up. Maybe that was the only angle to show the bathroom but at least put the seat down. Yuck!

my boyfriend an i looked at this apartment when it was for sale a few months back
it was really really nice
the realtor said they were selling b/c one part of the couple was moving
are you guys the new owners? b/c these are exactly the same piccies from the realtors website if i remember correctly, or is this place still for sale??

I LOVE the photos of the living room and kitchen. The flash makes the rooms feel very Better Homes and Garden circa 1973 (in a good way)

carolynapplebee -

I think that a tenement is an apartment building that tends to have about 4 or 5 floors, and is almost never has an elevator, and tends to have about 4 apartments per floor, and sometimes even shows evidence of originally having had one bathroom per floor. Sometimes that bathroom has been divided in such a way that it it becomes a storage closet that opens into the corridor, while, perhaps the main plumbing part may have been incorporated into one or both of the actual apartments that flank it, but it might serve as just a "water closet" (room with only a toilet) and the lavatory part might be elsewhere in the apartment, separately.

I think these also sometimes are the most likely to have the bathtub in the kitchen, and were built when the building codes were originally more lax and cheap landlords were trying not to spend much on plumbing. I've visited at least one of each of the kind I just described.

One really must love the coloring the 1st and 3rd photographs especially. Cindy is right. It would so "meta" if people started downloading pictures of this or other apartments to decorate their own places with, wouldn't it?

Anne, can't remember if you were here during the bathroom contest last year, but someone had the same complaint about photos with the seat up!

thanks for the tip...........the historical website is great, i love to read about this kind of stuff. i be from the rural south, so we had shacks and shotgun houses to contend with ;)

I love those bathroom fixtures -- they play off the tile beautifully. Did they come with the place, or did you select them yourself? (And if so, from where, please?)

That blue feels both light and serene -- nice job on the color.

Curtis, LOL at the idea of downloading this as a source. I was looking at the pictures and making a checklist with my eyes: "Colors, check; lighting, check; white brick wall...kitchen cabinets...check..."

We've got the long, narrow tenement apartment too--I think ours is 1860 and indoor plumbing and electricity were added as they were invented. So I love to see what other people do with a space like this.

i'm in love with the bathroom tile & marble trim!

having been in this apt, i can say, these pictures really don't do it justice
the shower is even more fab than that piccie leads one to believe, and the kitchen is an absolute wonder in cabinets
they go up to the ceiling on both sides (which you can kind of tell from this picture) and the rug color is much more fab and less retro in person

I love this! The colors are wonderful, the couch works well, and the closet is great.

Love the shower.

The floorplan is driving me nuts though -- I can't figure out where the pocket doors dividing the bedroom from the living room should be in the first photo!

dude put your seat down!!!!

The bathroom is so beautiful and old fashioned. I also love the credenza and the light blue wall/rug.

Please..CLOSE THE DAMN TOILET SEATS BEFORE TAKING PICTURES !!!

I did a complete gut renovation of this space last year this time. We lived in it a few months, which were heavenly and then got engaged and moved to Texas to a house that is HUGE in comparison (1400 sq ft ;) All the tile is from Bella Tile in NYC's East Village. The bathroom fixtures are from www.sighofthecrab.com. I sold the apartment a month ago, but I figured it was still kosher to enter it in the contest. We carted all the full sized appliances (including a stacking bosch washer and dryer-which (are not visible bc they are on the other side of the fridge) up the four flights of stairs with narrow hallways. THis apartment is loaded with the amenities no one in NY would ever expect from a miniature apt. I drew the floor plan to include a pocket door that would have divided the bedroom area from the living room, but it interrupted the closet space, so we decided to eliminate it. The apartment was so bright and airy despite its size and I didn't want to do anything to compromise that wonderful feeling. You could say this was a labor of love. I REALLY wish I had a photo of the cute little micro bathroom with the toilet seat down. Sorry for disgusting some of you. Thanks for all the compliments and constructive criticism. Give me some better votes please! I still need to pay off that couch!!

CORRECTION
www.signofthecrab.com

The shot of the (very clean looking) toilet is not that big a deal guys. Get over your petty puritanical little prejudices, sheesh. Looks like they had a small space to work with here, and though I have some trouble with the curtain colors in the bedroom area (would have gone with a canvas off-white there) and a slightly smaller couch, on the whole this is nicely designed for the challenging layout it is.

The blue is wonderful. Had that throughout a house I lived in before and it feels so cool and clean.

Don't you love living in big Texas houses? I'm a Texan. My Mainer hubbie and I finally moved out to the burbs from living in tiny apartments in Boston and we finally, after years and years of suffering - have enough room for our antiques and books and clothes. It's insane to think we lived like this before... Congrats on the redesign of such a difficult, and small space!

I'm not sure why you would waste two photos on the bathroom, which is too cluttered and the shower shot seems unnecessary. The rest of the apartment is quite nice and the living room colors are yummy with the retro look well done. Curtained closet looks very cosmopolitan. Good job.