apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Needless to say, you had me at "zebra."

You need a butch-er cat tent, but otherwise the space looks pretty fantastic. GORGEOUS wood on the cabinets. Wow.

fantastic. the white floor here really works. love the mounted deer head and how you've personalized the space with some special touches. I would look forward to coming home to this every night!

Very nice indeed. Much as I hate loft beds incorporating the bookshelves along the stairs is a good choice. I'd prefer a less utilitarian stair rail, but I guess it suits the rough industrial like space.

love the wood.

I love the raw space, the loft, the beams, the painted brick walls, and the kitchen. However, i think the main louge area seems a bit cramped. Good for lots of seating, but feels a bit cramped- could be just the picture though.

lounge. lounge area.

I remain skeptical of the stainless steel backsplash, but the beams, and the stairs, and the white brick ... very, very nice.

Beautiful lamp choices, too - each one different and well-suited to it's place.

Well done!

The beams are fanastic; lucky you! Love the addition of the red lamp and turquoise kitty house... you say "clutter", I say "color"....

Zowie! Really wonderful job - love the exposed beams and brick. I would a agree with the "Butch-er cat tent" ;)
Beautiful space.

I love the apartment, but have one quibble/question - why did you keep the stickers on the Le Creuset cookware?

Very, very nice! Love the kitchen.

I really see the need for exact addresses and phone numbers here on the entries :)


Wow! Perfect middle ground between what some have called stark/bland white and too much color.

So when's the party?

it would be wonderful sans-kitty casa.

Addresses, phone numbers, dinner invitations...

Add me to the list of people who agree that this is a use of black-and-white that isn't impersonal. (And note that the cat tent, while not butch, has its colors echoed in the pillows on the sofa.) I'd like to more clearly see the blue accents and the orange accents meet and mingle in one single accessory, but for all I know, they do and it's out of camera range.

Great pieces and a great layout.

I think it's a dog tent. I couldn't imagine having a human, dog and cat in such a small space.

I'm voting Stellar and just pretending that you've actually promised to change out the cat house for a new one, because I really like this. And seriously, I can't imagine that space without the kitchen cabinets being that dark, because it SO very much helps make those beams work so much better in the space -- NOT because of the matchy-ness, but because it helps visually support them, so they don't seem to crash down visually.

You'd better be mighty proud of this.

If the dog likes the tent, that's all that matters to me. Happiness over conformity - always. :)

So that would make it a pup tent?

The various woods here are quite gorgeous.

Sorry--meant to add that I think some of the crowding in the lounge would be relieved by moving the pup tent out and getting rid of the "makeshift" end table. Can't tell from the pictures, but maybe there would be room for the cool orange lamp on the credenza?

I love this!! Would love to see the pup. ;)

Lovely kitchen!!

But you don't use those pots much, do you?
Looks like they still have the rubber pieces and the stickers on ;)

I love the rug too...

The zebra rug isn't my thing, but the rest of the space is amazing (both with and without your stuff).

I left the stickers on mine too!! Ha Ha I don't know why I did but I like the logo, I'm guessing that BK does too! I really like this place although there is too much black pleather for my taste.

Very small and very, very cool. Excellent blend of industrial and chic.

Yay, dog. Cats are o.k. too, this site is just a little feline heavy sometimes.

I really like this one. its a cool space and is well planned. i like your use of stainless, though once stainless goes out of fashion it could look dated. Excellent furniture. I concur on the cat tent.

labchick--

Why do you assume "pleather"?

Love just about everything, particularly the dark kitchen cabinets, the red lamp, the window treatments. The only thing I would change would be to remove the stuffed animal head in the kichen.

Rad, it looks funky and like someone lives there. My favorite so far.

Effortlessly chic and fabulous!

Lovely! End of story.

I was looking at a book the other day:

Modern interiors in Europe and America; with 292 illustrations.
London, The Studio limited [c1930] by Herbert Hoffmann.

So many of the interiors, in the book, were truly breathtaking yet sparsely decorated. I think your place would benefit visually it it had less stuff in it. If it had some austere element to it.

I understand the desire to buy furniture and bring it home but you have a small space there. Get rid of some stuff. Start with those two black chairs, the console by the TV and one of those lamps. If you do that you can put some "room" back in your room.

My grandmother used to live in this apartment with her six children, husband, and sister. My mother and her sister then inherited it and lived there with their husbands, raising five children between them. The squalor I experienced there as a child (my cousins and I sleeping on the fire escape in the summers) is what inspired me to pursue a career in real estate. Needless to say, BK has done an excellent job in turning the space into a warm and comfortable home- and for only one tenant!

Beautifully done!

Nice, very nice.

Overall good job, but am I the only one that finds the deer head disturbing? I'd feel like it would be starring at me while I ate...

I just noticed the chicken above the cabnets! Why the Taxidermy?

Completely gorgeous. The ceiling with the black furniture and cabinets is really sexy. I kinda want to make out with your apartment. Top marks.

Wow BK you really did a whopper of a good job!

AMAZING!!! I'd love to eat dinner in this apartment, especially if it were cooked by the owner in that gorgeous stainless steel kitchen (gotta love the viking stove and full range!). I also love the Barcelona chaise!! It's so nice, but watch out... I sat on my friend's and it started to creak. I started to wonder out loud if it were breaking... I asked my friend, "do you think I'm breaking it?? I hope not!" And then it broke - it was terrible. So watch out...

Xeno--
Cuz the dog chases a live chicken, and a live deer knocks stuff over.

It's a really nice space, love the ceiling beams. But the uneven kitchen (height? Depth?) annoy me.

But that's just me.

gee wiz everyone - blushing from the rad comments and laughing at the cat/dog tent and debate and the le creuset sticker comments.

- wood: the ceiling beams are the original beams with all their imperfections. after demolition, i fell in love with the beams and wanted to keep them exposed, but living on the top floor without ceiling insulation means hotter summer, colder winter, so i asked nestor to insulate and wall board in between. the color of the kitchen/bar wood was a "happy accident" after experimenting with a new stain that came out cherry red (no-no) and correcting with a dark brown - the color looks tres different depending on the time of day and available light because of all the layers of different stains.

-pet tent: okay, i'm busted. i have an adorable dog, but ikea was sold out of the dog tent and i really wanted to bring one home, so i bought the cat tent and viciously cut off the whiskers thinking it would look more like a dog tent. obviously, i was wrong. i debated whether to fold the tent up and make my place look more "photo-ready" but then decided not to stage my place - the damn tent is always around - whether it is there or in the middle of the room or near the stairs, etc - it is always around and full of toys that my dog then methodically pulls out and distributes around the apartment. it's a little game we play.

- le crueset stickers: the photo of the kitchen was the best one i could find to submit and was taken by my contractor for his website the day after i moved in - so the sterility of the kitchen is not true to form and i had not had a chance to take the stickers off my housewarming gift to myself....although the truth is that the stickers are STILL on the pots because at first i didn't think to take them off (i thought they were permanent) and then when someone pointed out the fact that they were stickers, they were impossible to remove...the stickers are now just picked at around the edges from my half-ass attempts to remove them, but for the most part, still stuck on...

- pleather?!? the only pleather in my place are those 2 round black chairs, which i'm debating on keeping (first pieces of furniture i had when i moved to nyc in '99 and have a lot of sentimental value, but crowd the space; on a plus side the chairs are light, easy to move around, comfortable and great for extra guests)....everything else is buttery nice leather, thank you very much.

- stainless backsplash: not my first choice but super cheap and i had all of one week to plan and price materials and make it happen...and i idiotically thought that stainless steel was uber-utilitarian and magnetic (thinking i could use magnetic spice holders magnetic towel racks, the works)...only to find that it isn't magnetic....it's just there to be scratched up and dinked up!

- taxidermy: i've loved it, continue to love it and suspect that i always will. if i could afford more, i'd have more. period.

my place is definitely still a work-in-progress. i moved in 7 months ago and started a new job within a week - so the unpacking and decorating has been slow and in bursts...i wasn't going to submit until next year because i felt that i was only 80% done with my vision, but i thought this would be a great way to open dialogue and get some advice and suggestions from ATers. i'm still deciding on what to get rid of, what to replace, etc...

***somone suggested i visit AT right when i was faced with the dauting task of gutting, renovating and moving in within one month (20 working days)....never having been to the site, i stumbled on to the open thread of the day while still trying to figure out the site and threw my big plans and impossible schedule out there....over the course of 2 days, i received amazing advice, suggetions and sparked a few debates (speaking of which, what has happened to jamiepup and opponomax?). AT was how i located my contractor (after interviewing 15 guys within 3 days)! i've been singing his and AT's praises ever since.

how about an AT apt crawl??? we can check each other's places out in person - in conjunction with "the kitchen" - some eats and drinks in small cool spaces? anyone anyone?

Yay: Fantastic beams and exposed brick, well-chosen lighting, daarrrk wood cabinets. An apartment with gravitas!

Nay: Stainless backsplash (Only two possibilities: 1) you never run the sink, or 2) you regret the stainless backsplash! Am I right?), creepy taxidermy, too much black leather. I think if you got rid of those two chairs the whole place would lighten up and your doggie would be thrilled to have more room to run around.

Overall I think that's a lucky pup to live in such a great place.

Taxidermy is creepy, but the pup tent cracks me up. Kudos for not staging.

Love the exposed beams, thank you for keeping them. I'm one of those that keeps complaining about the white, this is an excellent balance, as other said.

Puppy photo please!! I love it and I echo the sentiments about coming over... I just wish the photos were a teeny bit sharper so I can see every detail.

i love this apartment - funky and cool, yet looks comfortable and homey. the kitchen is beautiful, the wood beams add a vintage feel, and the furniture pieces are a great combination and work so well together. there is only one thing missing - a photo with the puppy!!

Sometimes predictable is perfect when you follow through on a solidly conceived vision. Black leather furniture usually feels predictible/safe to me, but when the pieces are put together with the other elements they feel 'just right'. Though I might use something other than the kitty tent for color. I really

It's really lovely! Excellent job (and kudos to your contractor, too!).

One thing that keeps annoying me, though (and it's from several peeps, not just BK)--IMHO, "limited budget" means "no Viking range and no Subzero." To me, "limited budget" means something more along the lines of "IKEA" and "stuff you salvaged off the curb and then painted or reclaimed."
It's all a matter of degree, I suppose, but it still rankles to see someone bemoaning their lack of funds and then showing off their luxury appliances.
Which all goes to show that I'm jealous of your apartment and your awesome kitchen ;).

A limited budget might hae been in place, but often people might just have different priorities, eg. BK with his appliances, while I might choose to spend more on art or something... so on and so on, such is life.

Great apt; and I agree -- AT apt crawl!

Luv the place, BK. Me, my dog and my 2 cats are moving in. It's the antlers over the door that did it (plus the prospect of home cooked meals...)

I like the kitchen. The other rooms still need a bit of editing. Good effort.

Amber - I love that you referred to me as a "he" since i fancied my taste and vision to be more masculine...but i'm all woman!

limited budget, for me, meant that my fancy shmancy appliances, which were an absolute must to me, and my somewhat designer-ish pieces were charged on a long term 0% APR credit card that I am painstakingly paying off little by little...i charged what i could and scraped for the rest. I hate carrying cc debt, but making my home "home" right away was important to me and i was cashless and new-homeowner-poor.

FYI: i heard through the grapevine that PC Richards was going to have a massive mid-summer sale on everyting including the viking ranges, so i waited patiently and stopped in the store every week until the sale started and bought up all that i needed in the kitchen...i wish my refirgerator was a sub-zero, but its just a simple LG (awesome and cheap-ish).

Love the use of light and creative allocation of the limited space.

Dammm, BK nice crib we love it!
Go ahead and do the damn thang!!!!!!!

maybe BK has lots of chairs because this is the place where all his friends hang out! I sure want to hang out there!

And don't worry - stainless in the kitchen is not going to be 'out' anytime soon!

The kitchen is great, and the space is well-organized. The rest devolves into a God-awful bachelor pad cliche, with all the black leather/chrome furniture and that hideous rug.

Very cool space. My camera was used to take the pictures! Glad to see they came out so well.

i don't think any of the apartment devolves into any kind of cliche. every piece in the apartment holds its own value and has its own character, which in turn makes the entire apartment as a whole feel like a home. it's a great space!

Great use of the space, very creative. I applaud the use of the better appliances - it's a matter of priorities: spend less on certain items in order to pay more for the stuff you REALLY want and need, and in this case it's the kitchen (and in my house, the kitchen is the center of the universe!). Good job.

love the ceiling beams

holla! Awesome stainless steel applainces, and very posh/ quirky, certainly not tacky, you've matched that thin line without crossing it!

I wish I could vote twice for this place.

Since you're taking suggestions: I would definitely sheetrock over the ceiling beams in your 'bedroom'. It can't be good to be sleeping that close to the beams. My sister did exactly what you did - insulated between the beams to leave them exposed, and everyone thought they were great. But after a couple years it became oppressive, and when she finally put a flat, white ceiling over the whole thing, she found it joyfully transforming - the place went to a whole new level of calm and relaxation. Anyway, don't do anything that drastic yet - just live with and enjoy this now. But do seriously consider covering over the beams over just your bed.

impressive melding of efficiency, quirk, comfort and the modern thingie.

Sea -

great suggestion. this is what i love - thinking that you've thought of every permutation, combination, possibilty, only for someone to come along and suggest something different and potentially helpful. i love the exposed beams, but they've posed a problem over my bed. when guests and i move around up there, sometimes it feels like slow un-athletic capoeira, hinging from the waist and turning heads around a la the matrix. and the open beams sort of creep me out super up close like that - to stare at all that old fiberous wood....and then to sometimes see wood flakes on my pillow is not nice.

keep the suggestions coming.

It's a great place, and everything flows really well.

I wonder if you could even cut into the beams so that you might raise the ceiling over the bed one or two inches.... Shouldn't really pose a structural problem in such a small area - but I'm assuming you don't have a water tank or something like that directly above. (But if skylights are allowed, why not just reinforce the boundaries of the part over the bed and then make the ceiling much thinner?)

Love the place, wish I had a kitchen like that.....loving your little dog house that looks like a cat....Voting for you to win.

writers ink

I agree with so many others. Great cabinets, love the spotlight on the deer head, and the bits of colour.

Needless to say, you had me at Lucky Strikes

BK, I think my comment speaks to a larger issue on this site: the huge range of ATers' incomes.

Your budget is definitely "limited" by the standards of many in the city (and perhaps even some on this site), but luxurious by the standards of others.

It's a matter of perspective (and yes, I do happen to be on the lower end of the income spectrum in these parts).

But let me reiterate that I love love love your place, and I'm happy for anyone who can personalize their space and make it so livable and inviting.

This is turning into the Year of the Loft Bed.

Nice layout, but the dark cabinets, ceiling beams and furniture tend to make the space look smaller than it is.

Dear BK,

I must speak to Nestor Kalogrias. I am from Germany. The (positive) issue is Ursula. He should tell me, when I can speak to him by phone (his phone number?). tooltech (at) gmx.de

Best,
Rolf

P.S.: Your flat looks fine!

Sorry, I forgot: Thanks for your help!

my favorite feature of this apt. are the dark kitchen cabinets and metal back-splash. following closely behind, is the cat hideaway. i think i'm gonna get that cat house!