apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

really beautiful! how do you turn a glass roof into a deck in the summer?

Wow, this is really beautiful and the photography is great too but I would never ever consider it to be small!

Wow...this is amazing. I love the dark tiles in your bathroom. Lovely use of space.

I think this space is beautiful!!

BTW - that headboard is really cool.

I also adore your little garden patio.

OH.. MY.. GOD. this is fantastically (is that even a world?!) gorgeous!!!!

Wow Kirk, I loved your NY place but I think I like this one even better. Beautifully put together and a great use of space!

Great place - love the use of the Heywood Wakefield pieces....

Um...wow. Stop the contest, we have a winner. And if that marriage thing doesn't work out, give me a call. :-)

Stunning!

Wow! I love this and want a place just like it!

I wish you had shown a picture of the bike storage. As a cyclist I am always curious how others hide their bikes.

This is absolutely amazing!! Love everything about it!!!

First word that comes to mind is sexy! What a great place.

Also, have to point out that scrollling from the first (exerior) photo, I was really taken aback at first by the modern interior-- another reason to love it!!!

The NYC pad was simply breathtaking... this one kinda sucks.



HA! Just kidding! :)

Very stylish and I love the textures/colours you've used. It looks perfect. I don't think that "perfect" is an overstatement... I doubt anyone could make it any better.

Kirk, if it weren't being seen in the context of "small apartments", and if you hadn't supplied the incredibly narrow plan, the size of your place wouldn't have even registered with me. All I would have noticed is the quality of its design, and its glamour.

Like your NY apartment, the overlapping, interpenetrating spaces here make it seem much larger & more complex than it really is. The use of the vertical screen on the stairway, and the way the raised hearth continues on to become first a stair, then a modernist altar for the TV are wonderful, and together with the crisp diagonal zigzag of the stairs' profile, those things give the stairs the importance of an entire room, and a very elegant room at that. This area puts me in mind of a monumental Lutyens stairway shrunk down to bite size.
Ten years ago or so, the Art Institute of Chicago
had a big show of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and it included the installation of a small, windowless, wood-paneled stair hall/ sitting room where every hard surface had been painted shiny black, and with the only light coming from a small square of backlit yellow glass set into the wood-gridded wall beneath the stairs, in just the location where your TV is. It was designed in the days when Mackintosh was down on his luck & was accepting even tiny jobs--in this case, the remodeling of an existing narrow terrace house--but that small, simple room exuded an air of sober, sophisticated luxury that no amount of Edwardian opulence could ever hope to match. You've acheived the same sort of subdued refinement within an equally tight space.
Too, I love the way that the bathroom's frosted glass doors, when closed, become a glowing wall of light for the windowless interior stair. Congratulations on another great project. Thanks for sharing it.
By the way, I read your CV on another post, so I thought I should let you know that the McDonald's at the Merchandise Mart here in Chicago is in desperate need of a makeover. You've got my vote already.

Magnaverde.

Wow! Please tell me the name of the chair in your son's room. It's beautiful!

joygasm!!

Amazing space. IMO, this should have won the smallest/coolest contest.

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I just logged on to this website and saw the winners announced.

Now I feel like vomitting!

The judges are completely, utterly, useless !!!


And as for your little cove... it took my breath away!!!


10/10 - ASTOUNDING !

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OMG is anyone else freaking out over that BBQ slatted thing?

beautiful! the whole place is amazing

To ksh68nyc: the chair in that room is a Kone Chair by Roger McLay. Designed in the late 40s and made from plywood left over from Australia's war efforts in making planes for WWII. Not produced today and difficult to find.

Cosy home, imagine quite functional and a great use of space. But the place doesn't resonate with me. The colour palette seems wrong (too many different types of woods and stains throughout) and some of the materials look better suited to a bar/hotel foyer. The bathroom mirrors should have been consistent across the wall (looks cluttered around the vanity) and the kitchen is really boring/boxy.

Radiant. I adore your courtyard... I so want one!! (;
I so covet your funky living wall art, and the fish pond is uniquely impressive. Outstanding space!

Dear, Kirk Lenard and family.

Thank you.

now i can stop watching the original B&W version of 'invasion of the body snatchers' and enjoy a glass of wine again.


p.s.
the step down through the entrance into the bathing room is the small detail that i was specifically looking for and you provided.

I kinda agree a bit with nymms' statement above, but lets face it..this guy is good.

Real good.

-Bobby

Wow.
I'm happy to see that someone so talented also has a deep, large grey sofa in a small and narrow living/dining room, like I do! And we also seem to have the same taste in kitchens. Although there's really no comparing his place to mine!!!

Wow, gorgeous. Now I'm wondering if my cousins will sponsor me for a move to Sydney. :)

Thanks everyone for your comments (especially Magnaverde!)
Carol: The ballustrade (not shown) is demountable and can be moved to the edge of the glass roof with wood planks laid over the beams (between little blocks) to form the deck.
And thanks Nymms for your Kone chair info. I was lucky enough to pick it up cheaply in a Sydney street market when I arrived, and I'm sure they would have been a hot item if they'd been exported. And I take your other comments, especially regarding the many wood colours - I couldn't bear to part with the blonde Wakefield furniture I'd brought over. Although, aside from the furniture, there's only walnut inside and Rosewood outside (the ext bench neeeded a second coat). And some people feel quite at home in a bar/hotel foyer..
gttim: bike hangs in cabinet from rear wheel, front needs to come off and handlebars held with bungee cord. (still room for garden tools, drop saw, cooler, camping equip, beer-making supplies and the chimney!)

I have been to Sydney (my favourite city in the world!) a couple of times. Everytime I made sure to visit Paddington, it's a great neighbourhood with the most beautiful houses. I always wanted to look inside one of those houses. So thanks for sharing photos of your gorgeous home!

A thing of beauty.

Wonderful! Very very nice and I'm pretty sure the best what can be done with such a narrow place. btw: I'll be in Sydney in a month :-)

that is so adorable! i cant stand it.

Sweet!
I usually bitch that people seldom offer constructive criticism after all the oohs and ahs.
But this space is wonderful.
Perfectly executed.