apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

this looks very "lived in" and homey i love the effect the green treatment has on the cast shadow of the bedroom! nice job!

Cycloc's are the best! And it appears that we both have Bianchis too!

Way too disparate for me...not to mention cluttered. There is GREAT potential in the wall color but the walls are OVERWHLEMED with odds and ends that just don't work together. Imagine popping whites or bold saturated primary colors off of that pastel green. That would create some real magic. Oh well. Also, the furniture is trying to be clever and ecclectic, but it misses the mark for me. Better than many of the posts, but I'm left wanting something more.

Cute! where did you get the grey horizontal wall shelf? and how do you hang the bike? i love how functional your walls are!

what a beautiful bow window you have and I love your calm bedroom

I like the bike on the wall ... beautiful and functional.

While everything looks organized, I am still overwhelmed by the visual clutter.

I agree with DesignGod and Laura, it is too cluttered for my tastes. There isn't one focal point in the room, my eyes just keep bouncing around.

shrug, i like it. i think in person it wouldn't feel cluttered, just cozy.

Love the bike on the wall and the landingstrip. Where is the metal shelf from ?

i don't think it looks cluttered. I don't like the "hide the stuff you use on a daily basis" look much -- it's not real. this looks like your real pad - not doctored up for the photos. love the windows, floors and photography.

The bike on the wall is great - storage and art all in one. I also really like that wall color, and it's great that you didn't carry it around everywhere. Is that a leafy curtain in the bedroom, or is that some crazy growing plant?

I voted super cool for my boyfriend's sake. We have a bigger place, but he still wants his bike on the wall as soon as you walk in the door. Yours works so well with the colors, though. And I like the bedroom colors/light.

Nice space. If I'm not mistaken, thats the Bianchi Celeste Green colored bike. I love that color and wonder if the wall complimented or contrasted the bike, if it would make the green pop more.

I like it. Props for the many DIY projects in here, and I love the bike rack. It helps that the bike matches the wall!

Love the blue wall color! The bike on the wall functions as a graphic piece of art- beautiful!
Some of the other wall hangings are too much, I think- I would pare down a bit. Too many random primary-colored objects reads "playroom" rather than "adult apartment."

Cute place. I love the picture with the bike.

The curtains in the window really dominate the second pic. Have you ever considered replacing them with something paler? Maybe something creamy that matches the wall color. That might calm them down and let the cooler objects in your space pop.

About the landing strip. To me, it looks more like an adorable display shelf showcasing some interesting stuff. Doesn't look like there's room to drop off mail, gloves, etc.

Edina, there is a difference between having your opinion and just being mean-spirited. The comment you made in the previous post was uncalled-for and plain rude - it did not even describe the things that didn't make it for you. Lots of commenters post negative comments (myself included), but they are not rude about it. Please try to keep that in mind when you are making a comment.

Now, on to the apartment:

I too agree with some of the commenters that there is a lack of focal points. I don't think it is due to clutter though; I think it is the way you have laid out your space. I think having the back of the settee towards the hallway with no other pieces to create a conversational area makes it look like a half-thought-out floor plan, though I understand there is the small space issue.

Also, is sitting a TV in front of a window efficient? Don't you have to close the curtains each time?

You people and you visual clutter complaints, some people have books and things! It doesn't all need to be stored away!!! I like this place, it doesn't look like a showroom, I feel like it reflects the person who lives there well, just from looking at the pictures.

It looks like Wes lives in my neighborhood in Boston... The bay window with views of brick rowhouses just screams South End.

I think the layout is great, and the bike mounted on the wall is a great piece of functional art/storage.

love that bedroom photo, but the rest of the place is a bit too knick-knacky for me. do your shoes always live in the hall?

i really like the bedroom photo and it feels very relaxing. but i'm not sure about the main room, which feels a bit hurried. The floor length curtains are good, just not sure about the dramatic cow rug with a softer couch and pale turquoise accent wall. i'd say pic one of these (i'm sure it'd be hard to depart with the couch rug because its really fun!) and then go with it.

Is it just me or is this year straight out of college year?

Sorry, I am trying to be nice but the entries other than maybe 2 are really very poor this year.

This is a great home for these people but...Is there any style here? Creativity? The apartment is ok..

Sorry but I commend the fact you entered regardless. I am just looking for a bit of a reality check here..even more weird that others are commenting so positively on the the apartments. Maybe I have just seen way too many cool spaces outside of this contest in Manhattan.

LOL@ the last comment looking for "reality." Here's a hit: this is how a real apartment looks like, I know...you're probably looking for that DWR showroom-look, but this looks lived in, cozy, welcoming and fun.

Go Boston! I knew this was home turf from the first picture and I love it. And I couldnt disagree more about the clutter. Those of us in the real world have 'stuff' and we dont always have pretty shelves to hide it in.

I wish there was a better shot of the bedroom - it looks great, but dark.

voting super-cool for the fantasy-cum-reality that there are guys out there who decorate like this!

i vote super cool for the modest mouse poster.

Umm. To aladywhoknows....this is the smallest coolest contest? not sure I am in the right place. This is a nice apt as I initially said and looks like they are happy there which makes me happy. However, this is not anything unique nor exceptional. This particular post is just someone who took some photos of how they live, just how you said it. Does that constitute a smallest coolest entry. No sure about that. There is little function here and your ridiculous comment of "looking for that DWR showroom-look" is just projecting off others that have said that.

Not sure you know lady:)

I am looking for cool spaces people, not 100% to see how people live. I see it everyday. About 80% of people are missing the purpose of this contest. If I am wrong then I apologize.

I am entering- I have decided. You can lambast me all you want then.

Nice! It looks like a real home. I love the bikes, books, and pops of color.

ugh..I think - peaceofwestphila cleared things up quite well. We are doomed this year. No one gets it.

would that bike mount work for a cruiser type bike? One that has wide handlebars?

i want to store my bike that way, but i'm afraid it would come straight off the wall if i didn't fasten the hook properly.

how to?

Love the bike on the wall.

Charming. I love the blue dining room chairs and how the hanging lights mirror the bay window.
I appreciate what others are saying above about this being a contest - I guess I don't think of it that way - I just like peeking into nice small homes for ideas.

I LOVE YOUR HOUSE!!!!!!! It doesn't look like clutter!! It looks like life!! Not everyone can live with 3 peices of furniture in their entire apartment.

I noticed a few people want to know about the metal shelf. Im not sure where the one in the photos is from. But i have the same one and it is an Offi Cd shelf. mine is white :) I love it! here is a link to find one.

http://designpublic.com/shop/offi/143

What is the blue color on the wall? I love it and want to know the brand name and color!? Awesome place!

Nice enough pad, with some cool accessories, but it really looks quite mundane overall- I don't see anything especially cool here. While this could make a decent home tour, it isn't enough for a Small COOL competition, where I'm expecting something above the ordinary...

I wonder where in Boston this is...I live in Boston and have a rented one bedroom and it's very similar to this. I wish cyclocs were a bit cheaper cause I totally want to get one for my bike too, it looks so awesome on the wall like that. also, nice bike! you said your brother built it? My boyfriend builds bike frames in Boston, I wonder if they know each other...

Two things

1) Greg Curnoe

and

2) I'm going to paint my Stefan chairs blue.

The living room curtains are hung inside the window frame, but then the bottoms of them spill out over the sill and down to the floor. . . like big overgrown roots, or someone who badly needs a haircut. Shouldn't they be hung outside the window so they can hang straight down? And the black fabric isn't doing the room any favors.

I agree that the living room needs editing--too much stuff--and doesn't feel restful. The bedroom has less stuff, but is pretty ho-hum--nothing beautiful there, except the view outside.

Overall, it's a fine, realistic, lived-in place, but I didn't see any clever small living ideas or inspirational design elements.

I like the bike color against the wall color. My old bike storage solution "popped" from the wall and just made the room feel more crowded. This is good inspiration for something more seamless.

A bit cluttery for me, I see an eye for design, but it doesn't feel cohesive. I do like how the bedroom looks so comfy, and you have some interesting art.

This is one of the most homey places I've seen yet -- it looks like I could live there! I like the fact that this isn't super polished, that it doesn't hit all of the mid-century modern checkmarks with spendy fake-retro chairs. How boring would it be if each house looked like it fell out of a catalogue? This house looks like it belongs to someone I'd actually want to have a conversation with. It's warm, cozy, a little cluttered -- looks like it belongs to an interesting person.

I like the Until Dawn curtain in the bedroom - seems like a good idea for a window with a not-so-nice view (e.g. my living room). Hmm, something to think about.

wow, what a nice apartment! the layout is fantastic, especially for an older building.

I think this is a neat space. I mean cool. It would be neat if it didn't look so cluttered. I like the displays, like the bike, etc., but some of the stuff looks like it's just laying around where you left it. I like the playfulness of the apartment, but some of it looks like you need to pick up your toys (or someone does). Better grouping is my suggestion, if you want those things out in the open. The shelf in your slides is another nice example, do more like that.

Too much stuff for me...

Hi, this is Wes-

Thanks for all of the comments. I have my own issues with some of the elements (mostly the couch) and too many different types of wood finish... walnut, maple, birch, oak. This is what happens when an apartment is made up of hand-me-downs and hand-made pieces (as opposed to hand-picked items). I like that it lacks “style” because it is not intended to be “stylish”... only a collection of items that inspire me and begin to have a dialogue with each other. I do appreciate the constructive criticism and most of these issues will be resolved when my fiancé (Kayla) and I move in together in about 3 weeks.

I admit the overall pictures do look a bit cluttered and I wanted to show how I actually live in the space (shoes and all) but within the space the feeling of clutter goes away. There are a lot of little focal points and you have to occupy each space to find them and it feels much more cohesive in person. Instead of one driving force each space has it's own scale and focus allowing each space when occupied to feel like its own thus expanding the small apartment feel. I tried to focus on the reality of the space and overall solution rather than pretty vignettes and I think the multiplicity of scales did not come across clearly as architectural photography always fails to represent the true nature of a space.

As an aside: there seems to be a big misunderstanding about this contest... is it solutions for living or simply "cool space" (a dead end of subjectivity and taste)? Including rented and owned spaces in one contest seems to cause a lot of this confusion. The small changes I have made to make my apartment "mine" have technically broken the terms of my lease and I have a lot of work to do before leaving. I think many other renters struggle with this very issue and therefore the solutions we find need to be much less invasive. Solutions for small spaces cannot always be gut-renovation, designer kitchens and custom closets.

Now, to answer some questions...

It's not the South End, it's Cambridge - the bedroom looks onto Mass Ave and the window treatment takes it far far away from where it really is.

Bicycle: it is not a Bianchi but I admit I love Celeste green and picked a color extremely similar. I posted more pictures of the bike construction and how to hang the cycloc here: http://hbrdshry.blogspot.com/ There is a link to my brother, Reid’s, website there as well. He mostly is doing illustration now but is planning on building a few more frames this spring. He recently moved from Boston to Brooklyn.

Hanging the cycloc is pretty easy. You need to buy screws with wingnuts and some regular screws. Tape their template to the wall and drill holes. If you hit a stud (I did with 1 hole) use the regular screw and for the drywall use the expanding wings. You have to make big holes to get them in but they grab the wall and have held just fine. It will hang straight on the wall with handlebars up to about 50cm wide, over that and the front wheel will need to turn... some cruiser bars get pretty wide so you'll have to measure.

The wall color is Benjamin Moore “At Sea” (666) and was chosen to compliment the bike. The name is fitting because the bike has a sort of Team Zissou feel and I originally wanted the frame to almost disappear on the wall.

Someone else found a link to the steel shelves (mine were an old DWR hand-me-down) I have 3 of them and use one to organize my bathroom, one as you see in the picture, and another vertically to catch stuff right next to the door. A good use for old CD shelves.

Thanks again for all the comments.

anyone know what paint color that blue wall is???

Speaking of my fiance...
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/small-cool-2008-east/east-13-kaylas-hall-of-blues-047624

again the color is Benjamin Moore "At Sea" (666)

I love that the paint number is 666 but so beautiful and calm haha! I like your apartment very much; I see a lot of great ideas I want to implement in my apartment in terms of color!

Wes I have been looking for a bike almost exactly like that! I am going to head over to your blog.

Great apartment by the way, I too love the modest mouse silkscreen!

I like that the bike and the wall match! Cute.
Invest in a duvet cover.

The best thing about the place are the bay windows. Wow are they nice. I must admit it's a bit cluttered for my taste. I like the green sheer used in the bedroom but the tabbed curtain overlayed on it looks odd because you can see through the tabs to the sheer. I like the magazine articles on the wall in the hallway, perhaps framing them would give it a more finished look? It's very homey and definitely lived in.

Karen

people are so mean. when i don't like a place, i just vote. to me, many entries in small cool are not attainable for most people ESPECIALLY renters. smallest coolest is about working what you have.

that said, this entry works. it's small. it's functional. it's cool. to me, it needs to be a place that i'd love to be in. looking like a dwr catalog is great, but not all of us can do that. we don't have the space or the lease. we don't have the income.

AT, it'd be nice if other members could flag certain comments for being rude. to me, AT is a place where i can get honest suggestions & inspiration. when someone does otherwise, they should be flagged.
it would also be nice to know when someone replies to your comments.

This is still one of my favorite spaces, not for the whole but for the parts. The mint-green bike in a red holder on the wall, by the table? Awesome. That whole tableau with the parentheses-shelves and the cool artwork - love it. The happy spacious feel? Yup.

Downers for me - I felt like the living room strained toward the contrived, with the "look at me I'm sooooo funky" cow rug and green dog-thingie. It's too too done, dahling.

So basically I say I love your instincts, but pare it down a bit, no reason to imitate when you can be sublime.