What is your one favorite element in your small, cool home? My favorite element would be the geometric layout in the living room area. I tried to emulate the organized landscape you see when looking down from a plane on farming country, with specific emphasis on rectangular shapes and healthy colors. I've always found this view to be both compelling and relaxing at the same time. Starting with the greens in the sofa and through the earthy shades in the area rug, coffee table, and ottomans, I replicated a miniature version of a pleasant countryside aerial view (at least I think I did!).
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What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in furnishing your small home? I've lived in NY now for 10 years and have yet to enjoy the luxury of a separate room, i.e. a bedroom, an office, etc. However, while my current apartment is indeed a studio, I think the unique layout gave me an opportunity to take on the challenge of achieving some sort of separation into different functional areas, while keeping each with the right amount of energy and inspiration. I used bright colors and active decoration for the living space, minimalist design for the upstairs bedroom area, a calm motif for the kitchen and bathroom, and installed a mini-California closet and bookshelf for storage in the entry hallway. For my "office" corner, I also ended up removing floor cupboards, cutting back the countertop, and building some inset shelf space to store some books and supplies. For my "breakfast nook", I installed a separate railing to partially enclose that area.
In terms of resources, I must admit to being a nerd and designing/planning my entire apartment as well as my wine cabinet and custom-built bathroom furniture on Microsoft Excel (change the height/width of the cells to create a square grid where one cell = 1x1, and draw away). Surely I'm not the only one who does this? Other helpful resources would be my friends, Apartment Therapy (especially for colors), ICFF (for ideas) and archiexpo.com.
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Well done. I really like the color choices and the use of space.
I couldn't vote on this one from inside the article, but i was able to vote from the general main AT blogroll page.
Nice spot you've got here Josh. I like the hanging guitars as a very practical decoration. The entertainment center is also a good use of space.
No Josh, you're not alone. I space plan with Excel, too. Love your space! Cozy and stylish!
i'm not jealous, but you should be disqualified simply for having an $8,000 couch...if that's what i think it is...
I cannot believe you have a Polder sofa!
Your bathroom does not really match the rest of your house, so you might consider doing something different in there. I like the James Bond poster!
You hung guitars over a space heater? They're going to warp.
Nice colors. That's so much space to have in Greenwich Village, wow. What's outside the sliding glass door?
Place to find that huge of a James Bond movie poster!
Awesome place, but after going through the last pic now I can only think of the toilet with the seat up. Please put the lid down in a picture or real estate listing, people!! I beg of you!
Could he play any more to the editors?
Nice layout, love the James bond poster. Have you considered replacing the vertical blinds?
Love the layout! Your place seems really well organized...great sofa!!!
I don't see why someone should be disqualified because they used their resources to purchase furniture they love and want to live with everyday, especially in a small space.
Love the colors in the living room!
I must know where you got your James Bond poster!
Please!
love the colors... and it looks much bigger.. great use of space, Josh...
I was hoping to get through the comments without seeing a reference to the lid being up.
nice space, but I'm having trouble that a real orchid would really thrive like that perched on top of a toilet.
I want to know where you got that little table/shelf for the toilet. I NEED something like that desperately and making it myself isn't an option.
Beautiful space!
oof. agree with the guitar comment. my instrument stays as far as possible away from any source of heat/sun/etc. i love that they're on the wall and displayed, but it's just not a good idea...
love the space though :)
I really like what you've done with your bathroom! It looks so lovely and relaxing. Where is your shower curtain from if you don't mind my asking?
I have coveted your sofa for a great deal of time.
Great flow with your color selections throughout your pad, especially the shades of green on the couch.
Space utilization is excellent. I'll keep this apartment in mind for ideas with my own studio in the city!
it's refreshing to see a space that is not filled with junky ikea furniture.
By picture two I thought - "beautiful expensive sofa and Boca-timeshare vertical blinds?! Argh!"
My pettiness comes from jealousy. I know it's not pretty! But please trash those blinds.
x.girl, he made the shelf over the toilet. I think it would be quite the easy DIY to take on. Why not try it?
I want to see where you sleep, Josh. :)
I, too, really need to know where you got your shower curtain.
Your arial view methodology cracks me up, along with the Excel means of deploying it! Do you keep the arial view in mind as you tidy up, too?
This is the first time in my life I've not only been able to bear but actually like the use of (shudder) vertical blinds.
Definitely a Thumbs Up for a very cool space with a great sense of proportion going on it it----
I'm a long time reader but this is the first time I have commented here.
Josh - I'm on one of the lower floors in this very building (on Thompson St) and a comment I hear a lot of the time is that these are "cookie cutter" apartment. You did a great job making your space unique and compelling.
Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments! I'll try to answer questions as best I can - if I miss any, let me know. I love all the feedback, positive and negative.
Guitars … Rest assured the Fenders are usually floating around elsewhere in my apartment away from heat, etc. I don't really care about the Jackson and only keep it around so I can break it one day.
Posters … Both are 1960's originals and are from Posteritati on Centre/Grand (also online). The guys there are extremely knowledgeable and friendly and I highly recommend them!
Bathroom shelf … I actually didn't build it, but rather destroyed an existing mini-bookshelf I got from Gotham Cabinet Craft on 13th/3rd by cutting out the back and refinishing.
Shower curtain … It's from Crate and Barrel on Broadway/Houston. I got it over a year ago though so hopefully they still have it.
Balcony … No furniture now, but when it warms up, I have a few café chairs set up to enjoy the view.
To Hera who stated that I was "playing to the editors" - I take that as a compliment because it insinuates that I somehow knew what I was doing with my place. I am much more frequently a spectator than a presenter when it comes to design, so your implication is indeed flattering.
On the vertical blinds, would love some suggestions on replacement possibilities? I got a kick out of the "Boca" comment - definitely not my intent.
And lastly, about the toilet seat being up - three words: I regret nothing.
Hi Kimber! :)
Ladies are always trying to control what men do with the toliet seat. Oy. I don't know why women are so obsessed with toliets? I'm sure it's some weird sexual thing. I think their toliet seat fixations are B-I-Z-A-R-R-O.
Uh, I once had a JAMES BOND "Diamonds are Forever" standee. I traded it for an Insert from "Titanic" the Clift Webb/Barbara Stanwyck version. [I had no place to put the standee! It lived in the closet.]
Toilet fixations come from falling in as you stagger in in the middle of the night, or possibly sit in someone else's ... you get the idea.
i don't the comment above that says this entry should not win if that is an $8000 sofa.
seriously?
i don't get it. why should it be disqualified? was there something that i missed in the rules? we don't know how they got the sofa (and it shouldn't matter). perhaps they got a great deal or maybe (like the majority of people i think) he saved and splurged on a quality item that will last forever instead of something that'll have to be replaced every 3-5 years.
just had to get that off my chest.
anyways, the excel idea is great - one i'd never thought of but i'm sure i will try for space planning.
Sweet guitars! Do you play them for the ladies?
You know, I always wonder if loft spaces have to be included in the square footage. You'd think that it would count as living space and it would have to be added, but it seems like a lot of people don't.
The toilet lid seat being up is not a "weird bizarro sexual thing." It is an "I don't want to see the inside of where you defecate thing." *shudder*
I love your place. It's just well put together! Bravo, one of the best I've seen.
Congratulations on making this small space "your own" through creative use of color and a distinctive design sense. Breakfast "nook" is probably too generous; breakfast "niche" is more like it, but you've done a good job of making something [attractive] out of nothing. Way to go!
I would suggest people with this bizzaro fixation on toliets live alone. Then they don't have to "shudder" at a toliet seat up.
BTW: if you're "shudder-ing" over that? You need therapy.
People who don't want to "fall in" when half asleep need to take responsibility for their own actions and not expect everyone to do things for them.
Next time put the lid on the toilet down for the picture. They're called lids for a reason... Nice place though.
The guitars look great - but I'm hoping a ukulele and/or kazoo get added in to spice things up.
OMG the Crate and Barrel on Broadway and Houston I love that one it's my favorite :) On the vertical blinds maybe curtain perhaps (from Crate and Barrel LOL)?And I have to admit I didn't notice the toilet seat up I was distracted by the lovely shower curtain.
Josh got his cool original movie posters and frames from Posteritati on Centre St. in NYC. We have over 9,000 original movie posters available to view at the SoHo gallery or online at posteritati.com.
Fantastic layout... Great Job Josh