Ugh, I can't believe they spent money on carpet to cover up those beautiful hardwood floors.

The designer in this case did an abysmal job communicating with his client. The client assumed that everything would be to his liking without any feedback or input; the designer should have understood that his job was to set expectations and insist on client feedback.

The story made me cringe, result aside.

I agree with eastlaker i found this story painful and the result less than interesting.

i am with you on the floors. I would have waited and refinished them in the future, if it wasn't currently in the budget, and perhaps just gotten a nice rug.

It says in the interactive feature that the building required that the floor be covered. Such a pity with those beautiful floor!

it was surprising to see such a grueling ordeal in the series. usually they're nice or interesting. this sounded rough.

The story made me cringe, and frankly, the end result isn't very inspiring. Or maybe I'm just horrified at the idea of living in a narrow rectangle with one tiny window.

$1,100 for a TV, but only $540 for the sofa bed he will sleep on every night? Strange priorities in my book -- my back aches just thinking about it.

I agree - Very poor project management & communication with the client on the part of the designer...
...and I find the results rather lackluster - particularly the choice of plastic shelves in the sleeping loft, the picture rails which are far too high and a cop-out for properly hanging the artwork - and the designer could at least have painted over or created coverups for the heater and closet doors that the client despised.

And that floorlamp by the dining area - Are you supposed to walk beneath the arc or around the far side of the dining area?
Not a fan.

I believe there's a sleeping loft, Mid C Frank.

The words "on a budget" mean different things to different people, I know. In this case, $10K like a big price tag for a studio apartment, even though the article states that it would have cost $15k without the designer's discounts. The $260 shade is one of those "huh?" items. Also, NY apartments ask you to cover the floors, but usually it is a percentage of the floor, not necessarily the entire floor. If shopping at CB2 and similar stores, I'm thinking that the carpeting at $2600 was overkill and made the room seem awfully dark (and not in a good way). To each his own, yes?

Unfinished thought: Rugs from CB2 or similar would have made much more pleasing floor coverings for less money than the carpeting.

Spend more money on nice sheets, duvet, pillows -- less on items that could have been found for less.

"This example is unique because Mr. Logozzo had to furnish the entire apartment — no small undertaking — for less than $10,000."

is it safe to say that this is the shared opinion @ AT as well? because wow.

Some of the designer's decisions are baffling. He was worried about the light so he bought black out shades, the paint is far too yellow, the shelves too high, should have painted the radiator cover black and spent money on the sleeper sofa that the poor man has to sleep on every day. I'd feel ripped off as well.

I just wrote about this article on my site.
http://www.christineschwalmdesign.com/1/post/2010/01/ny-times-diva-designer-extraordinaire.html
I was mortified at the way the designer handled the client's objections. "You act like I owe you something--and I don't."

As for the budget, $10K is a lot of money, but it can go really fast depending on what you're buying. You can easily spend about $2500 on a quality sleeper sofa if you want a custom fabric. Not everyone would, but someone sleeping on it every night just might.

Ouch, that was a painful read, if you go through all the pictures & text & audio. I usually enjoy that feature and learn a thing or two! Regardless how much things cost - no client should spend $10K and have an experience like that (expecting, at the end, to make additional changes). This feature taught me that I needn't hire out, given the scope of my decorating needs, and that I really can do it myself. My house may not come out looking like it walked off the pages of the hottest design magazine but it'll be reflective of me and with no anxiety (well maybe a little... *g*).

I've been reading this series with interest since they started it last year. This episode made me cringe. A few years of reading apartment therapy and watching the occasional HGTV episode made me realize how horrible this designer was:
1. There were plenty of options that wouldn't violate the lease terms to improve the radiator and A/C situation the client hates. A bookcase on one side of the radiator; a sheer curtain over both--something.
2. $450 on a bed that someone who is over 25 has said he will sleep on every night vs the over $1500 sisal rug (plus $500 for installation)? At least 50% of that 10k budget should have gone to obtaining the most comfortable sofa bed on the planet.
3. There was nothing creative in the objects. Everything was from West Elm, CB2, etc. I'm all for using some chain pieces in my space, but not exclusively. Plus, you hire a designer to help you find those unique pieces that you can't.
4. Theoretically, this designer knew the tale would be told in the NY times. So is this his best foot he's putting forward? If not, shame on him.

However, I do also agreed that if you're a client who chooses to not engage in the process you often get what you put into it.

Awful story. I'm wondering what details were left out? Did the client say "I trust you, I don't want to hold the process up, just go for it."

How could any designer, any person who's ever had a client in any fashion, think it was best to just "surprise them"? That's for reality t.v. only.

Bonus tip: If someone likes a room colour in a magazine, pick a paint chip that looks like the photo colour. The actual paint colour used is irrelevant.

new york city leases generally require 80% of the floor be covered. the article states this, as does my own lease.

the article specifically said the man didn't want to sleep in the loft. who would with that bulkhead right over the bed. plus, it's like a coffin. what guest will want to sleep there?

I'm sorry, patrick (the other one), but I really want to use the F word in relation to this whole endeavor, even though I know it makes you cringe. But the uninspired sources, the unimpressive results, the unnecessary expenditures, it's all so very "un" that I just have to say....

fail.

Something about this whole story seems very lopsided to me, and I find it very hard to believe that the talented (and media aware) Richard Mishaan would have handled this in such a sloppy, off-handed way. I just find it hard to believe. And I think the client's relative acting as the "contractor" is possibly a smoking gun here, to some (although unknown) extent.

And to furnish an entire house from scratch, even Ikea, West Elm and CB2 use up $10,000 pretty fast.

As I find with clients, we can have one conversation and walk away with entirely different takes on what the priorities are. But that's why the process continues, and even the best designers have moments of hits and misses, trial and error until they get inside a client's head. In this case, one jovial conversation was clearly not enough to define expectations.

I also think (squawks about the floors aside) had this been posted merely as a DIY house tour, the reactions to the After would be very different.

The yellow on the walls makes it look smaller in the photos -- now there is a distinction between the ceiling and the walls, whereas before there wasn't.

Not a fan of the pillows.

Too much artwork on the walls for the space -- makes it look cluttered.

A $10k price tag sounds huge to me for a studio. :)

it was definately better before

how could he have spent 10 thousand??

We probably shouldn't be too quick to judge based on a few photographs... and yet the combination of dirty yellow, charcoal and black in such a small space does seem, at best, "brave". The monolithic black cabinet next to the dining table is especially out of place.

Perhaps in reality it has a cosy, man-cave quality, and it's the best that can be achieved with such a low, dark, cramped space. But I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

Oh boy. This would be pretty much my nightmare experience with a designer, both in terms of process and end result. I do hope it is atypical.

I love the little birds on the round table. It appeals to my sense of whimsy. I also like the red pillow on the bed.

I agree that it does look dark and heavy.

When I was landscaping I had a client tell me to do "whatever looks good to you" I knew from their house that they did not have the same style that I do. I talked to them and had them tell me what plants they did like and why, what they hated and why. I found their style through a few short conversations. I was able to create what they liked, from what they had. At the end I told them what my garden looked like and they were surprised at how very different it was from what I could create.

Any designer should do the same.

So DARK! I find it claustrophobic.

didn't read the story, just pictures, I think it turned out nice.

this article was completely and utterly obnoxious on a number of levels. i was physically angry after reading the whole ridiculous thing.

Looks like a generic hotel suite with more artwork.

I am obsessed with the orange dog pillow with the jack russell on it. Where did that come from? Thanks!

I think the main problem was the designer's lackey totally screwed up the project (hence "had since left his employment") and didn't do any of the work on schedule so that the client was shocked at the ineptitude when he got back to the US.
The real lesson I learned was a high priced designer might farm out the work to some flaky flunky and not really do much of the work him/herself. I also suspect that virtually nothing was done for the first 6-7 weeks of the project and then they started 1-2 weeks before the deadline hence the preponderance of CB2 and West Elm off the shelf purchases.

But, still surprising that the media-aware Mishaan would walk away from this project and just blindly trust anyone to whom he had entrusted the project.

sfgirl--

You are right... there is certainly a presence of off the shelf product here... but, um, that's why they call it off the shelf... it's ON THE SHELF when you need it.

You may think $10K and 8 weeks is a lot of time. Um, no.

And had Mishaan tackled the more construction-oriented assignments, the client would have come back to far more chaos.

No doubt, the client being blindsided by what he came home to set the stage for the final Act's drama. That's why I keep clients OUT on installation days, because invariably, things get MUCH worse before they get better. It's like walking into the operating room while the facelift is still in progress.

Reality design TV has left us all with outrageous expectations of how whole room/whole house make-overs actually occur, so I think this NY Times series is really important in putting the reality back in.

Still, this client ended up with a Mishaan-designed space, without having to pay a dime in Designer fees. To some, that may mean nothing. I'm sure he'll get used to the space eventually... as he seems to be doing.

I actually found the 'before' pictures much more inspiring than the 'after'...EEK!

I would totally live in the "after" studio in a heartbeat. It is warm. It is inviting. It maximizes the use of space. It's brilliant. I love it.

- camnc4me

So Crazy that they covered up those gorgeous hardwood floors !! That Gigantic BLACK Cabinet up against the wall and the dark floors and the dark furniture pieces..... WOW.. the space felt a thousand times smaller afterwards. I would have spent that $10,000 and hired a real designer

Um, you don't get more real than Richard Mishaan. And normally, that would have been his FEE. Not the purchasing budget.

I never understand the phobia of dark colors, or "moody" interiors, especially to create a masculine vibe and especially for a Manhattan pied-a-terre that is pretty much lived in after dark anyhow.

And for those saying the Afters all look smaller, there are very few matching Before shots that try to capture the whole space. So how can you even tell?

love, love, love it!

@p(too)
It's not a pied a tier, is it? Not that that matters.

A million years late, but it also looked bigger because the before only had a dining set in it. Of course it's a huuuuuuuuge dining space; put a seating area in there and of course it's not going to seem as spacious.