Tasteful friends...

What do we think of Mediabistro founder Laurel Touby's fuck-you-I'm-rich loft, purchased with the $23 million proceeds of her company's sale? Click on the multimedia slide show link for a full tour, including the hand-woven leather, chain-mail and fur Ralph Rucci hammock, the knockoff Yves Klein coffee table, and the, ahem, rubberized Harry Bertoia chair.

http%3A//www.nytimes.com/ref/greathomesanddestinations/the-loft-that-mediabistro-built.html

It's shit. Fascist gone misguided and soft. The $40 should have gone to the real coffee table, not the swing. Even the bath is wrong.
I find myself most disliking the sofa. $30K for that piece of shit?? At least the swing makes a design statement! Also, the art in the apartment is fucking HIDEOUS, but one would expect as much given that it was done by the owner's sister.
I liked nothing other than the staircase to the roof deck.
It is fucking ugly. Like a sterile warehouse not a warm, inviting home.
Anonymous
Oh, and OP? That thing was purchased with a TINY fraction of the $23 million.
It's trying a bit too hard. I like it better than some others - at least there's no stacked books on the floor and every inch covered with assorted framed art. Must be nice though.
It looks like a loft on the Death Star.
No--they stacked their books in the bookcase.
It looks anemic...
She didn't net $23 million, so it's odd to me to see how they're spending like drunken sailors. Looks impressive. I'd love to feel what it's like sitting on that furry rubber chair.
Aggressively hideous. The only things not hideous (which isn't to say I'd want them) are the two paintings by the designer's mother.
It's not impressive. It's a not especially large one-bedroom and apparently looks out onto a brick wall. The outdoor space is nice, though. I'll let the professionals price it, but I see $3-4 million, tops.
It's...interesting! I really like the kitchen - open, clean lines. Great floors. I like the lived in (slightly messy look). Bathroom is pretty special. Lucky to have a roof top garden. I'd want to add shutters to the windows. And some truely wierd stuff, like the prickly-looking chair! More money than sense, though!
Dear merciful Lord in heaven, don't let those rugs become trendy!
It looks dirty.
The one place I have ever seen where it could benefit with a little book stacking.
Truly%20hideous
I'd like the roof garden if it weren't lower than the roof next door & the surrounding buildings -- hate the idea of being stared at by everyone up there. And the hot pink table & chairs are impossible. But it's still the best thing about the place.
Do people not read anymore? From the beginning of the article: [quote]sold her online media company, Mediabistro, for $23 million, she banked a little more than half that amount [quote]They bought it in 2009 for $3.9 million, and in a process that ended only eight days ago, renovated and furnished it for an additional $2 million.
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When will stainless steel be over? It has the warmth of a morgue. Every Saturday I have wipe down and polish all my appliances and they don't even allow magnets to stick. It also looks dated.
Looesiks good in an advertisement shoot, but shows all of the signs of noveaux riche who let an interior designer do everything Obviously a great location and space - but you feel comfortable and homily in it? Even Versace's houses which were the other extreme I could feel myself relaxing on his sofas and cuddly in his bed - so long as I wasn't suffocated by all his cushions
It seems stupidly expensive. She cleared $11.5 million from the sale. She spent $3.9 million on the house and another two million on the renovations, call it $6 million total. She spent a little more than half of what she realized from the sale of her business to buy and renovate this ugly one bedroom row house. Apparently they neglected to ask their rich friend-advisors how to avoid being marks for realtors and decorators. I'm with R11, it's horrendous except for those two paintings.
The ONLY thing in this abomination I like, besides the kitchen, is the TO-DIE-FOR Bodil Kjaer vintage rosewood desk in the husband's office. Though merely described as "'60s Danish," Kjaer desks are actually some of the *best* vintage Danish, period, and that specific style can easily sell at auction for $20,000 (double that for a retail purchase, if you're stupid enough to go that way). The pics don't do it justice, but the reason it's worth so much is because rosewood is essentially extinct, as far as furniture production goes, and Kjaer insisted on only THE most beautiful rosewood cuttings for his work, with nauseatingly gorgeous grain patterns. You won't find better woodworking from that period aside from the likes of George Nakashima! (an American, admittedly, but one whose works can sell for six figures) The apartment has a handful of vintage pieces, but that is BY FAR the only one of value. (The Bertoia chair, while possibly vintage, has been "reimagined" by this Coolhouse company that inserted all the rubber seating elements into it. Bertoia is probably spinning in his grave over the rape of his simple diamond-patterned metal design.) Anyhoo, Laurel really spent half her Mediabistro proceeds on this place? And am I the only one who found the comments about her having a younger husband who "must not want children" sad, given that she obviously has a barren womb? (and thus this place is a $6 million 1BR pleasure palace - that'll do REAL well at resale time)
I really like it, actually, it's one of the few tasteful friends homes that I can actually appreciate. I relate to her taste, and it's an amazing home. artsy and not overcrowded.
I remember the band Bitch Magnet.
R22, Thanks for the great post!
Vulgar and ugly
Jesus, when will people stop designing spaces that look like someone was moonlighting from their day job designing lobbies? Even the art in this auditorium/Exxon lobby screams to be let out. It's a vast wasteland of white mediocrity and banality. Also, can someone in Manhattan import or put up for a week a landscape Architect that does not use the same template for every fucking design for a terrace? Are you people that starved for terrace ideas? I would hate to see it that way, but apparently it is the case. Just an awful waste of money and space, not seen since the floating bed and the goggled Architect debacle.
Cad%20Monkey
What a depressing article: the husband sounds like a douchebag.
nigga rich out of money soon
Can't believe they managed to insert "Bildungsroman" into the article. Pretentious fucks.
So they are house poor. The middle class version of this is wannabes who buy huge McMansions but can't afford to furnish them.
But at least the McMansions hold their value (in a normal market). How much do you think that 30,000-dollar sling depreciated the moment after it was delivered?
It looks ugly and uncomfortable.
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Um, the money is going to be gone within a few years. They are spending it at at a phenomenal rate and they have 8 dependents including her mother???? And the dependents are probably spending it all too. I call MC Hammer on this one. Toni Braxton. Broke. 23 million is nothing in New York City, don't forget they will have maintenance and taxes every year, not to mention you know these tools have every technological device known to humanity. Bleeding cash, people. Bleeding it. Absolutely absurd. The reason rich people stay rich is because they are frugal. White trash with money. Honey Boo Boo in a feather boa.
Capricorn%2C%20Saturn%27s%20Master
r34, it's going to be O.K. She's going to be a venture capitalist now.
It's dated already.
With her apparent profligate nature that bitch is gonna burn through the 23 mil in record time.