Tasteful Friends, don't hold back

At least the haters of stacked books will be in heaven.

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• Huxley Somerville Managing Director at Fitch Ratings

  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/huxley-somerville/10/aa5/490

  bet%20he%20was%20a%20Romney%20supporter

• I'll be goddamned if New Yorkers don't have some of the ugliest dwellings in the civilized world.

• Wow, that's ugly. And who the hell wants to live in only 425 square feet? Only a New Yorker.

• Actually I think they performed a miracle with only 425 sf.

• Dark brown and pastel aqua isn't what I'd call a "miracle," r4.

• If you could read English, R3, you'd have noted that they don't "live" there. It is only a pied-à-terre in the city. What's your New York apartment like -- you know, the one you have for those times when the opera doesn't get out till after midnight?

• I think I like it better "before".

  Anonymous

• Looks much larger than 425 square feet. I like the chocolate and turquoise, although it's cliche. Clean and light. And with outdoor space. I like it even if it's a bit antiseptic.

• I like it too. Our studio is 450 square feet. It's how we live.

• The second staircase that leads to the coffin-sized pasture, I think, is a waste of space. I would have preferred the floor space next to the bed and nailed a ladder along the wall (Home Depot $20) for those wanting to scramble up. But I'm something of a hick.

• I like it even if the look is cliched. My only problem is the bed being directly over the kitchen. But if I was single and living in NYC this would be fine.

• Meh, its clean and tasteful, but I wonder; was it more fabulous before?

• I love all of these small space redesigns. I wouldn't mind staying there; it looks like a great hotel room at the very least.

• R10, it's hard to carry a cocktail tray or breakfast up a ladder.

• serial killer chic

• Not horrible.

• It's gorgeous, actually. A bit antiseptic, but gorgeous.

• If they threw in just a bit of texture...

• I don't generally like the use of plants, but this needs plants. And maybe a bit of artwork?

• Well r12, they do show some of the before pictures in the slideshow. It was decidedly dated and awful. I think it's a great space for one person, but I could not imagine living there as a couple. If it was a larger loft & square footage in general, I could understand it, but that place is pretty tiny.

• What a horrid place to live. Why do people spend so much money to have no space to live in?

• Echo chamber.

• Looks like an Ikea showroom or a hotel. Blandly anonymous contemporary and it's way too much 'of the moment' rather than classic or expressing ANY personal taste whatsoever. In 10 years those pics will look as dated as this, which was once thought sophisticated and au courant.

  http://modculture.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/dailymail_2_1.jpg

• It's not bad for what it is, but calling it a "hotel room" is very accurate. There isn't a trace of the owners' taste or personality anywhere to be found.

• Hideous and looked much better before. I love the space, however.

• [quote] Looks like an Ikea showroom or a hotel. Blandly anonymous contemporary and it's way too much 'of the moment' rather than classic or expressing ANY personal taste whatsoever. Agreed. There's too much effort and expense and calculation involved to get a pass as a casual coming together of things for a small pied-a-terre. Yet the effort and expense and calculation are insufficient to achieve any real end -- even a finished product that I might dislike. As it is it does look like a barely 3-star bare-bones wannabe boutique hotel in Bulgaria -- one of those B&B dreams of a wanderlust-stricken, money-challenged couples on HGTV's House Hunters International (newlyweds who want to finance their move to Cartagena by taking in a few unsuspecting tourists.) For all the aspirations of modern luxury, it has all the quality and distinction of Ikea flat pack goods.

• I like the actual things they did with the space. Love the living room. I'm into modern furniture/design and I think their choices are OK. I'm just not a fan of EVERY surface being white. I realize that it works to make the room look larger. But I think it drowns it in a blur of sameness. Our developer did the same in our place and I don't like it. Too much white and marble/gray everywhere. I think it ages badly (the look).

• Looks like one of those staged IKEA spaces. Too bad they felt the need to rip out the classic brick. This city and most of the people in it have absolutely no respect for pre-war architecture. It's ALL about glass this and lamanant that and "statement" colors against white and, of course, stacked books. Exposed brick is lovely and so are things like wooden steps and railings. Bloomberg has help destroy the city as well by encouraging the destruction of pre war buildings. The city on track to look like fucking Tokyo by decade's end.

• [quote] Too bad they felt the need to rip out the classic brick... Exposed brick is lovely and so are things like wooden steps and railings. [quote] Bloomberg has help destroy the city as well by encouraging the destruction of pre war buildings. They didn't rip out "the classic brick"; they painted it. Exposed brick is an affectation of the late 1970s and later. It is not an original aesthetic feature because it was absolutely intended to be covered by plaster. Only in factories and industrial buildings were interior brick walls SOMETIMES left uncovered by plaster. (The wooden steps and balustrade, though preferable in my mind to the reworked stair, were not remotely historic features -- losing them wasn't exactly Penn Station all over again.) As for the desecration of pre-war Manhattan (and as an architectural historian), this place is no better or worse than it was before it came into the present owner's hands.

• [quote]The wooden steps and balustrade, though preferable in my mind to the reworked stair, were not remotely historic features -- losing them wasn't exactly Penn Station all over again. Marry me.

• What is it with the pretentious people and stark white? Do they go into hospitals for decorating ideas? [quote]Ligne Roset Pagnon & Pelhaître Crescendo table ($2,270) I saw a table just like that at Target for 30 bucks. No reason a plain, ugly table should cost 2K.

• "There isn't a trace of the owners' taste or personality anywhere to be found." It's possible they have neither taste nor personality.

• Very Fahrenheit 451.

• The funniest thing was when the article referred to that hamster cage as a "house." Where I live, that is called an apartment (a small one at that).

• They put the bed on the fucking LANDING!!! Seriously, it looks like someone took an old building and hacked up large apartments into tiny ones, and now they're living in a glorified stairwell.

• I love the architecture. It's a beautiful use of a difficult space. I'm not sure I would have been so "pure" in the use of white, but I do think it works. Remember--this is not meant to be a primary home. It's a place to stay when they are in NYC.

• [quote]Ligne Roset Pagnon & Pelhaître Crescendo table ($2,270) Its legs make it look like a gurney in a hospital staffed by midgets.

• I don't understand. Is this a basement. Climbing to the "terrace"? I could spend 18 hours there before running out screaming into the traffic. It feels like a prison cell with appointments because the felon in it turned state's evidence but now has to live there for the rest of his life.

• Painting brick white is very 90s.

• It lacks substance.

• You know it reminds of the AbFab episode that flashes back to Bettina and Max's "millenial" apartment. It was all white and Max can't find a white box Bettina sends him looking for.

• I like it. It's not meant to be their everyday home, it's great for overnights or weekends. The white is necessary in what looks like a dark(ish) space, I like the kitchen and the storage. It needs some artwork, but other than that I would have it in a heartbeat. It's just a small apartment, so updating the decor as it dates would be easy. The layout works, that's the main thing. The before shots were fucking awful, looked like it smelled of old pizza and unwashed laundry, so this is a huge improvement.

• I didn't see a tv in the pics, or books, magazines, art,. etc It's ok, maybe too careful and tasteful.

• Nuni and Nuni live inside a Rubik's Cube.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXnaOHLhTQNg

• I sort of love it.

• The perfect place to hook up with tricks. It's personality free and nobody wants to steal anything from that fuck den.

• R28, it's spelled "laminate", not "lamanant".

  I'll spare you the Oh, dear.

• They used the same tile in the bathroom as the kitchen? What, was it on clearance?

• Is it for sale? It looks so unpersonal like it was set up for realtors to show it to potential buyers in this condition.

• Sterile, boring, and antiseptic. In a word: dreadful.

• That superminimalist look is so 1994.

• LOL r34, I was kind of thinking Habitrail

• What the fuck is it with the black and white color scheme. Ick!

  LuciferTheLightBringer

• I also prefer the "before" photos.

• I like it. A lot. I can't believe anyone prefers the butt-ugly before apartment. Y'all're shittin' us, right?

• The bars on the stairs are ridiculous, at least his wife can perform cell block tango naked and descend in a dramatic way.

• Too cold for me.

• You all sound like a bunch of afghan-knitting fraus, "ohhhhhhhhhhhh, I haaaaaaaaaaaaate all this modddddddddddddddddern arrrrrrrrrrrrchitecture." What a bunch of weeeeeeeeeeeeenuses.

• Gotta luv the hyperbole addled minds of DL.

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• Oh lordy, it's too white! I'd be gauging my shins on those really sharp counter corners and scrubbing blood away all the time! It will be covered in dirty fingerprints in months! It's simply not to my taste. Awful, just awful. It does look quite clean though, and probably smells good. I'll take my usual room at the Algonquin thank you very much.

  Miss Dorothy

• It looks like a hotel room on the Death Star.

• It's incredibly ugly and personality-free. Just hideous.

• OP, Please do post more "Tasteful Friends" articles!