Tasteful Friends: Visit this NY tribute to the owner’s Minnesota farmland youth

Sadly, Steven Hammel looks exactly like what you would expect a Minnesota Farmland middle-aged man to look like.

Why? Why not just move back to that shithole?

He's got a lot of the right items for a middle- or working-class home in the mid 1970s which still used plenty of stuff from the 1950s, but no one had THAT MUCH stuff. If you look at retro photos from the period, one of the most notable things about the past is that people simply didn't own as much furniture or decor as today.

Those styles wouldn't have been popular in the 1950s-1970s if people had crowded or cluttered homes in general. The loud floral upholstery, the cars and ships and flowers nailed to the walls, the orange accent panels only work if there's a limited amount of it.

He has a picture of Melissa Gilbert as Laura in his living room, so he's probably on DL right now. And probably fun to know.

Sometimes, when people have no means to do something even remotely well, they resort to kitsch presented as irony.

I’m gonna place my bets, he’s reading this over coffee as we speak….

I like it. Yes, its tacky and kitsch but its fun and interesting, and a massive improvement on the "all-white apartment" he describes it as being when he moved in initially

Where’s the “Etc.” sign?

It makes me anxious. I don’t like a lot of stuff.

^^ I agree. But he’s a theater artist. He must like to keep his eyes busy.

He nailed the Sear's Catalog fireplace

^I love that red fireplace.

He set a goal and accomplished it

[quote]“The headboard is a wall sticker"

I was going to say that there is nothing in this house I don't recognize from my own childhood, but there is one thing I've never seen before: a stick-on faux headboard.

I do love the fake wall mounted fireplace and if I had a spot in my basement I'd install one. My grandma had one in her basement, along with a wet bar, pool table and half-wall knotty pine paneling with a high shellac shine.

Looks like he used an old Sear's catalog for the entire apartment

This looks like somewhere Any Sedalia would live.

Fun to visit but it would be like living on a stage set after a few days.

Sedaris

Amy.

More a Pee Wee Herman vibe than Amy. Relentlessness is never the answer in a space where one lives and theoretically entertains others. This thing is exactly like Catherine O’Hara’s Beetlejuice house. Wait, let’s not give this guy any new ideas.

Tell me you were molested by your Midwestern grandpa without telling me you were molested by your Midwestern grandpa.

The whole interior screams the 'shit brickhouse' troll.

The interiors on White Christmas were much nicer.

It's not to my taste.

The dust accumulation must be next level.

The article says the apartment has views. Seems like a waste.

I grew up in Wisconsin and I knew plenty of people with that much stuff. I had a neighbor who covered every wall with antique rug beaters, coffee grinders, printer trays stuffed with more tiny shit, shaving mugs, beer steins, old advertisements just an explosion of old stuff

I've apparently reached my curbed links monthly limit, but this guy has designed my two favorite apartments.

I wouldn’t want all of that tat and kitsch, but I will say there are some appealing details in that space, and I can understand the desire to replicate in NYC an environment recalled fondly from one’s youth. It looks a bit like a retreat. I would need the print materials in a more archival type setting, and I would remove much of the plastic and ornamental type things, but I almost like some of these colors. The vintage illustrations are pretty cool. Weirdly this makes me think of Douglas Sirk films’ set designs, but a little later and more cluttered. The home owner looks and seems like he might be a hot shit. I know that neighborhood and own a place near it, and the footprint of that apartment is good, and the light is nice, too.

It may not be my taste but I appreciate his devotion to it.Its interesting, much more so than gray walls and blocky Ikea furniture.