habitatus's Profile

Wow, I used to have exactly the same dining room. And in an uncanny turn of events, it was almost EXACTLY as Caliology recommends. I fashioned a banquette along one wall only. Here is how I did it:

For the back, I mounted a piece of plywood to a cleat, so it hung on the wall [like a mirror you could say]. Prior to hanging it on the wall, I covered with 2" upholstery foam, then batting, then fabric (wool herringbone). For the bench, I bought what was supposed to be kitchen cabinets - I think they are pvc & melamine - from HomeDepot. Though I don't inherently love the cabinet design, I bought them to match the actual wall cabinets that were in the kitchen. I then cut another piece of plywood to fit on top of that, covered the top with upholstery foam & batting, then wrapped fabric around; screwed this (from underneath) onto the cabinets. For stability and weight load, I created a simple base to place the 'cabinet' on top of, basically 3x4s mitered at the corner. It made the space super useful...an excellent dining room as well as an additional work space + storage! For the other side, rather than an additional banquette, I used a rolling, long ottoman, that was otherwise kept on the other wall (but depending on your table base could also roll under the table). Believe it or not, we once had a seated dinner for 8 in that space and it worked perfectly! When I moved, I modified all to fit the existing environment, adding a shelf on top and changed the fabric. [would be happy to send you a pic if you like]
The whole project with foam, cabinet unit, upholstery, etc cost about $500. If you have more money than time, you can have a custom built banquette for like $2-5K, or you can have a handyman guy build the above for you for about $1,000.
Also, probably worth mentioning that I am a female, and all of this was abetted by my then-bf & father (as I don't love power tools).

As an art consultant, I'm often a little saddened to see some fantastic higher-end apartments on here that rarely include art that is as interesting or good as the home that surrounds it.

What a great treat, therefore, to see an extremely nice (but not uber deluxe) NYC apartment that centers around its top rate art collection. This is a wonderful and long-needed example of what it feels and looks like to actually collect contemporary art - and that not all art collector's homes look like Peter Brant's.

It would have been helpful for AT to at least list the artists in the 'source' pages, even without contact info.

It may be that the owners didn't want this for privacy purposes; and out of deference to that, I will say nothing further than the following:

The 3 Thomas Ruff photographs - which include the abstract over the sofa (a 'Substraat'), the portrait of the woman on the floor next to the chair in the living room, and the legs (a 'Nude') in the bedroom - are excellent examples of work by a very important German artist.

The Aaron Young looks great in the bathroom.

and the kitchen is GREAT.

great tips! I have 2:

1/ create spaces/ buy furniture that can multitask. In my apt, the dining room doubles as the conference room (I'm live/work), the living area doubles as the guest room, and my work station is actually built into a coat closet.

2/ think about how a piece of furniture may be used, despite its name or intended function. A wire baking rack might be great in your bathroom; an old card-catalogue could make a great tv stand and provide additional storage; etc.

Oh dear, after being an AT lover for years, it is the audacity of this space that made me finally register. Agree that the job is amateurish (like your typical B student at Parson's or FIT). As a contemporary art professional, I am pretty appalled by the willy-nilly regard for the works of Currin and Walker...this was handled in a clumsy and thoughtless way.

Biggest splurge being fabric is a great idea...but that fabric being micro suede is not only un-decadent, it's inefficient: microsuede is the go-to fabric of cheapie sofas, a la Jennifer Convertibles. Personally...I got a barely-used JC 'Varsity' sofa on craiglist for $100...the dimensions & proportions of that sofa are great, but are hidden beneath generic microsuede and badly-proportioned (and shoddy) pillows. For less than $ 500, I then then had a grey wool slipcover made and am making my own pillows. And I'm definitely NOT trying to imply that I'm a good designer...but after living in different small NYC apartments (and visiting others), it's hard not to get creative with a restrictive budget.