wv128's Profile

LOVE this one!

I love the energy and freewheeling style of this one.
kudos!

Beautiful!

Thanks to everyone for all the comments. Reading them has been a lot of fun. BrooklynRob, you're hilarious!

I'm happy to answer the questions people asked on the site today:

My bedroom is a bedroom 99% of the time. 10 times a year or so, I have people over. If it's a lot of people (20) I fold up the futon and set up another coffee table (danish modern, legs come off for storage) and make the bedroom into a 2nd living room. In December, I have a Christmas tree in there and usually have a couple parties. If it's 6 or so, I bring in my kitchen table and unfold it all the way for a sit-down dinner. The futon goes in the kitchen where the table usually lives. and is folded up like a couch. Swapping the furniture takes around 10 minutes. I've done it a ton of times so it's pretty easy for me. I think a key to being able to live well in a small place is having flexible pieces like the futon and the drop-leaf table and flexible spaces that can serve multiple purposes.

My lighting is done with lots of different fixtures everywhere. I have uplights scattered throughout and a track in the ceiling that lets me direct light wherever I need it. Some of the fixtures in the track have extra attachents so I can pull the light in extra tight on art, so that all the light hits the art and none hits the wall behind it. Everything is on dimmers. I use rope lights under the bed and in the kitchen.

At first, I struggled a lot with the photographs. My camera couldn't take in enough of the rooms to represent them accurately in only 3 shots. After a few, missteps, I ended up borrowing a digital camera with a wide-angle lens from a friend. Then I took shots from a tripod rotating the camera 30 degrees for each shot. I used software called Panorama Studio to "stitch" the multiple shots into one panorama shot. I bought spotlights at the hardware store to throw light in places that needed it and installed extra lamps into my track lighting system to flood it with light. All the lights were turned up to the max for the pictures. The apartment actually got really hot. It took quite a few "takes" to get it right. The stitching software seemed to darken the floors, so I did use the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to try to bring the balance back. I think the photographs accurately reflect the feeling of the lighting in the room and the furnishings. The wide-angle panorama shots make the rooms seem bigger and more open than they actually are.

My Donald Judd-influenced Ikea cabinets are called: AKURUM
I got them a year ago for around $45/a piece.

Natural light's not so great in my apartment these days. I'm on the first floor facing north and they're re-pointing the bricks on the building so there's scaffolding blocking what little natural light I'd normally get. I get decent light in the bathroom and kitchen in the early afternoon.

The apartment's not so hard to keep clean. I used to have a white wool rug that was a nightmare. Now, I have an interlocking rubber tile mat. I can take it apart and wash it in tile by tile in the bathtub. I do it 4 times/year. It's great and it was under $200.

I agree, the dining chairs aren't quite right. They're old chairs from the Members' Dining Room at the Museum of Modern Art. When I worked there they switched designs and sold the old chairs to staff at low prices. This was well before the latest renovation. It's kind of a sentimental attachment and they work pretty well in their usual home in the kitchen.

It's a rental apartment in the West Village. I've been here 14 years. I wish I could tear the wall down too, but I can't. I can't have a dog either. :(

My Barcelona & Eames chairs are knock-offs.
I have 2 "barcelona" chairs. One in the living room and one in the bedroom.

I LOVE my projector. With the rebate it was under $500 and I have an HDTV 66" picture.
I got it at J&R. It's the Infocus Play Big IN72 DLP Projector.

I actually find the chairs quite comfortable. I don't end up in them for hours at a time, but I think they're much more comfortable than they look and guests always get a big kick out of them.

The desk is hidden behind the curtain in the back corner of the living room. The curtain is on a track in the ceiling so it's a clean line from floor to ceiling. Light behind the curtain makes the whole thing glow.

Thanks everybody!