Kitchen confidential

The kitchen is going to be considerably bigger than the existing one. Stealing space from the entry gallery will gain me enough room to have a decent sized kitchen (albeit by Manhattan standards). It will allow me to get a full size stove/oven, refrigerator, and stackable washer/dryer. And although it is within the interior of the apartment, the large window that looks out into the building's back courtyard will allow a nice amount of light.

As for the kitchen's design, I love the idea of white subway tiles with medium dark grout paired with dark gray countertops and light gray cabinets. Again, I like a masculine vibe and one that would feel as if it's true to what the kitchen might have looked like from the building's first year, 1938.
All fixtures will be brass...I've grown tired of stainless steel and nickel. Brass will make a nice warm counterpoint to all the cool grays.
Here's a bunch of inspiration scrap for the look and feeling I'm hoping to achieve:

The garçonniere

The French have a name for it: garçonniére. A 'bachelor pad.' That's what the new place will be.  I have this vision of it being masculine, yet cozy and warm...an eclectic mix of vintage finds and contemporary pieces. I've been collecting inspiration pictures on Pinterest for a few months. Here are a few. I like these photos because you can tell the rooms' owners have a distinct personality and point of view, they're filled with things that have history and meaning but nothing's too off-putting. Comfortable. Easy. Effortless...that's the goal. It's so fun to be able to start the decorating process all over again!

Gallery exhibit, pt. 2

When you enter the apartment through the front door the first thing you'll see is an accent wall that will continue through the gallery hallway and curves around to terminate in the area in front of the bathroom door.

The wall will be clad from floor to ceiling in vertical wooden molding in a dark brown stain.

At the ceiling there will be recessed cove lighting to reflect down onto the undulations of the wall highlighting the surface. I think it will be a dramatic and handsome entry into the space. 

Here's a piece of inspiration scrap that indicates the idea (but clearly not the color). 

Gallery exhibit, pt. 1

After the basic floorplan is agreed upon and approved the next step is to go over the 'design development' with the architect, all the surfaces, fixtures, colors, textures of the apartment, so that the job can be bid out to a contractor. Happily it was a great meeting. I was very much on the same page with Steve and liked almost every detail he came up with. I had sent him a bunch of images ("scrap") of interiors I liked to let him know where my thoughts were. He took those initial ideas and expounded on them. I call this process "giving me my idea back, but better."
I'm going to share each room's design in successive posts along with the images that inspired the design details. I'm sure things will tweak and change along the way but it will give a good indication of where things are going.
When you pass through the little entry foyer from the front door you move into the gallery space.

There will be a wall of storage closets and drawers that will go from floor to ceiling. There will be some sort of simple millwork applied to these openings.

Hotel closet doors I liked

I recently stayed at a new Kimpton hotel and quite liked the closets, they have the feeling I want to go for here. I also like the door handles.

I like these handles

At the end of the gallery will be a small dining niche with an upholstered seating bench. It will have shelves above and below. The tufted seat can be lifted for storage inside. There will also be recessed lighting here. I think I'll put a small table in front of the bench, a cozy place to eat or have coffee. The whole gallery space will be hard wood floors in a medium brown, not too dark (dark always shows too much  dust!)

Porcellino

I happen to love New York's outdoor city sculpture. It's always a little moment of 'ahh' when you're moving through these canyon's of steel and cement, something to make you smile.
Some of my favorites are "Peter Pan" in Carl Schurz Park, "Balto" in Central Park, and "Eleanor Roosevelt" in Riverside Park, they're all unexpected and charming when you happen upon them.
And now my new favorite is the statue in little Sutton Place Park across the street from new building.

It's called "Porcellino", a replica of the bronze fountain completed in 1634 by Renaissance sculptor Pietro Tacca (1557-1640) that stands in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy. The name means "little pig" even though it's a boar.

"Porcellino" in Sutton Place Park

A closeup of the proud pig

Another replica stands in a Florence market and is a popular tourist attraction. Visitors to this Porcellino put a coin into the boar's jaws hoping to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck (the caught money goes to charity), they then rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Florence. All of this has kept the snout in a constant state of polished sheen over the years.

"Porcelllino" in Florence, Italy marketplace

I rub the snout of the Manhattan Porcellino every time I visit the park now, just wishing that my damn renovation would start on the apartment!

Back to the drawing board

After the original floorpan was rejected, the one flipping the placement of the kitchen and bathroom, I had to submit a backup plan. This one would leave both rooms in their original placement, all the plumbing lines would be left in tact. What would change would be that each room would be significantly bigger. They'd get to utilize the unwanted extra space in the gallery.
Here's the original layout of the apartment:

Original floorpan

Steve, my architect, came up with two good designs. The first one (2A) featured a row of closet space as you moved into the space after you came through the entryway. It's broken up by a nice little dining niche.

The second design (2B) moved the closet space around, interspersing it other places.

Both designs made space for a stackable washer and dryer (YAY!) and both also create a nice 'break' from the entry hallway before you step down into the main room. Note that there's a support beam at that step-down point, it's a load bearing necessity.














I have chosen to go with design 2A. It was the design approved by the building's reviewing architect.
I love that little dining niche...i'm a sucker for nooks and crannies. I think we'll be able to design some built-in shelves and drawers into that space which will make it even more special (stay tuned for more detailed drawings on all this!)

Marilyn slept here

After I first saw the apartment I wanted to learn more about it's history, maybe it was the abode of somebody famous since having been built in 1938? A quick search on the internet and I hit the jackpot, seems the building did have a celeb pedigree after all. None other than MARILYN MONROE once called the building home.

Marilyn & Arthur, June 22, 1956

It was the mid-1950s and she was newly married to playwright ARTHUR MILLER. I couldn't uncover which apartment was theirs exactly but I did find out it was on the 8th floor (I'm on 5). So I'm only three floors from the ghost of her Hollywood presence.











A little more online digging even turned up some photos of the famous couple in front of the building. On Friday, June 22, 1956 they even gave a press conference in the lobby!
Here are a few photos.

Leaving by the revolving door 

Front portico of my building with revolving door

There's no mistaking the corner drive-thru portico and the revolving door behind them in these shots.

Note the pink marble colonnades

You can even see the pattern of the pink marble in the colonnades. How cool is that?