We’ve long been fans of copper plumbing pipes being configured on the OUTSIDE of bathroom walls to make interesting sculptural fixtures (not to mention, using copper pipe in general for pot racks, books shelves, closet fittings). And even though we’re not crazy about the somewhat drear gray tiles in this bathroom, we LOVE the creative…
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I frequently do Skype consultations with people who need clever, inexpensive fixes for their spaces and are having difficulty envisioning possibilities. Often, they are only able to describe the change in feeling that they’d like to achieve. In the many spaces I’ve looked at, I’ve seen a common problem: there is a lot of visual…
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During the renovation of the Laboratory, my budget would not allow me to buy any but the least expensive finish for my kitchen and bath faucets i.e. simple polished chrome. Brushed chrome or nickel often cost a couple of hundred dollars more, potentially adding thousands to my budget. I discovered that I could lightly dull…
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It was by climbing into the luxurious-looking tub at friends newly renovated brownstone that I identified a design-flaw that I’ve since seen repeated over and over again in shelter sites and magazines: A nice deep tub would be set into a surround of beautiful stone which would form an elegant finish around its edge. But…
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In many parts of the world that which is old and imperfect is more highly cherished and valued than that which is new. Brand new Turkish rugs are often abraded before selling, their colors softened by dealers eager to increase their price by having them appear imperfect, used, showing their history. In Persian, they call…
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Encouraged by our friend Bruce McKenna, we tried Benjamin Moore’s flat matte Aura paint in The Laboratory’s very hard-used kitchen, instead of the usual oil-based eggshell, which we’d assumed was the only really washable paint. But even eggshell would have shown up the really ugly imperfections in this wall. So, in desperation and against our…
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For the renovation of my 1,000-square-foot ‘Laboratory’ in New York City, my mission was to open up the space to the spectacular park view AND fluidly accomodate an open kitchen, workspace, dining area, and living area. To do this, I removed a small bedroom to dramatically expand the main room and built an office area along one 15′ wall…
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How to Be a Minimalist, Grant Snider‘s wise info-graphic (below) states “Less is more difficult than it looks“. I didn’t really understand this idea until I was costing out ‘the Laboratory’s renovation. In trying to implement some of the clean, minimalist design ideas I’d been collecting for years, I discovered that minimal is generally more…
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Once we had a rough plan and sketches for the Laboratory renovation, we needed to take them to the next level: real, accurately measured, to-scale architect’s plans. How do you afford an architect on a very tight budget, we wondered. This is where we made the first of MANY mistakes during the renovation. We hired…
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In the process of planning our Laboratory’s renovation, we called on a number of friends for advice: designers, artists, and people who just had plain good sense of one kind or another. When I told artist friend Lisa Morphew of the prices some of the contractors we’d spoken to were quoting us she said: “Honey, what…
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A few months ago, I bought a space in Harlem, soon to be home of ‘the improvised life’s new LABORATORY, in which to experiment with all sorts of ideas for home and daily living. I had scoured New York City real estate listings for YEARS, traipsing from space to space in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and…
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