Rain poured down as movers arrived to empty my Brooklyn home of its contents. Boxes of books went into the truck, along with furniture, kids' school projects, and a lifetime of possessions. A month earlier, my husband, Joel Simon, and I had finally lined up a contractor after a long wait. "I am available," Guillermo Grasso told us, "but only if the apartment is empty of everything, including you, in four weeks." Frantic packing ensued, and we had a surreal moment of seeing our rooms once again as blank slates. We put the cat in her carrier and headed out to temporary digs in rural Connecticut.
Renovation stories often go like this: A new home is bought and in comes the wrecking ball. But what if the home is one you already know and love-and don't want to leave? We found our apartment two decades ago-a two-bedroom duplex in an 1870s brownstone-when our elder daughter, Ruby, was a baby, and our younger daughter, Lola, was not yet born. The apartment had all the period features I crave: original decorative moldings, pressed-tin ceilings, wide-plank wood floors. So what if the windows rattled, the radiators hissed, and our two girls shared a bedroom with a layout like a bowling alley?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2023-Ausgabe von Elle Decor US.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2023-Ausgabe von Elle Decor US.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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MORE, PLEASE
Eric Hughes joins forces with Standard Architecture to transform two neighboring homes into a sprawling family compound.
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Designer Nannette Brown reimagines a new-build apartment with unexpected depth, character, and texture.
Play It Cool
In balmy Texas, Ashe Leandro brings urbane style and a chill vibe to a home in a historic district.
Mic Drop
For former talk radio star Tom Joyner, Studio Roda creates an oceanfront pleasure pad with out-of-sight views and disco-era glamour.
EYE IN THE SKY
How do you cozy up a Manhattan high-rise? Call designers Hendricks Churchill.
THE JOY OF KØKKEN
In Brooklyn, a writer transforms her kitchen into a space of warmth and connection, blending personal memories with Scandinavian design.
CURTAIN RAISER
ELLE DECOR partners with designers Christine and John Gachot to refresh an iconic lounge at a New York institution, the Metropolitan Opera House.
The Empire Strikes Back - A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Is it possible to simultaneously go back in time and leap forward? This was the challenge a couple set for themselves upon purchasing a salmon-pink 1869 house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Longfellow House, the National Historic Site that served as George Washington's headquarters during the revolution. We loved all the beautiful old details of this house, the homeowner says.
Just Like That, But Cheaper. -One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
It was all about the green curtains. In 2008, to my great surprise, I was offered a ninemonth fellowship based in New York City. I had lived there twice before, both times unsuccessfully, meaning I had failed to create any kind of significant social life, and so this was a chance not only to do research for my new novel, but also an opportunity to get things right. I swore I wouldn't let the city break me a third time.
And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
