House Tour: Cristina’s place on the Upper West Side

This house tour is particularly thrilling to me because we are going to get the rare privilege of a “before,” “after” and “real after.” Allow me to explain. Cristina has just purchased this coop apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and will be moving in very soon. She cannot afford a “real” renovation immediately, so she will make whatever improvements she deems indispensable and then, when the time is right, she will do some more substantial work.
We are so fortunate that we will get a front row seat at all of these stages of the house-furnishing game. Yay! So, without further ado, here is a first look at Cristina’s very bright and cheerful apartment, with enough charm to make it special. Enjoy!

Hallway to kitchen, bath and bedroom

Right side of kitchen

Left side of kitchen

One solution to make the kitchen bigger could be to knock down the left wall and open the kitchen to the middle room, which will most likely be the living/dining room. But wall space is at a premium here and one big wall on the other side of the kitchen would be lost this way, penalizing cabinet space and bookcase/art space on the other side.

Bathroom

I have not taken a bath since I was nine years old, so to make this bathroom bigger I would eliminate the tub completely and put in a nice big shower stall.

Bedroom, view of closet

There is not nearly enough storage space in this apartment. Here is where some serious clutter tips will come in very handy. There is a way to add storage space to this bedroom, and Cristina and I talked about it. Let’s see what she comes up with, I can’t wait.

Bedroom, view of door to hallway

View of the end room

Windows in end room

Double glass door btw middle and end room

This glass door is one of the nicer original details that remain intact. Above the door we think there may have been glass at one point, so Cristina might have glass put in again, it would be nice. Not that light is lacking here!

Middle room seen from end room

One of Cristina’s dilemmas is what to do with all the original molding and paneling on the walls. I say take a radical approach and remove as much as possible, because it will be difficult to put up bookcases and/or artwork on these paneled walls. Cristina is much more of a convervationist/preservationist and would like to keep as much as possible and even restore what is damaged. I just feel that the apartment is not big enough to be able to indulge these thoughts, tempting as it may be. In the end the most important thing is to have somewhere to put one’s stuff. As clutter-free as one may be, one always has a lot more stuff than one thinks.

Cristina ponders the future of her new home

To see more and larger pictures, click here. Good luck, Cristina, I hope your move goes smoothly, and thanks for letting me into your home!

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Tagged as: Cristina, Upper West Side