Apartment tour: 4BR loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Not since the launch of The Real World has a group of fine young things made communal living look so cool.
Mon Oct 12 2009
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The Whisk & Ladle crew, from left: Jessie, Nick, Danielle and Mark
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A simple staircase leads to an impromptu performance space and two upstairs...
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The downstairs space is about 825 square feet and can hold up to 80 people,...
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When not editing a newspaper in the Hamptons, Nick moonlights as a bartender...
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The awesome foursome say they've changed this room around, "like, a million...
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Every place setting on this custom-made dining room table has a different...
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This funky metal chandelier was made for the MTV Movie Awards by a previous...
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This vintage thermos cost $1 at a garage sale upstate. A similar one was...
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String lights give Danielle's upstairs bedroom a muted party vibe
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Danielle, a self-proclaimed scavenger, scored this oil lamp at a garage sale in...
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With so many chefs in the loft, there's always something cooking. "I used to...
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Danielle found this antique Ethan Allen bar near a Dumpster at her upstate New...
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Mark with a treasured glass pitcher he brought home in a backpack from...
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Every corner of Mark's tiny upstairs bedroom is perfectly styled with retro and...
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"The guys thought this candelabra was completely hideous when we brought it...
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Roommates Danielle, Mark, Jessie and Nick live the surreal life in a funky industrial loft. The decor is carefully curated bric-a-brac, furnished with pieces found at garage sales or passed down from family members. "It's that old-timey, vintagey, antiquey aesthetic that we gravitate toward," says Danielle, 27, who runs a private tutoring service with college buddy Mark, 29. A swing hangs in the kitchen ("I do everything while swinging on there," says Jessie, 26, who works in marketing at the Independent Film Channel), and there's an eyeball-popping chandelier made of metal rabbits (with little lightbulb tails!) in the living room. The roomies are self-proclaimed foodies and run the Whisk & Ladle underground supper club (thewhiskandladle.com), which serves five-course meals to strangers in their living room twice a month. "I don't really call this my apartment," says Mark. "It feels like a barn, if anything."
Love the look?
Get out of the city!
The roomies do most of their thrifting and scavenging in the Saratoga/Glens Falls region. "I garage sale like crazy anytime I'm upstate visiting friends or in Sag Harbor and the Hamptons," says Danielle. "If I can't find garage sales, then I hit Salvation Armies and Goodwills." In the city, the roommates stick to stoop sales and flea markets. Says Danielle, "I don't pay city prices for secondhand items, since I can get the same things at a fraction of the cost upstate."
Try scavenging!
The foyer in their Williamsburg building is a gold mine, says Danielle; tenants are always dumping their castoffs here. Most recently, the foursome scored a granite-top kitchen shelf on wheels in said lobby.
Make friends with designers!
"We meet people who design cool stuff and say, 'Hey, let's collaborate,'" says Mark. "Andy Baker and William Oberlin from Kontraptionist (kontraptionist.com) made the [dining room] table because I was telling them what I needed: 'Well, it needs to store easily. It can't be too wide. It has to spark conversation.' And so they made it. Kristen Wentrcek from Wintercheck Factory (wintercheckfactory.com) designs furnishings and made us a bunch of new bar tools and shakers—she asked and we said sure."
