Archive for NY Real Estate

7 Subway Tile patterns you’ve never thought of..

Subway tile in its original form—uniform stacks of tile laid horizontally and off-center—is as classic as it gets. But just like a white shirt, there are endless ways to reinvent it. Sure, there’s the color of the ceramic or grout color to play with, but it’s really as easy as rearranging the pieces à la Tetris. Turn the tiles on their sides, group them in pairs, place them so they follow the lines of the wall and ceiling. In an unexpected pattern—check out some of the genius ideas below—the material feels decidedly fresh and exciting.

HERRINGBONE

STACKED

DOUBLE CROSSHATCH

TRIPLE CROSSHATCH

VERTICAL

VERTICAL OFFSET

FOLLOWING A CORNER

Prewar Is So Last Year

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Capital Craftsmen Renovation – 1105 Park Avenue – Modernized prewar

Prewar charm in New York City is defined by original details like crown moldings, built-in bookshelves, coffered ceilings and fireplaces, some more decorative than others. But driven by design trends and the need for more space, some apartment buyers are doing what some would consider unthinkable: tearing out traditional finishes.

A prewar specializing broker has said many East Side buyers find prewars a bargain, as they can cost up to 20 percent less than older condos and up to 50 percent less than new condo conversions west of Lexington Avenue with their monthly maintenance is also “notably lower.”

Millenials come into a space and want to make it their own with the aim of keeping everything as light and bright as possible, will typically rip out window casements, tall baseboards, worn hardwood flooring and the “thick, chunky molding” surrounding the doors. Clean lines being key. An apartment that doesn’t remind them of their parents or grandparents focusing on the aesthetics and functions of finishes. Moldings, particularly crown molding is out. The feeling is, crown molding closes the space and in most small NYC apartments, you want as much as a visually open space as you can have. Baseboards are becoming flatter, more modern and linear, which draws the eyes to look up rather than being drawn downward.

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1105 Park Avenue – before

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1105 Park Avenue – after

Fireplaces, often a showstopper in prewar apartments, are also looking more streamlined these days, thanks to the replacement of bulkier old surrounds with sleek new Carrara marble or granite, creating a simpler design making the overall space more important as opposed to an intricate millwork design or mantel.

Locations of prewar co-ops are prime for buyers; near Central Park, on Park Ave, Fifth Ave, but these buyers also want the finishes of your higher-end new development condos. Finding that rare prewar co-op on Fifth or Park, which is renovated to those standards, is like discovering gold at the end of the rainbow.

Upper East Side Co-op Asks $780,000, New Kitchen Included

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Prewar co-op kitchens are not the stuff of today’s real estate fantasies: they’re notoriously tiny and closed off. Ripping them out is the number-one way to transform a dated space and that’s exactly what the buyers of this one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment did. After they closed for $550,000 in 2011, the buyers began a renovation that brought the apartment a sleek new kitchen that opens it up to the living area. The bathroom also got an aesthetic update, with a glass shower enclosure. Four years later the apartment is back on the market asking $780,000.

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