Lauren O.’s Manhattan Apartment Is a Love Letter to Rituals

We always talk about our readers during a series of Joe Team Meetings. Lauren O. It’s a name that often appears. A reader from the start, she left many hilarious and heartwarming comments (think about “Slow my goose,” the realization of her birthday, and what happened when she removed Pokemon GO from her phone). Other readers are asking to learn more about her, so today we are excited to share her one-bedroom Manhattan apartment and share it with her husband Joe and with her two beloved cats…

Living area

Chair: From Vintage Neals Otto Moller The house is rif. Throw a pillow: Pendleton. Stereo: “Joe’s Audiophile ‘Frankensystem’ – it’s a custom pedestal reintern table with a Leben amplifier next to it, and a Devore Fidelity speaker.”

About travel to New York: Joe and I came to Manhattan from San Francisco in 2003 to allow us to interne at a magazine publisher. We originally thought we were only staying in the summer, so the movement felt low pressure. But then we fell in love with the mean city. Before New York, I never actually found a city that spoke to me. So, at the end of my internship, when I was offered a full-time job, my answer was “of course.”

Red lamp on the record shelf: Nicholas Floro. Shelf Record: “Joe and our friend George made them.” Media Center: Designs within reach of Thrifted via Craigslist, resemble. Red lamp on the coffee table: Mantal.

Personal Style: The vibe of our design is similar to Bergdorf’s Goodman Holiday window if they were made by raccoons as they love shiny things. It will also be described as the Metropolitan Goblin atmosphere. There are lots of records, books, orbs, minerals and rocks.

Art mural: Rift Residential construction. Record shelf: CB2, resemble. Pink lamp: vintage, via Furlong. Plant Shelf: Ethnicity. coffee table: Jordan Crowell. Red lamp: Mantal. Sectional: Saba italy. Throw a pillow: Timeours Beasties. Rug: Saint Owen Flea Market in Paris.

Color burst: Before the pandemic, the apartments were definitely less coloured. But if we were always stuck here, we wanted to brighten up things. Joe was actually the one who said “I have to get a pink cross section.” So we went for it.

About travel traditions: I was volunteering Residential construction bookstoreand one day, the mysterious Frenchman asked if he had a copy of George Orwell’s novel. 1984. We pulled out all these different editions, but he said that over the moon he always went to his local bookstores on his trips and wanted a 1984 edition from his country. I thought that was the best idea. The book has been published in countless languages ​​and released in new editions. Reading the various introductions, people love to frame it in terms of their country’s current political moments. It’s an interesting lens for looking elsewhere. I now have his traditions on my own.

About textile art: I go through a random phase where I get the urge to make fiber art. During my first summer in New York, when Joe was a paralegal and wasn’t home, I made a portrait of Debbie Harry. A few years later, I embroidered a portrait of David Bowie on my handbag for a contest held by now-deprecated handbag brand Rachel Nasvik. I won!

Lauren and Maya

About your beloved cat child: We adopted the cat Matty in Anaheim, California. He was running around in some parking lots, so we found him. PetFinder. After that, I adopted Maya a year ago. She originally lived with five kittens at a Kill Shelter in Tennessee, but somehow they all ended up on Staten Island? The fact that she got there with the baby reminds me of Madonna’s music video, which always makes me laugh Daddy doesn’t preach.

bedroom

basket: Swahili Africa Modern. Blue Bench: West Elm. Tiger Throw Pillow: Williams Sonoma. Duvet: “a White West Elm Quilt I worked on the super clearance and then tied up with lots of quilted scraps and appliquéed. ”

About long-standing love: Joe and I met 26 years ago and were studying abroad at Oxford University in the UK. For one of our first dinners, he made me this wonderful, complicated, vegetarian Thai soup – despite living in a student dorm with a silly kitchen shared with dozens, he had to buy groceries in 1999 in a small town where good ingredients are hard to come. The gesture meant so much to me. Because in the past, my former boyfriend made me feel like the shit of being a vegetarian. It seemed like it was a hassle to avoid it. But Joe has always taken my needs seriously and took my eccentricity boldly – I am sad about the way people are mean to pigeons, so he always makes me feel really listening and caring for me, like when I woke him up in the middle of the night.

Gold Dachshund: Via Vintage House in Atlantis.

Favorite books: I would recommend Kelly Link forever Magic for beginnersa series of short fantasy stories. You can feel your brain grow new wrinkles and acquire new neural pathways as you read. She’s so creative and I’m obsessed with the way she puts together her story. No one can imagine that he hasn’t magically found this book.

Paint: From Middleton Pink Farrow & Ball. Mushroom Throw Pillow: John Dellian for Target. Mushroom Print: David Schrigley. Wolfprint: “From a festival in Montreal. I saw them on the subway and wrote them on the festival team and asked if I could buy them. Bed: CB2. Velvet Blue Throw Pillow: West Elm and Timeours Beasties. Brass Book Case: One Kings Lane, resemble.

About Mushroom Decoration: It all started when I submitted the pitch. Mushroom People Magazine You can fill in the artists who inoculated shrouds with mushroom spores. In theory, mushrooms consume you. Putting the pieces together spurred the lifelong enthusiasm of mushrooms. I’m part of now Mycologic Association of New YorkA group of citizen scientists and foraging people who are really interested in mushrooms and are very generous in knowledge. Now, while walking, I take sticks with exciting things that are growing and present them to more professionals like Frisbee retrievers.

Brass Book Case: One Kings Lane, resemble.

Traveling with parents: The picture of the little girl is my mom. A few years ago, Joe and I began a tradition of going on vacation with her and my in-laws Doug. Mom and I love walking around all day long so we go out wearing comfortable shoes. After that, Joe and Doug go to the sports bar and talk about baseball facts. For our first trip, we went to the UK and I found A pond in the middle of Hampstead Heath where only women can swim. And even if it was frozen in November, my mother and I jumped in. After that we decided that we were officially a pond scum and had to swim anywhere we travelled. In Iceland, we went to the lagoon. When visiting our sisters, we always choose to rent a hotel or vacation in the pool.

entrance

Credenza: Vintage. White lamp: Berner Panton. Rhino: His mother has talent.

About special gifts: My mother surprised me with this rhino for Christmas. She is an art history major and has taken many studio art classes, such as furniture and rug making courses.

kitchen

Working mainly on selecting old designs: Our kitchen is not our style. But when we move in and are in really great condition, it’s brand new and I can’t imagine spending money to tear the counter. As a workaround, I added a personal touch. I’ve switched the cabinet knobs one at a time, so none of them match. Some are snails, some mushrooms, one is a resin knob, and there are plenty of moss inside. I’ve also started painting this mural. Changing the kitchen initially felt like an annoying task, but now it has been transformed into this space where you will be given permission to do what you want to do. And it’s very free.

Thank you very much, Lauren. We worship you! Please don’t stop commenting!

More home tours, including the “introverted corner” of PS AA leaders and yoga teachers whose studio apartments in Manhattan are love letters to women.

(photograph Christine Han For Joe’s cup. )

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