Thinking Inside the Box...

Sometimes you have to look inside the box to think outside of it...

My new apartment has an oddly placed high window in the kitchen and it's front and center - 5 feet off the ground and over 5 feet tall. It doesn’t sound so bad really, but it faces the building next door, bringing in little light and no view.

OK, so what could I do with that?

In NYC there are rules, rules, and more rules, and especially in Landmarked buildings. Between the Coop board and City touching anything on the outside is strictly off limits, so I had to come up with some other options.

My Alternatives

Create a fun window treatment, add a cornice, use it for storage, or lose it all together? I was leaning toward placing my upper cabinets over it, but taking away a window in Manhattan – I just couldn’t do it. Instead I decided to focus on the inside - making you forget the outside all together.

My Solution

Go from cover-up to feature window - by placing an interesting interior window in front of what's already there. To accomplish this, my custom cabinet maker designed an oval that matched the doors in the room and put in a pivot hinge so it rotates open. Exactly what I envisioned. In addition, bubble glass gives it that “been here a long time” look.

The next step? My contractor will curve the inside of the window recess with plaster and carefully camouflage the drywall around it, so it looks like a "real oval" that's been there all along. The rest is simple - add lower cabinets, one very long shelf, and back-light the window so it glows after dark. 1-2-3 and done...

Here's to making lemonade out of lemons - once a negative, this window's all positive. I just love when that happens…