This is to the right of the arches. We have mailboxes on the right side

I presented moving the clock in center and stacking the pictures

Beautiful building! This is a nice entry/console table option:

This is the console with the Uttermost Shaylyn Antiqued Mirror which is 60" wide and 40 odd tall.

Janie, what the residents want and what the fire Marshall expects are two different things. No seating says fire Marshall but residents would be ok with that as long as the lobby looks inviting. I proposed to move that mirror over that small table. I know the scale is off too but maybe I can talk them into a bigger table and mirror. I now like the idea of two small tables that deco recommended under the sconces I can get rid of that chest

Apple pie. I will tell the board about mirrors. We also have lawyer office space on the first lobby entrance, right past those red sconces. I see people waiting in lobby too.

How does the fire marshall explain seating in the lobby of public buildings? We're not talking about overstuffed sofas, but certainly a bench against a wall can't be a fire hazard or an obstacle to egress.

If you can't find one get a custom outdoor table from Room and Board with a stone top in bench size and show the fire marshall that it is a table.

https://www.roomandboard.com/catalog/custom/outdoor-tables-by-the-inch/portica-outdoor-table-by-the-inchhttps://www.roomandboard.com/catalog/custom/outdoor-tables-by-the-inch/portica-outdoor-table-by-the-inch

Palimpsest, yes the bench that we have in lobby that I proposed by the mailboxes under the clock (see my sketches ) are not allowed from FM because of egress and property Mgr told me no because of egress.

They want me to do another proposal but I clearly have limits. I really like what you did with the painted arches. I even told them, I would paint myself if they supplied the existing paint. You definitely understand condo living.

I wonder if it has to be fire retardant. FM made the restaurant owner get her curtains sprayed. What would you recommend from room and board. So many choices. The property mgr wants me to do pricing/measurements on everything I find, even height if trees so I’ll need to be specific on certain pieces that I propose. .

It’s odd that the fire Marshall says no furniture. I agree with the previous poster that asked about public buildings. This is a picture of the lobby of my brothers 1929 building. The elevator is at the bottom right side of the picture (not visible).

I also live in a high rise and we have a granite bench mounted to the wall under our mailboxes. I find it very useful to rest bags and packages while checking my mail box.

Yes, wall coverings and drapery in contract environments need to either be naturally flame retardant or treated to be so.

There must be some minimum width requirements or something that you don't meet because I have been in any number of condo lobbies that have actual furniture. Perhaps your entire lobby is considered a hallway.

If you wanted to sneak in something for people to sit on, Room and Board Portica and Parsons tables are available in custom sizes including very low height like 16" and shallow depth like 17" and and various widths.Portica is stainless steel legs and available with a stone top, Parsons is dark steel. Plain and not decorative but it is a "table" but available in bench dimensions.

Maybe some oversized Art Deco prints. Try to avoid the cliche'd ones...:)

These are available 44 x 55

I'd check for ADA compliance before doing anything.

Palimpsest, Maybe you are right about lobby considered a hallway and that’s why we can’t put furniture. I went to another building in the area and took a picture of their lobby, which is much smaller and they had a couch, a chair and a console table with artwork. I’ll see if I can get the report from the fire Marshall

My condo went through a lobby redecoration a few years back and my suggestion is to have nothing to do with it because there is NOTHING that causes normally indifferent homeowners to become raving nasty lunatics as redecoration. Most people are fine with whatever is done but it is the lunatic fringe that turn out and proceed to make everything impossible.

Most interior designers won't work with condos because of the difficulties in terms of insane homeowners :-) And of course no one wants to pay for design services - they expect a designer to provide free design plans.

Our first designer quit after being verbally assaulted at a homeowners meeting where she presented a design board.

The second designer quit after again being subjected to the lunatics who showed up.

The only reason the lobby was finally redone after FIVE years of dealing with the lunatics was the Board just rammed through a design from an interior decorator who had done several condos in the area. All decisions were relegated to one person on the Board.

It has been two years since the project was completed and some of the crazier inhabitants are still harassing the Board regarding the travesty that was foisted upon them. FWIW, the lobby is fine - it looks like what a modern lobby should look like and it was done on a very modest budget. The designer was extremely familiar with commercial codes which was critical in terms of dealing with invariable issues.

I don't know whether you are an interested owner or a professional. If you live in the building, don't get involved because you will have then have the lunatics you didn't know existed continue to harass you for years afterwards for what was done.

Here was my experience.

I submitted a lobby update for a factory loft conversation from the 1980s. Quarry tile, oak tongue and groove paneling and a photo mural. It had been updated with a random grouping of various traditional and neoVictorian furnishings and pictures at some point. Probably stuff a resident left behind. No set budget.

Without going into detail about my design, I took photos of key areas and did perspective drawings of those areas and presented them side by side along with finishes. I could do photo realistic rendering almost. I won the best of prize in every design course I took.

One board member was late "Please bring me up to speed" he said. I basically started over. He nodded sagely at various points, putting on his "I am listening closely" face.

When we were caught up he waited until he could interrupt me and said "I may not be as smart as my colleagues here" (meaning he knew himself far smarter" but what is That?" pointing at a drawing.

"That's a view of the lobby standing..."

"No! I know that! What is that thing, that object at the top!"

"Uhh...you mean the ceiling?''

"Well yes I suppose but why is it Orange with Stripes?"

".... that's um...the wood ceiling..."

"Well again I must not be as intelligent or design savvy as my colleagues but I think a Wood ceiling , an Orange wood ceiling is just really a bad idea. I must ask Does Any of the board think this is Good? Idea?" He smiled triumphantly and looked around.

I just stood there. The board squirmed around

"John I have to stop you here, a woman finally said to him, "That is the existing ceiling, the ceiling is diagonal oak tongue and groove".

"No! When did they do that?"

"When the building was converted twenty..."

"I have to go look myself" He leaves...

"I am sorry," the woman said "Your drawings are quite clear, you must have been very confused by that"

The man comes back in, not at all apologetic "Well I must say... I never noticed that ceiling".

Says someone on the board responsible for redecorating the lobby.

They never made a decision.

I never got paid.

Several years later in a real estate listing I noted they must have used my drawings to do a watered down version of my design.

Helen, thanks for that advice and I know you speak from experience.

palimpsest, wow, terrible experience. You clearly are a professional in your field and I thank you for all your help here. I do like how you came up with painting the arches I will use that idea, it’s only paint.

I love home staging, I like to use what people have. I told the board I would do the work myself. I thought I could rearrange and add just a few things without breaking the bank like my sketches show.

I know that this board is quite nice and well mannered from experience I’m the only homeowner that goes to the board meetings to find out what is going on in the building.

I didn't think it was so terrible, it was so weird that I thought it was funny. When my SO was in commercial design they did a presentation for a local real estate developer. He ate a full meal at a boardroom table where other people were seated and had nothing, belched loudly throughout the presentation and even worse took phone calls throughout.

When we lived in our condo we cleaned all the wallpaper on three floors of the building, vacuumed in between the maintenance crew, and spackled a wall that was partly repaired for a year, and then painted it ourselves. So I understand wanted to make things look better.

We live in a 6 unit NYC rowhouse condo conversion, my hubs is the board president. Numerous people have moved in as we are a condo and not a coop.

Last week we took approx $800 out of our cash reserves, painted all the common areas ourselves, put in new, efficient LED hallway fixtures, bought 2 new fire extinguishers and had our carpets cleaned. If we went to our management company to have them do it, it would have drained our reserves, they would charge us a fortune.

5 of the 6 units are owner occupied (thank God!) once I got a majority vote to move forward, we picked a weekend, put up signs saying "we need bodies to help paint" and made sure we did this all before a hot, sticky, summer day.

We all now have huge grins, delighted at our results, and the feeling of accomplishment is wonderful.

I continually tell the new owners "You own 1/6th of this building," by phrasing it like that I typically get very positive results. I remind them that our management company on many levels is simply our employee, that we can pretty much do whatever we want as owners of this rowhouse. The majority of owners up until a few months ago were cheap, scumbag, investment landlords, renting out their units to undesirables, they would never vote "yes" if you could even get them to cast a vote at all.

We can have furniture, bookshelves, etc in our hallways, but nothing can be permanently installed, i.e. trimmed in. Has to be moveable.

Do you need a majority vote in your case?

Your condo might house a completely different cross section of humanity. Our condo lawyer told me that there is nothing like decorating the common areas to bring out those homeowners who don't normally come to meetings to storm the meetings regarding decorating wielding their pitchforks and blazing torches LOL

In my personal experience, almost no one attended Board meetings and couldn't give a rat's arse as important issues were discussed. They got a whiff of decorating and every lunatic in the building got involved.

Frankly I couldn't give have cared less about how the lobby was decorated as long as the collapsing out out of date furniture was replaced so it didn't resemble a large living room that my grandmother might have died in. Literally some of the furniture had been there since 1965 and yet the lunatics cared passionately about color schemes and are still fomenting dissent among other homeowners.

Janie, I think that is genius how you went about redoing the common area. Do you have any ideas for my lobby? I say, you have to “ have skin in the game” and yours is a wonderful example. I might pitch that to the board, all whom own. Some units are renters so I know that they don’t care.

I told board, we have to compete with other condos. Even showing them pictures. We have the best location and we are Historic so first impressions are important and if our residents voiced how terrible it looks, why would anyone want to buy into it., but they do sell

I staged my house to sell and in three weeks on mkt, we got an offer. sometimes, it’s putting lipstick on a pig or smoke and mirrors you don’t have to spend a fortune to make things more attractive and people happy

I need to get my sketches done, have a plan with paint, furniture/art/trees. I have a lot of legwork to do since I’m the only one who is representing the residents. I do think just a few new furnishings and some paint might make this lobby more attractive and the residents will be happy.

If anyone has ideas or can give me visuals, I really do appreciate it. I’m a one man show for this project.

Hi Birch,

Maybe as a starting point have everyone agree to take out at least 2G from your cash reserves? And asking owners "What do you already have that you can contribute to our "Lobby Paint Party? We need painters tape, tarps, rollers, brushes for starters. Let's use everything we already have" and take an inventory.

Do you have everyone's email? Instead of waiting for a formal meeting? Send out an email blast, describing the scope of the project, ask everyone to "reply all" and what they can contribute. Present it like you're doing them the favor (which you are!)

TOTALLY agree and understand skin in the game and competing with other buildings.

Present it as an investment for all owners, we also had the lipstick on a pig ideology, but once everyone got on board and started painting, everyone got into it. That's the great thing with paint, it's an immediate gratification.

Many of our new owners simply didn't understand that YES, we can take down and throw away that hideous picture in the hallway and YES we can change the horrid energy sucking hallway lights, etc. etc. It is OUR building, we OWN it, we are the boss, no one else. And if a majority agrees on something, we absolutely can change the bylaws.

What is extremely desirable ( we don't have it) is bike/stroller storage. So we need to make our building competitive in other ways.

Helen,

LOLOL!! I'm seriously laughing out loud, HA!

I noticed the one gold framed photo and I wanted to shoot an idea your way because you did consider changing the frames on the photos and if you went with a more uniform look with the gold frames I think that would read historic very well, some inspiration photos:

I wanted to add that the light blue shades for paint make a really nice backdrop in these photos with the lighting I think which I feel would look nice in the space it adds a calming feel against the dramatic gold frames.

Some "fun" articles on the art of remodeling common areas in a condo or coop :-)

When Everybody Is A Decorator

HIjacked Lobby

Helen-Just for “fun” how about educating yourself about the use of stigmatizing labels such as “lunatics” and “crazies?” I lost count of how many times you used those terms.

Until one of my children developed a serious mental illness at age 19, I had no clue about mental illness or the magnitude of the stigma that people with mental illness face. Now that I know more, I try to educate others. Thanks for listening.

I remember the one article in Tribecca, the comments are hilarious!

Having a sense of humor and not personalizing everything is paramount in these cases, it shows the world that indeed, large groups of people can and do happily live together. Especially in a large city like NYC with so many different personalities.

Anyone have experience with polishing terrazzo floors? Dont they look dirty? I know they are always mopping them but they need more then that. Any suggestions.? Can’t have rugs either. I think I will start with the floors and then work on the wall. Any experience with this is appreciated.

This is a link to a company in Tampa that restores/cleans/polishes terrazzo floors. It has some good info on what’s involved, as well as general cost (I’m seeing $3-8/sq ft on my internet searches). Maybe you could get quotes from a local company? On the internet there are some DIY instructions, but if you need to grind down the surface I don’t think it would be a good idea to do this as a DIY project!

http://lcsstonecare.com/terrazzo.html

I got the permission of the board so this is the before and after. Now I need help with color blocking. Should I paint the arch Just on the outside palimpsest and anyone else See her color blocking in earlier post painter comes on Monday

The floors will be addressed at a later date.

I have 4 chairs coming for the alcove two on each side in this fabric. Two chairs and a table (not this one)

in between

M

Also opinion please by elevator, I want to paint the light yellow in the panels.

Can anyone do a mock-up of the inside panels being painted the light yellow Please. I need to know if that is a good idea or just to leave them all yellow. I would appreciate any help.

I like them much better with the light yellow. The original seems bottom-heavy.

(Pssst...Palimpsest is a he, not a she)

Reminds me of my old building....google 712 Ontario, Oak Park, IL and go to images

Oops, sorry. I assumed. I really like the painted panels. Thank you so much.

Do you like the panels painted or not?

zibbe, I’m looking for that address but I don’t see it in images

the painter came this morning and painted the wrong color. I wanted top beige/ yellow

color, not wall color which is too much contrast

I think the painted panels look fine.

Yes, I like the panels light yellow to contrast too.

Birchgirl, enter address and then go to images, lots of lobby pics there

Panels painted today.

Now I want to do the bumpouts dark yellow. Will it look ok even with the metal strip And dark yellow on one and just the bumpout on the other side.

The small mirror and chest are leaving soon in place of chairs/end table two on each side in front of bumpout

Chairs

zibbe, put that acres in and it’s not coming up.

Here you go........

Zibbe, what a nice lobby. I see what you mean about it being similar. I cant believe you can have carpet, warms up the space and makes a huge difference. I can’t even have fake or real plants. Our terrazzo floors need help, a beautiful carpet would do wonders. Thank you for sharing.