Jill and Maxwell over at Apartment Therapy were nice enough to let us pitch WellcomeMat to their NY Design Meetup group Thursday night. The event took place downtown in the Design Within Reach space (Soho, NYC). Admittedly, I knew very little about the group (this was my first apt therapy event). However, having kept up with their blog for some time now, I thought some of the members would have an interest our service and more generally… RE video.

For the May meetup event, the focus was on Urban Renovation Design 101: Problems and Solutions. Here’s the format:
a. 3 Person Design Panel (in which each one discusses their biggest problem and their best solution)
b. 1 House Tour
c. Design Presentations from the Crowd (This was us and Jag from HouseDNA)
d. Open Questions & Announcements

The event opened with Maxwell’s introduction followed by four separate presentations from:
Jonathan Butler - Brownstoner.com
Asher Lipman - NYC Renovation Coach
Jenny Rogers and Clove Galile - Uncommon Abode
Jeffrey de Vito - Purspace Design

We’ll be posting each of the presentations over the next few days. In the meantime, here’s a clip from the event:

Apartment Therapy NYC - May Meetup - Urban Renovation: Challenges in Design

Each of the panelists were fantastic. Jonathan discussed the experience of renovating his own, you guessed it… brownstone. Asher, the nyc renovation coach, talked about the pros and cons of working with contractors in the city. His business is to advise people and help them get the most for their renovation money. Third up were the talented tag team from Uncommon Abode, Jenny Rogers and Clove Galile. Jenny and Clove, finalist in the 2006 smallest coolest apartments contest, talked about renovating their ground floor Greenwich Village apt. Last to present was Jeffrey De Vito of PURSPACES. Jeff was very charming and filled a life’s worth of renovation knowledge and tips into a 20 minute presentation, a total crash course - renovation 101.

I shot the first three presentations until my camera ran out of juice (amateur move, I know). Because of this, I was unfortunately unable to film Jeff’s speech. It’s a shame really because his presentation was loaded with quality information. Then again, I guess that’s the benefit (and point) of actually going to a Meetup. So if you’re interested in design and home living, I strongly recommend checking out ApartmentTherapy.com. It’s worth a visit.

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