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Buy Low, Live Happy, Sell High Renovator, designer, new reality TV star and dad of seven dishes on risks, wrecks and great finds  The Brady Bunch: Design duo Robert Novogratz (far right) and his wife Cortney (far left) pose with their seven children. With five bedrooms in their current house, it's a tight squeeze - stylish, but tight. Image courtesy Tim Geaney Meet the Novogratzes, the "Brady Bunch" of the makeover show universe: parents Robert and Cortney plus seven kids ranging in age from six months to 12 years old and including two sets of twins. The Novogratzes are the owners of Sixx Design, a renovation and design firm in New York that specializes in creating unique living spaces. (The name relates to the number of kids the Novogratzes had at the time the firm was founded.) In January, Bravo will launch "Design Sixx," an eight-episode reality series that chronicles the Novogratzes over a frenetic six-month period during which they renovated six projects. They also have a new book out, "Downtown Chic: Designing Your Dream Home: From Wreck to Ravishing" (Rizzoli, 2009), which details a number of their more interesting projects and also offers advice on sprucing up your own house or apartment. They are the couple of the moment - juggling family responsibilities while zipping around lower Manhattan on a motor scooter to inspect their current projects and scope out new ones. In between, they cook an occasional dinner, attend a few buzz-worthy parties and openings, and jet off to their weekend house in Brazil. "We're risk-takers," says Robert. "We work out of our home, make our own hours and love what we do." HomeStyle: How do you think of yourself - as a builder who also designs or a designer who also buys and develops real estate? Robert Novogratz: We started off as developers and then became designers. Fifteen years ago, we bought our first house, a brownstone in lower Manhattan. I worked on Wall Street at that point and Cortney was an actress, but neither one of us particularly liked what we were doing. We both wanted to find something more creative and also something where we could work together. The house needed a lot of work and we had no money for an architect, so we just decided to do it ourselves. HS: How did it turn out? RN: It changed everything. I think we made every mistake you can possibly make in the beginning, but we also learned a lot. Design is something you learn by doing. It's a field-training kind of job. HS: How do the two of you divide up responsibilities? RN: I do the business stuff, finding and buying the buildings. I also buy the art. Cortney puts it all together. But we also flip hats all the time. HS: Do you ever disagree on design questions? RN: Sometimes. I tend to be a little more modern and eclectic and she's a little more traditional. I like to mix stuff by Philippe Starck or Zaha Hadid with maybe something by Charles and Ray Eames and then add some object I just found in Brazil. She's more Ralph Lauren by way of Paris - very chic and classic. HS: Who wins the battles? RN: She does! But we tend to agree more times than we disagree. HS: What do you look for when you're searching for properties? RN: Location is everything. We usually buy on the fringe of what seems like the next hot neighborhood and are always looking for a diamond in the rough. We may not be the very first people to pioneer an area but we're definitely among the first. HS: Any automatic deal-breakers? RN: We stay away from landmark stuff. It takes too long and then there's always somebody from the city or the National Trust or whoever looking over your shoulder and telling you what you can and can't do. Also, we avoid buildings that are going to involve evicting lots of tenants. I just don't have the heart for it. HS: How do the economics work? RN: You buy at $300 per square foot, build at $400 and try and sell at $2,000 per square foot or as close to that figure as you can get. It ain't advanced calculus. Right now, we're finishing up a 9,000-square- foot house on the west side of Manhattan that we bought two years ago. It was not the most obvious candidate for a residential conversion. The building started out as a bar and then became a BMW garage. That's another important thing - you have to be able to see past whatever is in front of you. We're getting ready to sell it and - even in this economy - we will probably double our money. HS: You are known for using unique objects and props to enliven spaces. Where do you find stuff? RN: We're big flea market people, both here and in Europe and South America. Plus, I do a lot of work on eBay, which is a great source for mid-level stuff - objects and collectibles in the $400 to $500 range. We just finished renovating a seaside hotel in New Jersey and I used eBay to source a lot of the old trophies and surfing equipment we featured in the interiors. HS: Which is harder - residential or commercial projects? RN: Residential, by far. Residential is always very personal because you're building for a specific person who usually wants to be involved in every little decision. Commercial work, on the other hand, is more about getting the job done on time and on budget. It's a lot less emotional. HS: What kind of house did you grow up in? RN: Very suburban, very normal. I was one of seven kids and my parents were antique dealers in northern Virginia. My mom in particular had a great sense of design, great style. I learned a lot from her. HS: It sounds like you've recreated your family. RN: I guess so. I once heard Alec Baldwin say that every Catholic boy of his generation wanted to be like the Kennedys with a house full of wild kids. I think there's some truth in that. HS: Seven kids in Manhattan - how many bedrooms does that work out to? RN: Five in our current house - and it's still not enough! When you have that many kids, you definitely need someplace to hide. |
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