You Can Now Buy Lena Dunham’s Loft from Tiny Furniture
Forget the furniture. I’d just want to know if the apartment comes with those Carroll Dunham paintings.
James Ewing c/o nytimes.com
Before GIRLS, Lena Dunham was known for her debut film, Tiny Furniture. And while Dunham was the breakout star of that movie (as were Jemima Kirke and Alex Karpovsky), if an award could have been given for “movie set most likely to give the viewer major apartment envy,” well, then, the apartment shared by Dunham’s Aura; sister, Nadine; and mother, Siri (both played by Dunham’s real-life sister, Grace, and mother, Laurie Simmons) would have won it. And now? Well, now it can be yours! Providing, of course, that you have $6.25 million to spend on an apartment. And that you want to live in Manhattan.
But even Manhattan-living would be worth it to inhabit an apartment that manages to contain everything on our fantasy apartment checklist. Duplex? Check. Custom cabinetry installed by artist friend? Check. Elevator that opens right into a foyer? Check. Enormous bathroom tiled to look like a swimming pool? Check. Dual kitchen sinks set into Carrera marble countertops? Check. Children’s wing for storing children? Check. Tons of Carroll Dunham art, which, no, doesn’t come with the apartment, but, yes, is exactly how we’d decorate our walls if we had lots and lots more money? Check.
Of course, we can’t afford the Simmons-Dunham loft, so we’ll just have to keep dreaming. But we couldn’t help but be impressed, though a little disheartened, by the fact that Simmons and Dunham were part of an artists consortium that purchased this building on Desbrosses Street for $7.9 million in 2001, and are now selling their own space for almost the full price of the building. Is that kind of real estate transaction even possible to do anymore? Or are all the potential artist spaces being bought up by Australians? Depressing. Oh, well. Simmons and Dunham are selling the loft now because they spend most of their time at their home in Connecticut, and don’t need such a huge space anymore, proving that literally everyone is leaving New York. I wonder if Lena will write an essay about it?
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