Projects › Upper East Side › 1192 Park Avenue
Completed project · Upper East Side, New York, NY
A pre-war galley on Park Avenue, rebuilt in the run it always had, with a marble chequerboard floor and Plain and Fancy cabinetry. The old hood recirculated into the room; the new one ducts out through a hole cut in the building brick to the courtyard. The laundry pair and a second sink sit in the same space. Next door, a bathroom with a drop-in tub became a powder room.
Job record
- Project
- Galley kitchen and laundry, study room floor, and a bathroom converted to a powder room
- Location
- 1192 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan, NY
- Completed
- August 2026
- Duration
- 13 weeks on site
- Floor laid
- 220 sq ft of marble chequerboard in the kitchen and laundry
- Backsplash
- 61 sq ft of 3 in by 8 in glossy field tile
- Mouldings
- 64 linear feet of new 6 in base
- Scope
- Kitchen renovation · Laundry · Study room floor · Bathroom to powder room conversion · Plumbing and electrical replacement
- Found behind the wall
- Heavily corroded brass and copper waste and supply, replaced
- Team
- Designer Rejla · Project manager Eran · Renovation expert Ben
The starting point: original cabinets and a hood that vented nowhere
The kitchen was original to the building. White cabinets with glass fronts in the uppers, ceiling track lights, a patterned lino floor that gave way to terracotta at the threshold, a 39 inch freestanding gas range and a 42 inch hood that recirculated back into the room rather than venting anywhere. A steam pipe ran in a boxed enclosure. Next door, the office bathroom had white square tile, a drop-in tub and a flushometer-valve toilet.
What the crew did, in order
Strip out
Wall and base cabinets, counters, backsplashes, both sinks, the floor tile, baseboards and saddles, the ceiling track lights, the steam pipe enclosure, the range, the recirculating hood and the fridge all came out. In the bathroom, the drop-in tub and its framing, the wall-mount sink and the flushometer toilet went with them.
Open the walls
The pipework behind them was heavily corroded brass and copper, scaled and green at the joints, at a penetration that had been wet for a long time.
New plumbing
A 3 inch sanitary tee was cut out of the stack and replaced with a tee-Y serving the sink and the washing machine, with a new vent tee above it. New hot and cold lines were run from the kitchen up the wall, across the ceiling and back down into the laundry area, and again down to the powder room sink. New shut-off valves, check valves and water hammer arrestors throughout.
Duct the hood
A 4 inch hole was cut through the building brick to the courtyard so the new 30 inch hood could vent outside instead of recirculating.
Floor
Laticrete 9235 waterproof membrane turned up the walls 6 inches in the kitchen, acoustical underlayment glued down in kitchen and study, then Nero Marquina and Calacatta Gold marble chequerboard in the kitchen and laundry and a black matte porcelain subway floor in the study, with a stone saddle between them to close the membrane.
Cabinets, counters and light
Plain and Fancy cabinets in Celeste and Walnut, Cambria Everleigh counters, an Emser Passion Blanco backsplash, and under-cabinet LED on three separate dimmers so each run lights on its own.
Materials and finishes
| Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Floor, kitchen and laundry | Tile Bar Avanti Chequerboard, Nero Marquina and Calacatta Gold marble, 12 in, 220 sq ft |
| Floor, study room | Tile Bar Roller Black 3 in by 11 in matte porcelain subway, on Laticrete 45 Raven grout |
| Backsplash | Emser Passion Blanco glossy 3 in by 8 in, W32PASSBC0308P28, with Schluter Schiene A100MBW matte white edge trim and Laticrete 9 Frosty grout |
| Cabinets | Plain and Fancy, Celeste in matte sheen with Walnut ST 14 in satin |
| Cabinet hardware | Rejuvenation Answel pulls, 7285528 at 5 in and 5189941 at 8 in, polished nickel |
| Countertops | Cambria Everleigh, polished 3cm, with a matching 60 in window sill and a 50 in study window saddle |
| Kitchen sink | Blanco Cerana 30 in apron front, 525010, ceramic white, with a 236714 stainless basin rack |
| Kitchen faucet | Whitehaus WHKWLV3-9301-NT-PN wall-mount gooseneck with swivel spout and solid brass side spray, polished nickel |
| Laundry sink and faucets | Blanco Precis 24 in, 522414, soft white, with Rohl San Julio A1667LMPN-2 prep and A1635LMPN-2 filter faucets in polished nickel |
| Range | Wolf DF30450SP 30 in dual fuel, four burner, stainless |
| Refrigerator | Miele KFN 4776 ED, 30 in bottom mount |
| Microwave | Fisher and Paykel CMOH30SS3T, over the range |
| Laundry | Miele WXF660 WCS washer and TXI 680 WP heat pump dryer, both kept, on a new drip pan with anti-vibration mats and an auto shut-off sensor |
| Ceiling lighting | Rejuvenation Paige 3 1/4 in dome semi-flush track lights, 2996625-V1-PN-HB, nine heads on black track in polished nickel |
| Under-cabinet lighting | Richelieu FlexyLED HE6PW, 24V, 3100K warm white, in Apex recessed profile on three separate dimmers |
| Electrical | Lutron Claro outlets, GFCIs and plates in white, with Maestro MACL-153MH-WH dimmers |
| Door hardware | Rejuvenation Tate octagonal crystal knob, 4842629-V1-PN-PS, polished nickel |
| Mouldings | Dykes Lumber BB6, 11/16 in by 6 in, white, 64 linear feet |
| Paint | Sherwin-Williams SW9504 Cold Foam, matte on walls, flat on ceilings, semi-gloss on trim |
| Underfoot | Ecore QT Sound Control QTSU 4005 acoustical underlayment, glued with Bostik EFA, in the kitchen, study and powder room |
| Behind the tile | Laticrete 9235 waterproof membrane turned up the walls 6 in · acoustical underlayment · a stone saddle at the study threshold to encapsulate the membrane |
What the walls were hiding
The pipework behind this kitchen was brass and copper, scaled and green at every joint, at a wall penetration that had been wet for a long time. It was photographed in June, months before any finish went in. Replacing it meant cutting a sanitary tee out of the building stack and re-running hot and cold lines from the kitchen, up the wall, across the ceiling and down again into the laundry area and the powder room.
That is why this job ran thirteen weeks and not six. A galley is the smallest room with the most services in it: waste, supply, gas and power all land in the same few feet of wall. None of it can be priced until the wall is open.
The result
The galley is the same narrow run it was before. It reads longer because the marble is laid on the diagonal and the wall above the sink is open instead of cabinetted. The hood now vents to the courtyard instead of back into the room, and the bathroom next door is a powder room.
More MyHome projects in Upper East Side
Questions people ask about pre-war kitchens on the Upper East Side
My NYC apartment kitchen is original to the building and feels cramped. What are my options to modernize it, and what building rules apply?
This kitchen stayed in exactly the same footprint. What changed the feel of it was taking the wall of upper cabinets off the sink wall and putting open shelves there instead, and laying the floor on the diagonal so the eye runs the length of the galley rather than across it. Neither needs a wall moved, which is usually what the building rules are about. What did need the building’s agreement was cutting a 4 inch duct through the brick to the courtyard.
How long does a kitchen remodel take in a NYC apartment, and what is the typical process including building approvals?
This one ran about thirteen weeks on site. It would have been shorter if the pipework had been sound. It was not, so a sanitary tee was cut out of the building stack and replaced, and new hot and cold lines were run from the kitchen up the wall, across the ceiling and back down into the laundry area and the powder room. A kitchen that turns out to need its services replaced is a different job from the one that was quoted, and the time shows up in the middle of the schedule.
What affects whether a NYC kitchen renovation can be finished before a target date?
On this job the single biggest factor was what was found when the walls opened. Corroded brass and copper waste and supply at a wall penetration had to come out and be re-run before any finish could start. Nothing about the cabinets, the counters or the tile was the constraint.
Can a kitchen hood actually vent outside in a pre-war apartment building, or am I stuck with a recirculating one?
It depends on the wall and on the building. Here the original 42 inch hood recirculated back into the room. A 4 inch hole was cut through the brick to the courtyard so a new 30 inch hood could duct properly outside. That is a building approval and a masonry job, not a kitchen fitting, and it is worth asking about at the survey rather than after the cabinets are ordered.
What are the challenges of renovating a pre-war apartment in Manhattan?
A pre-war galley puts waste, supply, gas and power into the same few feet of wall, usually in their original material, and often a steam riser as well. The steam pipe enclosure here was demolished and re-framed as part of the work. The finishes are the straightforward part. What decides the schedule is whatever is behind the plaster.
