At Home with Susanna Salk and Michael Bruno in Tuxedo Park

Not only is Michael Bruno, founder of 1stdibs and now Housepad App (more on that in a bit) a man of innovative creative ideas but also of great taste. Changing the way people around the world could buy one-of-a-kind antiques, furniture, jewelry and more, meant traveling the globe to find dealers for 1stdibs. So several years ago, when Michael and partner Alexander Jakowec purchased their magnificent home in Tuxedo Park, NY, they knew where to go to augment their already burgeoning collections to finish furnishing the house. With the help of close friend, Los Angeles designer Windsor Smith, they’ve created a chic and livable home filled with their collected treasures. We are thrilled to share our visit with Michael at his glorious country home and welcome his new venture, Housepad App, as the first sponsor of our video series.

While Michael has amassed a house full of what he loves, he also likes things at home to be just so. He discovered that keeping it the way he wanted, for himself, Alexander and his dogs Boris and Natasha, and communicating that to everyone in his household, wasn’t quite as easy as he thought it could or should be.

So after a decade of helping people find beautiful things from around the globe, Michael developed his latest digital destination, Housepad App, as a virtual home for your home. Here everything concerning the house is centralized and organized in one location on your phone and/or iPad, making living in and managing your home a pleasure.

No more fat binders stuffed in a drawer that no one looks at or a million separate emails to everyone from family members, to babysitter, to your architect/designer/landscaper or household help. Now every aspect of your home can be housed within the app, using imagery as the primary means of communication.

It’s a new way to convey exactly how you want your house to be, because let’s face it, acquiring beautiful things is only the first step. They need to be arranged, used and cared for in a way that is efficient and pleases you as a homeowner. But the app is also much more than that. First you decide who you want to be a part of your Housepad world and if you own more than one home, each can have a separate group. When everyone you want to include is signed up, you can assign to-do’s, and, if you like, be notified when they are done so you can send a thoughtful thank you. You can keep running grocery lists, or reminders for dry clean pick up that everyone can share, add to or complete. You can leave notes for housekeepers, dogwalkers or anyone else who is involved in your daily life.

You can keep all emergency contact information for doctors, vets, teachers etc. including information on how to turn off the gas if there’s a leak or the water if there’s a flood. If you have a weekend or summer house, you can have a special section for renters, where, in addition to emergency information, you can have a visual directory of where everything is in the house, the best local restaurants and shops.

And the most fun part? You can create a household “lookbook” by room, so everyone knows how you like things and what you want – from how the beds are made or the linen closet is organized, to how the bookshelves are supposed to look or the dishes are put away.  You can even control your Nest thermostat from the app or request help from Handy to help you hang a chandelier. Can’t remember how your designer arranged coffee so stylishly when you first moved in? You can document that for future reference. In fact, a Housepad App to the trade is coming soon.

But the notebooks can also be for so many other things. In anticipation of the fall entertaining season, I uploaded my recent holiday tablesettings so they are easily accessible in one place when shopping for new tabletop or as a reminder when setting the table.

 

Do you get regular arrangements from your florist? Link them in and chat about what you want within the app. Realize in the middle of the night what would be perfect? Post the item and choose to notify the recipient right away or let it sit on the message board for the next time they check in — then you can forget about it. You know how you want to live and Housepad App helps you make it happen. You won’t know how you ever lived without it!