Posh Icelandic couple sued for putting IKEA kitchen in swank Gramercy Park Hotel pad
By Jose Martinez
Daily News Staff Writer
Originally Published:Wednesday, February 24th 2010, 2:21 PM
Updated: Wednesday, February 24th 2010, 2:57 PM

A glamorous Icelandic couple is being sued for installing cheap Swedish furniture - Ikea, gasp! - in their pad at the Gramercy Park Hotel.

Viking mogul Jon Asgeir Johannesson and his stylish designer bride, Ingibjorg Palmadottir, are accused of installing an "ugly" kitchen from the superstore in their 16th-floor pad at the Ian Schrager building at 50 Gramercy Park North.

Johannesson and Palmadottir reportedly paid more than $10 million for the full-floor co-op in 2007, and bought the duplex penthouse above it a few months later.

Now they're now charged with cutting corners when they agreed to rent out the 16th floor for $312,000 last year to something called the Paramount Realty Group.

"Defendants willfully installed what [Jon Asgeir Johannesson] defined as an 'ugly' kitchen," the suit says.

"The kitchen installed is manufactured by Ikea, which is generally known to offer low budget furniture."

And that's just not cutting it.

"The kitchen installed was not reasonably satisfactory...as it did not rise to the level of a kitchen suitable for a property located at 50 Gramercy Park North," the suit says.

"The kitchen has also been a source of embarrassment for Plaintiff and the subject of remarks by guests."

A Web site for 50 Gramercy Park North boasts that each unit is outfitted with "John Pawson custom-designed bathrooms and kitchens, and the chic refinement of white oak floors, cherry wood and travertine surfaces."

A lawyer for Paramount Realty Group, Andrea Fiocchi, declined to comment and it was unclear how the apartment was used.

The suit says the couple also left behind faulty air conditioning, a cracked window, missing shower parts and missing appliances.

It charges that in July 2009, Paramount's guests suffered the indignity of chewed-up chicken wings being dropped onto their 16th-floor terrace from the couple's duplex above.

The terraces at the luxury building are about 2,000 square feet. Paramount is seeking $52,000 in damages.

Johannesson is a retail mogul who flirted with buying the Saks department store chain before Iceland's economy collapsed.

His blonde wife's escapades include driving around in a customized white Mercedes-Benz known as the White Pearl.

The couple could not immediately be reached for comment.

http://www.nydailynews.co...z0gUZ3nDhX

I like IKEA stuff.

Their boxy store cafeteria has cheap breakfasts

I wish I could have problems like that!

NDRU said:

I'm happy not to get sued every month when I go there

ZombieKitten said:

To Ikea?

time for that Chasers vid again, methinks...

sextonseven said:

I know, it's not very often is it

but they are opening a new store 15 minutes away, so I can go whenever I want and not have to pay any freeway tolls

ZombieKitten said:

Why would Ikea sue you? Do you look too posh hanging out in their stores?

Lots of people put Ikea kitchens into swank pads. It's almost trendy.

tackam said:

I have a hard time choosing a nice clean lined kitchen with that kind of functionality from anywhere else without choosing knobs from italy, marble from somewhere else, cabinets made by Stéve and tinanium sink with gold plated hobs

who has time to be a full time kitchen renovation purchasing maven?

Ikea you go in, say this is the space, I want the FUCKU range, and voila!

Wtf is a "Viking Mogul"?

sextonseven said:

of course they wouldn't Andrew said he wished that would happen to him, and I was just saying I wouldn't!!!

I don't know what product lines they're selling in the US stores, but what's funny to me is that IKEA does have quality pieces with a higher price point... done by award winning designers that most of those people up in arms wouldn't know from a mole on their ass cheek.

If it's one thing I cannot stand is pretentiousness.

True style is not dictated by the price you pay for something or whether it has an identifiable name which is the current buzzword on everyone's lips. Grammercy Park or not, there is no written rule that says everyone has to install a kitchen designed by Phillipe Stark or use Jaener glass there living there. It's ridiculous. I guarantee you, if you walked into the homes of some of the world's most sought after architects and interior designers; Emmanuaela Frattini, Michael Berman, Dowling Kimm Studios, an so on...not only are you going to find used items that were picked from trash, but, yes you might find some random piece from IKEA.


...you know, at the end of the day, there just aren't enough fucking Arne Jacobsen chairs to go around and sometimes people need an alternative. What next? People losing their place on the social register because they're serving coffee in Allessi and the lynch mob only likes Paola Navone (for the moment)???? Kiss my ass with that. If I haven't actually seen a pic of the kitchen in question, for all we know it looked great, provided appropriate form and function for the owners living there, and the co-op needs to find something else to get their panties in a twist about. Seriously.

I don't know what product lines they're selling in the US stores, but what's funny to me is that IKEA does have quality pieces with a higher price point... done by award winning designers that most of those people up in arms wouldn't know from a mole on their ass cheek.

If it's one thing I cannot stand is pretentiousness.

True style is not dictated by the price you pay for something or whether it has an identifiable name which is the current buzzword on everyone's lips. Grammercy Park or not, there is no written rule that says everyone has to install a kitchen designed by Phillipe Stark or use Jaener glass there living there. It's ridiculous. I guarantee you, if you walked into the homes of some of the world's most sought after architects and interior designers; Emmanuaela Frattini, Michael Berman, Dowling Kimm Studios, an so on...not only are you going to find used items that were picked from trash, but, yes you might find some random piece from IKEA.


...you know, at the end of the day, there just aren't enough fucking Arne Jacobsen chairs to go around and sometimes people need an alternative. What next? People losing their place on the social register because they're serving coffee in Allessi and the lynch mob only likes Paola Navone (for the moment)???? Kiss my ass with that. If I haven't actually seen a pic of the kitchen in question, for all we know it looked great, provided appropriate form and function for the owners living there, and the co-op needs to find something else to get their panties in a twist about. Seriously.

I don't know what product lines they're selling in the US stores, but what's funny to me is that IKEA does have quality pieces with a higher price point... done by award winning designers that most of those people up in arms wouldn't know from a mole on their ass cheek.

If it's one thing I cannot stand is pretentiousness.

True style is not dictated by the price you pay for something or whether it has an identifiable name which is the current buzzword on everyone's lips. Grammercy Park or not, there is no written rule that says everyone has to install a kitchen designed by Phillipe Stark or use Jaener glass there living there. It's ridiculous. I guarantee you, if you walked into the homes of some of the world's most sought after architects and interior designers; Emmanuaela Frattini, Michael Berman, Dowling Kimm Studios, an so on...not only are you going to find used items that were picked from trash, but, yes you might find some random piece from IKEA.


...you know, at the end of the day, there just aren't enough fucking Arne Jacobsen chairs to go around and sometimes people need an alternative. What next? People losing their place on the social register because they're serving coffee in Allessi and the lynch mob only likes Paola Navone (for the moment)???? Kiss my ass with that. If I haven't actually seen a pic of the kitchen in question, for all we know it looked great, provided appropriate form and function for the owners living there, and the co-op needs to find something else to get their panties in a twist about. Seriously.