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A former laundromat in New York City has entered a new cycle after a local man turned it into his apartment.
Twenty-seven-year-old Sampson Dahl has turned a former coin-operated laundromat in Maspeth, Queens, into his quirky residence and a venue/watering hole for his neighborhood where dirty laundry was once aired, according to a report in the New York Post.
“Something about the exhibitionism is comforting to me,” Dahl told the Post.
In his four years living in the $1,850-a-month storefront, Dahl has decorated the space extensively, hanging dozens of eccentric items he has found or was gifted along the walls of the 800-square-foot space.
“I’m just constantly finding little things to put on the wall,” Dahl told Youtuber Caleb Simpson during a viral tour of the space which has received over 271,000 views as of Wednesday.
Much of the decorations come from Dahl’s job as a set designer.
“You get a lot of props,” he told Simpson.
Decorations include a set of movie theater chairs brought over by a neighbor, Dahl’s own paintings, a large laundromat on his loft bed and a fire hydrant. The apartment also has a stage that changes location constantly and is used for concerts, musicals, painting nights, group songwriting sessions and other events.
Dahl told the Post he previously lived in a bus and a 3,000-square-foot Chicago warehouse with about 12 roommates.
“I kind of get cabin fever a little bit,” he told the Post of his tendency to avoid traditional apartments.
“New York is becoming, obviously, a harder place to modify your lifestyle,” he continued. “Much like any other American city, it’s becoming a highly predictable place. But of course New York is the hardest place to control the populace, so people still find frivolous ways of existing.”
Dahl left the laundromat sign above the door in place when he moved in where it remains. He told the newspaper he has received a few people with laundry bags at his door confused by the sign over the years.
“[It’s] New York’s most poorly run laundromat for sure,” Dahl said.
