Renovation Rewind

When it comes to houses, bathrooms are always a big deal. Bedrooms and other living areas are usually defined more by the furniture put in them, but like kitchens, the bathroom is a chance to make a (splish) splash in…

Nowadays, many brownstones are divided up into multiple households, but when they were first built, most were single family homes. Because of this, they generally had just one kitchen which was usually on the garden level. This was the case…

Look up in the main parlor of any brownstone and chances are you’ll see a ceiling medallion (also known as a ceiling rose by our UK friends). Made of plaster, they’re often large, round, elaborately detailed and paired with a chandelier. Along with…

Several years ago, we started noticing a trend in smaller restaurants where the toilets and sinks of restrooms were in different rooms / spaces. Basically, the sink would be out in the open, often visible from or adjacent to the dining…

A few years back, my parents retired and moved to the mountains of Virginia to build a house. One of the things on my Mom’s must-have list was a pantry. It turned out really nice, and inspired me to try and include one…

When James and I set out to renovate the tenant apartment, we really wanted to do it right. Basically, we pretended we would be the ones living there and made our design decisions with that in mind. You may have already…

By design, brownstones tend to be long and narrow in order to maximize the number of homes that can fit on a block. Unless you have a coveted corner brownstone with windows on three sides of the building, you will only…

While our house has quite a few of its original details, one major thing that was missing was the front entry tile. Based on many of the other houses we’ve seen, it’s somewhat common for the entry tile to be…

After we closed, the first order of business was to renovate the garden level, which we planned to use as a rental until. Basically, the sooner we got the garden level renovated, the sooner we could get tenants. And the…

In the spring of 2013 we were living in a great apartment in Park Slope— spacious, great location (one block from the F train), a bit outdated, but a decent price. Though, while Park Slope is lovely, I could never get…