Built in 1865 in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Historic District, this house came with layers of stories from the past—in the many plaster walls added to the wood frame, the exterior sidings that top original shingles and the old dug-out cellar.
We can’t know for sure what the original homeowners needed for day-to-day comfort (much beyond a fireplace, beds, candles and warm blankets) but we know exactly what the couple who moved here in 2019 wanted: to be happy there with their elementary-school son and daughter.
They envisioned turning the two-family house—most recently divided into a ground-floor apartment with a duplex upstairs—into a functioning, comfortable single-family home to live in for a long time, raising their kids and hosting family and friends from the U.S. and overseas. The pair hoped to transform the abandoned basement into usable space and open the main living area to the small back garden, bringing in natural light.
Enter architect Matt Krajewski and team, in the pandemic time of early 2020, to deliver on those plans—once they had approval from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and had weathered the COVID supply chain delay, especially for all those great windows.
They made the cellar a kids’ play zone; enlarged the master bath, moving the skylight there for a peaceful oasis; added a petite powder room; and, above all, installed a glass wall with a door on the first floor, with an outdoor staircase to the back garden. A tree grows in Brooklyn there and has for a while.
Krajeweski says several design sources were key. That includes deVOL kitchen cabinets, made in England from textured beech; 10-inch wide, solid maple floor planks sourced from Vermont for the radiant heated floor; and the glass wall, to see beautiful sunrises. The powder room features Calacatta Viola marble for the sink and House of Hackney Zeus wallpaper. The architect says the kitchen tile, from Smink Studio. “adds a certain unexpected spirit to the house.”
The couple reports that the house feels warm and inviting, no longer an old place with an odd layout. They had some great grill-outs and hosted a few baby showers over the summer. New stories to have and hold.
Photography by Mikiko Kikuyama.
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