1899 Brownstone

Designer Duo's Home Sweet Home

Creatives by trade, Argentinian Fernando Aciar (Fefo Studio, OSTUDIO) and Parisian Anna Polonsky (Polonsky & Friends) have put their heads and hands together to create a private, Bed-Stuy brownstone intimately focused on family, fun and function, adding a generous dose of inspired repurposing and creative upcycling as part of their process. The couple's two-level brownstone features an independent rental unit downstairs and a small garden out back, and it’s brimming with personal flourishes—from a recut stone bar and hand-painted kitchen tiles, to a serpentine shelving unit and a golden built-in sofa.

The brownstone's main floor houses the living room, kitchen and dining areas in a neutral, black and white layered space, accented by the artworks of Brazilians Stephanie Lucchese and Tom Jardim, and Uruguayan painter and ceramicist Eva Claessens. Aciar's ceramics and a collection of colorful accents pop against the neutral backdrop—a big picture vision of Polonsky's. And the couple repurposed the home’s vintage, cinnamon-toned limestone from local Brooklyn quarries into a new bar and prep island, then added selected limestone cuts to create new kitchen counters, a dining table and bedroom side tables. The townhome's original doors have been refurbished and original floors polished and sealed. Old air conditioning units have been artfully camouflaged, and turn-of-the-century moldings add allure in bedrooms and common areas. The brownstone’s upstairs is home to two textural, limewashed bedrooms with terracotta-floored bathrooms, and there’s a basement apartment on the lower level available for rent, as well.

Around

New York's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, affectionately known as Bed-Stuy, is actually one of Brooklyn’s largest neighborhoods—sort of a town within a borough that’s known for its rows of brownstones, tree-lined streets and dozens of shops, restaurants, bars, and art studios. An oasis of Victorian architecture, Bed-Stuy is quintessential, turn-of-the-20th-century New York, an area first developed by Dutch and German immigrant merchants that later became known as “Brooklyn’s Harlem,” memorialized by Spike Lee, Duke Ellington and Jay Z. The neighborhood is home to nearly 10,000 homes built before 1900 in a variety of architectural styles from Queen Anne to Italianate. Artists, actors, musicians and creatives call the area home as do an increasing number of young, new-to-New-York urban professionals, creating a buzzing cultural and culinary scene. Craft breweries join age old jazz bars, pizza-by-the-slice outlets stand opposite mixology level cocktail bars, and rowhouse staircases still see plenty of community gathering. Architecture buffs appreciate the neighborhood's wealth of wrought iron and turrets, box windows and masonry, much of it created by architect Montrose Morris.

Location

Nearest airports: JFK (1 hour); La Guardia (1.25 hours); Newark (1.5 hours)

Best time to visit

It’s always Big Apple time!

Photo credit: Nicole Franzen for Domino Magazine