Photography by Dustin Aksland.
The Scenario: A young family of three–Allison Freedman Weisberg, executive director of Recess, a nonprofit experimental art space, and Peter Barker-Huelster, a legal services attorney–buy a dilapidated house in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene and summon Elizabeth Roberts Design/Ensemble Architecture to take on a gut renovation.
The Challenge: As avid cooks, Allison and Peter knew that they wanted to spend most of their family time in the kitchen/dining room situated on the ground level, but the existing ceilings were low and the spaces dark.
“We opened up the back of the house with a very large, two-story window and door unit–approximately 15 feet wide and 17 feet high,” says Roberts.
On the ground floor, the entire window slides open to create a double-wide opening to the garden.
A black limestone floor with white marble accents extends from the kitchen through the dining room addition and out into the garden.
By exposing the kitchen’s rustic beams, Roberts was able to gain some height in the low-ceilinged room.
Concrete countertops, more commonly associated with modern minimalist kitchens, contrast well with the Shaker-style kitchen cabinets by Wood Mode (they’re painted Newport Green by Benjamin Moore).
In the less-trafficked pantry area, Roberts specified a cherry butcher block for the counter.
“We installed a custom grill from Grillworks in the kitchen fireplace,” Roberts says.
The front of the house has a more traditional look. Shown here, a library with sliding pocket doors that enable the room to be closed off or opened up to the rest of the second floor.
The light and greenery in the back garden are visible from the library at the front of the house.
A look at the double fenestration.
“They worked with us to motorize the upper part of the dining room windows so that they could easily be opened up for passive cooling,” says Roberts.
Blue and white textiles in the master bedroom offer a clean and crisp aesthetic.
A believer in serene white bedrooms enlivened by books, Roberts introduced recessed bookshelves.
A new walk-in wardrobe was inserted between the master bedroom and bath.
The sink, toilet, and shower are in a separate room from the bathtub.
The shower room is tiled with Hexagon Mosaic Tiles from Waterworks on the floor and inexpensive white subway tiles on the walls.
Additional storage was almost invisibly built into the room.
In the baby’s room on the third floor, Roberts incorporated open storage for toys and books. The vintage dresser came from Olde Good Things.
An Astoria Mirror from Restoration Hardware hangs above an Alape Bucket Sink in a third-floor bathroom.
Another third-floor bathroom, this one overlooking the garden, is appointed with a claw-foot bathtub and pedestal sink from Waterworks and floor tiles from Town & Country Surfaces.
An outdoor kitchen allows for a true indoor/outdoor experience. For more designs by Elizabeth Roberts, see.