Project: Sackett Street Townhouse / Location: Brooklyn, N.Y. / Architect: Barker Associates Architecture Office / Location: Brooklyn / Photographer: Gieves Anderson
With their daughter recently off to college, an empty-nester couple decided that it was time to refresh their Brooklyn, N.Y., townhouse. They turned to Barker Associates Architecture Office to execute the plan.
The scope of work called for adding another floor to an existing extension to create a primary suite and a third bedroom and to update living spaces to meet the changing circumstances of the family, which included increased time spent working from home during the pandemic.
The clients also wanted an open plan that maintained separations between spaces, so the architects sought to configure certain spaces as semi enclosed volumes that would provide boundaries and define edges through materiality, lighting and color. The blue-gray toned interior of the entry vestibule volume is expressed as a red volume that separates it from the adjacent dining room. A pendant by Anony zig zags over the dining table, framing a display of the client’s ceramic vessels.
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Located at the center of the space, the kitchen is wrapped in textured wood that is painted a blue-gray color and detailed with cutouts that provide views into the dining room and back toward the living space. The cabinets inside are paneled in white oak and patterned porcelain tile, while recessed lighting along the dropped arch defines the boundary of the workspace.
Adjacent to the kitchen, the living room looks out on the rear yard thanks to floor-to-ceiling glass. The light-filled space features a Marenco sectional in blue Kvadrat wool, a coffee table by Hinterland Design and a rug by Philippe Malouin. The powder room tucked, under the stairs, is painted in a deep blue-black with a pop of yellow provided by a Kast concrete sink. A reeded glass and steel stair rail echo the tambour texture of the kitchen enclosure.
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Upstairs, the new primary suite is defined by white oak and painted built-ins that define spaces in a similar way to those in the living spaces. The sleeping and dressing areas are divided by a volume that acts as a headboard on one side and storage on the other. The custom bedframe and side tables face a wall of shelving and sliding panels, and a window seat frames the view to the rear yard. The custom closet wall is painted with the same blue-gray as the main floor, while the primary bath features a vaulted skylit ceiling and porcelain tiles that pick up the same muted color palette.
Weather events prompted a re-examination of the finishes on the lower level of the house, where the spaces were revamped to create a secondary living area separated from a workspace by floor to ceiling sliding reeded glass panels. Porcelain tile provides a practical floor covering for a house in an area prone to flooding.
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