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A creative couple’s latest project: turning a historic Brooklyn rowhouse into the living space of their dreams.
Like many young couples who move to New York, Matthew and Katie's lives have taken some unexpected twists and turns since settling down in the city. The pair met at Duke University, where Katie studied neuroscience and chemistry while Matthew focused on marketing and sociology. Each worked in their respective fields for a few years after moving to New York, but quickly realized two joint ventures were in order. The first was a personal one—Matthew and Katie got married—and the second was more entrepreneurial: They left their respective jobs to launch a business together, merging their analytical and creative skills to found a data-driven digital strategy agency.
Also like many other young New Yorkers, they made the move from Manhattan—where Katie had rented a tiny studio on the Upper East Side—to the more spacious and serene environs of Park Slope, Brooklyn. The couple continued to work out of an office space in the Financial District, but yearned to spend more time closer to home. “We really love this borough,” says Matthew, “and since we work for ourselves now, there wasn’t necessarily a reason to have to commute into the city every day.”
Last year, with their business booming, Matthew and Katie began looking for a Brooklyn-based home that could double as a living space and their own home office. They explored throughout Park Slope and other Brooklyn neighborhoods, but were particularly drawn to Crown Heights, a burgeoning stretch of the borough they appreciate for the many hip, laid-back restaurants and cafes, including their favorite spot, a tiny Tex-Mex eatery called Gueros, which they returned to weekend after weekend. “We liked the quiet of Park Slope,” says Matthew. “but we found ourselves always leaving the neighborhood whenever we wanted to go out and eat. Crown Heights is a little newer, has some more interesting things going on.”
The home Matthew and Katie settled on was perhaps not an obvious choice. The 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom brick rowhouse was in the finishing stages of a renovation overseen by Dixon Projects. Its most notable addition, at least from the outside, was the glamorous black-painted brick façade, a motif inspired by British architects John Pawson and David Adjaye, and complete with black windows, doors, steps and rails.“I love the black façade,” says Katie. “I think it’s so unique and really striking”—a distinctive touch that appealed to the young couple.
The property had been in poor shape for the past few decades, and unfortunately there was very little in terms of historical detail to preserve inside. However, this gave Dixon the opportunity to complete a gut renovation that would add some edgier, more innovative details—a good match for this creative young neighborhood. “I think we were probably an unexpected choice for this property,” says Katie. “This was probably meant to be for a family with multiple children.” They were drawn in though, by the new hardwood floors, clean design, and blend of old-world charm and modern amenities. “They did a great job making it into something wonderful,” adds Katie.
The home’s parlor level now features a roomy living/dining space accompanied by an open kitchen with full-length glass folding doors leading out to the back deck and carefully landscaped yard—a prime attraction for Matt and Katie, but even more so for their German Shepherd Emma, whom they adopted as a puppy back in their college days.
Inside, they loved the sleek white design of the kitchen, which seamlessly incorporates a central island and high-end appliances like stylish white wall ovens, inbuilt refrigerator and wine fridge, but also appreciated the relatively blank-slate feel of the clean white space, which afforded them the opportunity to add some notes of their own. “We really enjoyed bringing touches of wood and natural elements,” says Matt—such as a potted tree, along with a dining room table and coffee table sourced from the Brooklyn Flea—the borough’s iconic marketplace, which just moved to a new location only a few blocks from here.
In the living room, where Matt and Katie enjoy playing games of chess while sitting on the ledge running beside their working gas fireplace, they brought in a modern couch they found on WorkOf, a marketplace for independent New York-based furniture designers, and also redid a wall adjacent to the fireplace with IdeaPaint whiteboard paint, for informal brainstorming.
Most of their work though, takes place upstairs in their sunny home office. Originally conceived as two bedrooms, they found it was the perfect place for each of them to get creative. Windows on either side, plus a skylight in the hallway, brighten up the entire floor. The garden level, meanwhile, functions as their sleeping quarters, which works out well. “There’s a separate entrance to both the front and backyard here,” says Katie, “which we like because it separates this space and makes it feel like its own home.”
Move-in was particularly easy since Dixon managed everything from Internet wiring to mounting their TV. Matthew and Katie also received a pleasant surprise after a recent snowstorm. “We’d gone out and bought a shovel,” says Katie, “but woke up the next morning and everything was shoveled—a nice surprise service that Dixon provided.”
The couple has enjoyed settling into their new neighborhood, where they value the mix of families and young professionals, with children’s parties and trick-or-treating on their street, plus a diverse array of restaurants within a few short blocks, from New American at Mayfield to thin-crust pizza at Barboncino and French-Senegalese fare at Café Rue Dix. Weekend mornings usually involve a little bit of work over coffee at home, followed perhaps by a breakfast taco at Gueros—now just around the corner from them—and maybe a trip to the Brooklyn Flea or nearby Prospect Park. While they used to spend so much time shuttling between boroughs, they now love how much everything they need is nearby. “These days,” says Matt. “we hardly ever leave Crown Heights.”
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