The Insider: Homeowners Inject Drama With No-Reno Redo of Bed Stuy Townhouse

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It wasn’t that Rachel Oliner didn’t have the stomach for a renovation when she and her husband, Justin Worsdale, traded their one-bedroom Williamsburg condo for a three-story 19th century row house. “I definitely had interest in renovating, but it was one of those tricky things,” Oliner said. “The house was already pretty renovated,” with all-new mechanicals and central air. “It was not the way we would have done it, but it wouldn’t have made financial sense for us to rip everything apart. We spent all the money we had buying the house.”

Still, in the two and a half years the couple has lived there, having a baby along the way, the house has undergone dramatic change without significant reno. Instead of redoing the kitchen and baths exactly to their tastes, they threw their energies into decorating the other rooms in unique ways. Special attention was given to the garden-level dining room, now clad in over-the-top Gucci wallpaper, and the double parlors — pink in front with a Mediterranean feel, green and moody at the rear. Though they each work in tech, “We both have a passion for creative pursuits we don’t get to do in our day jobs,” Oliner said.

The results were so striking, the real estate agent who sold them the house suggested renting it out for occasional photo shoots. “I had never heard of that before, but we listed it on websites for production rentals and, much to our surprise, there was a lot of interest,” Oliner recalled. “It’s been a really fun second job/hobby.”

Dubbed Macon House, they’ve attracted commercial and editorial clients including Kiehl’s, Elie Tahari, Condé Nast, and many more. “Each room looks very different from the others,” Oliner pointed out. “They can do five different scenes in one location. I hadn’t even thought about that when I was designing it.”

The pale front parlor was inspired by trips to Italy where, Oliner said, “you see these beautiful pinks and greens.” Fantastic Finishes NYC, which specializes in decorative paint treatments, did the pink limewash on the walls of the front parlor, the deep green walls in the rear, and the dining room wallpaper, among other things.

The wood mantels are not original to the house, nor are the decorative moldings, which the homeowners added.

Furnishings are a mix of new and old. The green sofa is from Eternity Modern. The quartz coffee table was sourced from CB2, the credenza from Facebook Marketplace, and the leaning bookshelves from West Elm. The mid-century chairs with floral upholstery belonged to Oliner’s grandmother.

The couple wanted a huge painting to go over the credenza, in colors to match the room, so Worsdale, who went to art college, executed one to order.

Original pocket doors were painted white facing into the front parlor, green facing into the rear. “When you close the doors, the back parlor is a fully green jewel box,” Oliner said.

Macon House is heavily booked as a photo location in fall and winter. “Because of the green room, we do a lot of Christmas campaigns,” Oliner said. The whole room is painted the same Farrow & Ball deep green, flat finish on the ceiling and walls, high gloss on the moldings, baseboards, doors, and mantel. The floors are as they found them, hardwood but probably not original, Oliner said.

The Chesterfield sofa and armchair were found on Etsy, as was the vintage Moroccan rug. The coffee table turned up on Live Auctioneers, an online site.

The pier mirror between the windows is “my pride and joy,” Oliner said. She searched online for months to find one that would fit the narrow 26-inch space. When one popped up in Delaware for $200, she enlisted her brother, who lives in Baltimore, to drive it up to Brooklyn — which he did, half of it sticking out the back of his Prius.

The garden-level dining room is truly one of a kind. “We’d never had a dining room in New York City and really wanted to do a fabulous, crazy dining room,” Oliner said. “I wanted it to feel like some illicit spot, where at 3 a.m. you’re still drinking wine with your friends.”

Searching for marbleized wallpaper, she came across this pattern at Gucci.com. The original plan was to do an accent wall to save money, but the couple soon decided to spring for full coverage.

The pink chairs are new from Wayfair, the table from Lulu in Georgia, the chandelier a plastic version of the glass one they would love to have. The credenza came from Oliner’s grandmother; upon it sits Worsdale’s grandma’s lamp.

Besides the two parlors, the all-white primary bedroom is the most-requested space for shoots. Its impressive plaster arch is one of the few bits of vintage architecture remaining in the house.

Custom closets were commissioned from Brooklyn-based Urban Homecraft. Rounding out the furnishings: a reproduction Eames leather lounge chair and a white rug from Serena & Lily.

The nursery was also treated to limewashed walls in a custom mix from Portola, applied by Fantastic Finishes. “I wanted it to feel like you’re in the clouds,” Oliner said.

One place that did end up needing gut renovation was the full cellar beneath the garden floor. Though finished and supposedly waterproof when the couple closed on the house, it nevertheless flooded in a bad storm the following year. “We ended up putting in French drains, a sump pump, and all that,” then refinishing the floors and replacing the walls, Oliner recalled. “It wasn’t fun and it wasn’t sexy.”

Worsdale now uses the space as a music studio, and there’s a TV area with a sofa and coffee table. Utilities and HVAC are there, but out of sight.

[Photos by Tom Sibley]

The Insider is Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at a notable interior design/renovation project, by design journalist Cara Greenberg. Find it here every Thursday morning.

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