Interiors & Renovation

The Insider: Tight Budget on Crown Heights Townhouse Reno Calls for Clever Workarounds

Money was indeed an object in this three-story row house renovation, so much so that the homeowners were happy to hear their recently hired architect was taking off unexpectedly for a year in Italy.

Photo by Ines Leong / L-INES Photo

by Cara Greenberg

09/16/2021 0

Money was indeed an object in this three-story row house renovation, so much so that the homeowners were happy to hear their recently hired architect was taking off unexpectedly for a year in Italy. “They said, ‘That’s OK, we need time to save a bit more,'” recalled the architect, Luki Anderson of Brooklyn-based Studio Officina, who described her enterprise as “really just me, a one-woman band.”

Her clients — he is an artist and she works in the nonprofit arts realm — lived in the house, an 18-footer with pretty tin ceilings and some vintage woodwork, for nine years before embarking on major renovation. The kitchen was on the garden level, they used the parlor floor as an art studio, and the top floor was a warren of awkward partitions. The couple had invested in a new boiler and other necessities, so “the mechanicals were in reasonable condition,” said Anderson, who is originally from Australia and founded Studio Officina in 2018 after working as a senior project architect for 15 years at renowned New York firms.

When Anderson came on board, the focus became “coming up with a layout that really worked” for the family, which includes two school-age kids, and maximizing natural light. After getting a number of bids, they chose Henry Shaulov of Gecko Builds as general contractor and hired Robert Burke, an independent cabinetmaker based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, to craft the all-new kitchen.

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Ultimately, the job included opening up the back wall on the two lower floors and inserting large new Anderson windows; a new steel deck and stairs to the back garden; relocating the art studio to the ground level and creating a kitchen at the rear of the parlor floor; building out three new bedrooms and two back-to-back baths on the top floor; and opening up and reglazing disused skylights, along with some rewiring and a new membrane on the existing roof. “I’d call it a semi-gut,” Anderson said.

It was important to the homeowners that the house reflect their family’s creative spirit. The husband is from Portugal, where ceramic tile is a centuries-old tradition, so they zeroed in on colorful ceramic tile as a leitmotif throughout the house.

Anderson worked with them on the budget every step of the way. They used inexpensive materials like white subway tile from Home Depot and Ikea cabinets in the bathrooms, and salvaged items where possible. “You can get a stainless steel sink for $2,000 or you can get one for $300,” the architect said. “Everything we ordered was affordable. Spending $10 instead of $3 on cabinet pulls was a splurge.”

The arched door is original to the house. The two exterior doors were salvaged in the neighborhood.

The homeowners ordered mosaic tiles for the vestibule and pieced together the pattern as a weekend project, Anderson said.

Layers of paint were stripped from the vintage woodwork and existing parquet floors were sanded, left unstained and given a matte finish.

An eat-in kitchen was a must, as cooking and eating together is a key part of the family’s daily life. Plain-sawn white oak cabinets were topped with affordable quartzite.

This not your “typical island kitchen,” the architect said. Instead, a tall standing cupboard, custom built to match the rest of the cabinetry, provides extra storage.

The room’s cement tile floor is a take on the classic checkerboard.. Simple square white tile was used for the backsplash, another cost-cutting measure.