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We are smitten by the latest home to be featured on Design Brooklyn for several reasons:
*The open plan kitchen is a thing of beauty. Appliances are enclosed in a navy-colored l-shaped room divider that looks like a sculpture. The matching cabinets above look like a painting in the center of the tiled kitchen wall. This is the best open plan kitchen we have ever seen.
*The unique kitchen island transforms into a pull-out table that seats 10. Row house owners with parlor floor kitchens too narrow or shallow for a separate dining area should consider this brilliant idea.
*It’s a 650-square-foot one-bedroom and was renovated on a budget.
*The layout and ideas are highly relevant to Brooklyn tenement apartments as well as new construction.
*The owners preserved original details, such as parquet and window surrounds, plus upgraded the bath while keeping its 20th century tile and tub. This was partly a cost savings move, but the results look great.
Naturally, the owners are an interior designer and an architect. Here are all the details — and extra-large photos — from writer Anne Hellman and photographer Michel Arnaud.

When interior designer Nora Calderwood and architect Adam Darter bought their 650-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in Park Slope, they knew they would need to renovate in a major way but on a scaled-down budget. A year later, the result is not only airy and light, it smartly blends original details with the owners’ forward-thinking design ideas.

The apartment had endured some wear and tear, and had been divided up into four small rooms. But with some consideration, the couple realized what could be found underneath the surface. “We were able to look beyond the tattered conditions of the apartment and realized that, with nine-and-a-half-foot ceilings and six south-facing windows, it had potential,” said Adam.

By removing the walls in the main area, Nora and Adam created a loft-like living room, open to the inventive kitchen and dining area. To maximize space and minimize visual clutter (which are musts in a small apartment), Adam designed a kitchen island unit that can be used as both an eat-at island and as a dining table that pulls out into the room for larger dinner parties.

“Our challenge was accommodating our style in a small space,” Nora explains. “We love eat-at islands for when it’s just us, but we like to entertain for our friends and wanted a larger dining table. At the same time, we didn’t want to clutter the space between the kitchen and living area with both an island and a table.” The solution offers both options while maintaining a certain level of visual spaciousness.

The kitchen itself needed a full upgrade, which the couple masterminded as a place where warm wood meets a welcoming blue for the cabinets and a pleasing square subway tile for the backsplash. With one of the six large windows bathing the kitchen with light, even on a cloudy day, the simple palette comes to life and yet remains calm and sophisticated.

Built in the 19th century, the apartment still possessed some of its original details, such as window trims, wall decoration, and parquet floors. By preserving these graceful elements, the couple could find the right moments in which to insert both modern touches as well as handmade ones. Along one wall, they installed a floating credenza of their own design, wrapped in walnut. A Lindsey Adelman do-it-yourself light fixture hangs in the kitchen. In the living room they designed shelving using metal plumbing pipe from Home Depot and oak planks from Nora’s family farm in Maine — a nod to both the past and the present.

Achieving an affordable renovation in New York City is no small feat, especially now in Brooklyn. With a gentle touch and smart design, this couple transformed their new home without gutting it or breaking the bank.

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An original Womb chair from Knoll creates a serene reading nook by the windows, paired with a tray table from Aero Studio.

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The fixed cabinets that form the kitchen island provide a serving space when the table is pulled out, seating ten, a rarity in smaller dwellings. Both the cabinets and table are made of solid American walnut, to keep the look cohesive. Black leather counter stools from Blu Dot and yellow Tabouret bar stools complete the setting.

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Adam carefully stripped layer upon layer of paint from the window trims to preserve the wood detailing. At  night, a Noguchi ceiling pendant and bedside wall lamps by Artemide Tolomeo illuminate the bedroom, above. Adam made the headboard using Kravet linen.

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To cut costs, the owners decided to work with the original tiling in the bathroom, incorporating the coral-pink trim tiles in the design and glazing the coral-pink tub white. They replaced the toilet and sink (by Lacava).


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