The Insider: Homeowner's Love of Books Inspires Windsor Terrace Townhouse Makeover
A homeowner’s book and music collections were the starting point for architect Alexandra Barker’s design for a Windsor Terrace renovation.
The typical Brooklyn rowhouse requires interior structural columns to support the floors above. In modern renovations, when columns and walls are removed for greater openness, steel I-beams are often run along the ceiling to bear the load.
Architect Alexandra Barker of Downtown Brooklyn’s Barker Freeman Design Office (BFDO) came up with a different solution for her book-loving clients: cladding existing structural columns with sheetrock and using them as the sides of open bookshelves on the main floor of a 20-foot-wide wood-frame house. “They’re also a low-cost design feature,” Barker pointed out. “They add visual interest using something most people already have.”
The bookshelves were just one aspect of an overhaul that encompassed a full-on renovation of the three-story home’s main level, including a new L-shaped kitchen and a newly finished lower level used mainly by the homeowners’ children. (The bedrooms on the second floor were not part of the project.)
The original configuration of the main level was typical: a front room with pocket doors, a middle room, and a kitchen at the rear (this one had a 2-by-3-foot extension). “We opened everything up, resurfaced everything, and brought in a lot more light and connectivity between the kitchen and the rest of the house,” the architect said.
The general contractor was Altek Construction Corp.
Painting the wall along the staircase gray was “pragmatic, because it hides fingerprints,” Barker said. “The downside is it doesn’t reflect as much light from the skylight above.”
More bookshelves and purpose-built storage for a collection of vinyl records flank the clean-lined gas fireplace.
The decision to use as much reclaimed wood as possible, notably for flooring and on the kitchen cabinets, was spearheaded by the clients. The floorboards were sourced from Real Antique Wood in Irvington, N.J.
Furnishings, chosen by the homeowners, include a dining table and chairs from West Elm.
There’s ample space for cooking and congregating in the L-shaped kitchen at the rear of the house, which follows the footprint of a small existing extension.
Full-height glazing and corner-wrapping windows admit a flood of light.
Reclaimed pine doors from Semihandmade clad IKEA cabinets. Bosch appliances came from A.J. Madison.
The blue and orange Moroccan-inspired ceramic wall tiles from Ann Sacks continue a color motif begun with the entry hall wallpaper and expressed in light fixtures throughout the house.
The staircase had to be rebuilt in its entirety, Barker said. “We tied it in materially with wood treads and a cable wire balustrade.”
The bookshelves are deep enough to accommodate two rows of books, placed so the spines can be seen from both sides. The walkway along the stairs is quite narrow. “I like it,” the architect said. “It feels like being in library stacks.”
A new powder room with striking wallpaper from Williamsburg’s Grace & Favor is located at the end of the front hall.
Colorful his-and-hers studios, one for music and one for writing, are located on the lower level.
[Photos by Lesley Unruh]
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