The Insider: Meticulous Reno Transforms Bed Stuy Railroad Flat Into Loft-like Space

“I call it a loft,” said architect Graci Mills of the 50-foot-long apartment in a circa 1900 eight-unit building she shares with her partner and their newborn daughter. “We took down walls and put in a big pocket door. The majority of the time, it’s just one long space.”

Mills, a LEED and Passive House certified designer and architect and founder of Brooklyn-based Go Bang! Architecture and Urban Design, and Andrew Keck, owner of The Fabrication Shop, which makes props and sets for film and TV, lived in the apartment for nearly two years before settling on a final design. “We tried living in it different ways,” Mills said. “By the time we got to the renovation, we were confident about how we wanted it to work.”

As a planning tool, Mills developed floor plans showing how the apartment’s layout evolved over the decades. It was originally used as a two-bedroom, with both bedrooms in the middle, a kitchen at one end, a living room at the other, and no interior hall. “You would use the common hallway to go back and forth” through the space, Mills said. “That’s my assumption.” A 2012 renovation by previous owners put bedrooms at each end. Mills took away a bedroom, creating a living room at the end of the apartment where arched windows overlook a park. “At this moment, we don’t need a second bedroom,” she said.

Once dark and segmented. the space now flows as a continuum, benefiting from a few light-maximizing moves. An expansive central kitchen in which several people can work optimizes the space for gatherings. A 4-foot-wide pink pocket door (top photo) on the bedroom slides closed for privacy, otherwise remaining open for light and air.

Furnishings are mostly vintage, including the expandable rosewood dining table. Several pieces were salvaged from film sets. “My partner is a prop master and gets quite a few things from jobs,” Mills said. Keck also built the custom storage in the bedroom, a work-from-home area in a nook off the living room, bookshelves and more.

The couple got away with retaining the original floors, which had been stained dark, patching in areas where partitions were removed. “We sanded the floors and had a beautiful surprise when we realized they were white oak.”

“The kitchen is imagined as a very social space where a lot of people can cook,” Mills said. “It’s two directional, with two peninsulas. It can face the dining room if you’re doing a big dinner party, or the other way, if serving in the living room.”

The kitchen cabinetry is based on rectilinear boxes from 360 Kitchen Design in Red Hook, except for the rounded peninsulas, clad in walnut tambour, that open to access storage beneath. The lower cabinets are faced in Richlite, a U.S.-made paper and resin product. “It’s insanely beautiful and durable, with a mottled texture,” Mills said.

A shallow bookcase built by Keck fits snugly against the wall. Mills designed it with no back legs to accommodate a baseboard heater and save an inch or two.

A narrow interior window brings light from the south-facing bedroom into the dining area. In two places, tall slices of mirror were slotted into available wall space to help bounce light into the interior.

Artwork by Bed Stuy artist Alan Aine hangs above a leather sofa from Joybird in the living room.

In place of an existing closet, Mills designed a minimalist home office. The desk, made of OSB (oriented strand board), contains a slender panel that slides in and out for more surface area and a park view.

Where once stood a big closet, Keck built a floor-to-ceiling storage unit; he also built the bed. The wood console was a film-set leftover, as was the neon sign. The black storage piece was sourced from USM Modular Furniture, a Swiss brand.

Plumbing remained intact in the bathroom, which was otherwise redone in its entirety, with Ponderosa green tiles from Zia on the walls, black and white terrazzo on the floor, and a panel of fluted glass as a shower door. The light fixture is a Berlin flea market find.

[Photos via Go Bang! Studio]

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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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