Interiors & Renovation

Renters Create Outdoors-Inspired DIY Style in Ground-Floor Apartment Near Navy Yard

When adding design flair to a rental, it can sometimes be tough to overcome the challenges of a home you don’t own. But for Robbie and Dan, the perks of their ground floor apartment vastly outweighed the constraints of renting. The home’s working marble fireplace, original wide plank floors, moldings, and open backyard proved the…

by Barbara Eldredge

01/15/2016 14

Brooklyn Interior Design Rustic Modern — Photo by Lauren Kolyn for Apartment Therapy

The home’s working marble fireplace, original wide plank floors, moldings, and open backyard proved the perfect setting to combine the couple’s rustic and beachy styles.

The pair admit to thinking that their design tastes would clash when they moved in together two years ago, according to a feature on the home in Apartment Therapy.

Dan cites summers spend in a woodsy Michigan cabin as a key influence on his favored home style. Robbie’s tastes lean more toward the bohemian and beachy, with a dash of West Coast modernism.

The rustic and laid back design elements still manage to work together with the architecture of the 19th-century building — a house built by a Navy Yard shipbuilder around 1850. The result is an eclectic but clean interior as character-filled as the duo who live there.

The apartment entrance opens into the eat-in kitchen in the heart of the home — the living room is in the front and the bedroom and bath at the back. Robbie and Dan bought the kitchen table on Etsy — their biggest joint expense when outfitting the apartment.

A blue-painted hallway gallery wall adds visual interest and the opportunity to display new art projects and flea market finds. The bench was handmade by Dan from reclaimed barn wood and pipes.

Notice the wide plank floors, wood-burning fireplace and original built-in shelves. It’s details like these that first drew Dan and Robbie to the apartment.

In the bedroom, a vibrant blue tie-dye bedspread draws the eye. A stump on Dan’s side of the bed serves as a rustic bedside table.

A door in the rear of the apartment opens onto the large backyard. A fire pit and wisteria-covered pergola with a built-in grill are big draws for summer entertaining.