The Insider: Reno Adds Charm and Function to Dark and Dated Heights Co-op

Emma Montgomery’s clients had just bought a smallish two-bedroom apartment in a nondescript 1980s building sandwiched between brownstones, steps from the Promenade. The space lacked character, to say the least, and the new homeowners “wanted to infuse the apartment with period details that matched the incredible historic feel of the neighborhood,” said Montgomery, who established her Brooklyn-based interior design studio, Emma Montgomery Design, in 2021.

The small but mighty renovation involved architectural tweaks, bath and kitchen glow-ups, refinished floors, and a whole lot of new custom built-ins. One key move was enlarging an existing opening (top photo) in the wall between the living room and the narrow galley kitchen and framing it with attractive storage. “That really opened up the kitchen to the rest of the space,” Montgomery said. “There was a small pass-through below eye level that didn’t make a ton of sense. We made it wider, raised the height, and added a much larger overhang that matches the depth of the new built-ins on either side and houses counter stools underneath.”

Another inspired gesture was the creation of a built-in dining nook, with a banquette and open shelves, in a corner of the living room. “It helped carve out a defined space for dining that didn’t significantly eat into the tight floor plan,” the designer said.

To make the space as light and bright as possible, Montgomery chose a creamy paint palette throughout, using Glacier White for the walls and Simply White for the trim, both by Benjamin Moore. “We brought in textural interest with different paneling profiles,” she said. Tongue and groove wall paneling, Shaker-style doors on some cabinets and fluted detailing on others “add a bit of depth.”

There are two entrances into the apartment, one into the living room, with a coat closet nearby, and a second through the kitchen, convenient for bringing in groceries.

Montgomery vastly improved the dark kitchen with new appliances, quartzite countertops, and a farmhouse sink with a tall bridge faucet centered in the enlarged opening. “We wanted something a bit dramatic you could see from the living room,” she said. New lighting, on dimmers for evening ambience, includes sconces on each side of the pass-through and picture lights for art.

Montgomery refinished existing wood floors throughout, except in the kitchen, where she replaced tile with new wood laid in a herringbone pattern and sealed with a matte finish.

The storage situation coming in was dire. “There were just one or two closets in the apartment. We maxed out the amount of storage,” Montgomery recalled. New custom millwork spans the better part of two long walls, flanking both the pass-through and the fireplace mantel. Except for open shelves above the dining table, most new storage is in the form of closed cabinets and floor-to-ceiling closets. “It’s really important to have closed storage in a small space.”

Montgomery swapped out a plastic resin rococo-style mantel on the wood-burning fireplace with a more restrained, rectilinear one from the Philadelphia architectural salvage company Provenance, and used blue and white tiles from Portugal to form a new hearth.

In the full bath, Montgomery kept the existing layout but replaced all finishes and fixtures, including a new vanity, block-printed wallpaper from Les Indiennes in Hudson, New York, and lighting from Visual Comfort.

“Before” photos show the extent of the transformation:

[Photos by Zack DeZon]

Got a project to propose for The Insider? Contact Cara at caramia447 [at] gmail [dot] com

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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