The Insider: Cobble Hill Family Home Becomes Empty Nesters' Grown-up Retreat

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Some empty nesters downsize when their kids leave home. This pair of homeowners spread out, renovating three floors of their four-story, mid-19th century townhouse for their own use. Their longtime family home got a stylish update, with an expanded kitchen, new primary bath, and a strikingly modern open stair. “We made the house more sophisticated and grown-up,” said Richard Somerby, president and creative director of R.A.Somerby, a Brooklyn-based design-build firm specializing in the renovation of historic homes.

The major move was replacing the original staircase. “It was rickety and needed to be rebuilt, but the main reason we replaced it was to get a bigger kitchen,” Somerby said. That was accomplished by making the new staircase a little shorter than the former one, creating space for a larger kitchen and dining room in the rear parlor of the relatively shallow (34 feet) building. The prior kitchen had been entirely squeezed into a tiny rear extension, whose space was incorporated into the new one. With the old stair out of the way, Somerby said, “We were able to add 3 feet to the size of the kitchen as well as an island.”

The house had many existing features worth retaining, including wide cased openings between rooms and an early 20th century tin ceiling on the parlor floor, French doors leading to the backyard, and original wood floors that needed only patching and refinishing with the same dark brown-black stain used on the treads of the new stair. “We preserved all the good parts,” Somerby said.

Brooklyn designer Julia Mack of Julia Mack Design was responsible for the neutral palette and clean, contemporary furnishings, integrating new purchases like the playful Shuffle side table from &Tradition into the clients’ collection of mid-century pieces.

The centerpiece of the parlor floor is a new custom staircase of black-painted steel and thick white oak treads, stained dark. The R.A. Somerby team assembled and installed the self-supported staircase on site from prefabricated components, maneuvering steel frames weighing 1,000 pounds. “The landings float, sitting off the walls by an inch or so,” Somerby said. “We did a smaller landing — again, to make more room in the kitchen area.”

The high-gloss laminate cabinetry from Cesar, an Italian maker, provides abundant storage. “It’s a package system, with everything kind of wrapped in a box,” including the fridge, sink, dishwasher, and cooktop with oven underneath, Somerby said. Coordinating elements, like the central island and two tall storage cabinets on either side of the marble fireplace, came from the same source.

Among R.A. Somerby’s interventions were “cleaning up” the steps underneath the French doors and putting space-saving radiators within, in place of an old-fashioned cast iron radiator between the doors.

The Brazilian rosewood dining table was sourced from Modern Living Supplies.

The new primary bath is a “similar theory to the kitchen,” Somerby said. The Porcelanosa marble sink, with a floating vanity cabinet to make the room appear larger, and large-format marble tiles “make the wall one self-contained unit.”

[Photos by Hanna Grankvist]

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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