It’s the money shot of the home design world: The pale gray marble mantel with the arch-topped firebox clad in a black iron summer cover. It’s a classic brownstone Brooklyn look, typical of the Italianate brownstones of the 1860s and 1870s that dominate highly desirable Brooklyn brownstone neighborhoods such as the Heights, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, and Clinton Hill.

The arched marble fireplace first started appearing with regularity as a fetish object — a sign that its owner had made it and had the whole brownstone as well as the lifestyle to go with it — in Domino magazine some years ago.

This year, The New York Times reports, the Brooklyn brownstone “is on track to become the aspirational space of the year,” thanks to its appearance in catalogs, ads, and TV shows such as “Girls.” The Times writes:

The Brooklyn brownstone has been fetishized in so many catalogs, ads and television shows, including Design Within Reach, Target and Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” to name a fraction, that location scouts like Andrea Raisfeld of Bedford, N.Y., say it has become the bulk of their business. After rattling off the addresses of seven of her “cash cows,” as she described her most-requested Brooklyn brownstones, Ms. Raisfeld, who has 100 Brooklyn properties in her portfolio, recalled how in the 1990s it was Westport, Conn. — Martha Stewart country — that beckoned.

Do you agree with the Times? What do you think of the interiors they show? Click through to the story to see some really stunning photographs of these covetable spaces, including a magnificently proportioned Clinton Hill Italianate whose frothy yet bold white marble mantel and ornate ceilings make a jaw dropping contrast with inlaid parquet floors and a modern kitchen.

It’s That Brownstone. Again. [NY Times]


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  1. I feel like Brownstones are a bit over-hyped. From a purely rich person’s perspective, it’s hard to see what advantage a Bed-Stuy row house would have over a Prospect Park South mansion.
    If money is no object, doesn’t fully detached beat a row house? Doesn’t windows on the side beat dealing with neighbors in close proximity? 50 foot lots vs 20 foot lots? Full manicured grounds, plus garages (sometimes with 2nd floors), vs 20×50 backyards?
    Compare this 2.2 million PPS mansion to recent high-end Bed-Stuy or Clinton Hill:
    http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/883212-townhouse-147-rugby-road-prospect-park-south-brooklyn
    That said, I’m hoping the new trend is going to be people buying empty lots and living in tiny prefab huts surrounded by vegetable plots.