PLG House Tour Recap
We’ve been hearing rave reviews from readers who attended the Prospect Lefferts Gardens House Tour this past weekend. Here’s one: These homes were nearly across the board respectful to original architecture and historic qualities, while being exuberant and inventive expressions of individual owners. My absolute favorite: the house on Chester Court (owned by two interior…
We’ve been hearing rave reviews from readers who attended the Prospect Lefferts Gardens House Tour this past weekend. Here’s one:
These homes were nearly across the board respectful to original architecture and historic qualities, while being exuberant and inventive expressions of individual owners. My absolute favorite: the house on Chester Court (owned by two interior design professionals). Also a favorite: the Fenimore St. garden designed by Nigel Rollings. But wouldn’t want to limit my praise there. So many distinct and wonderful renovations. Of all the homes, only one or two had the odd merit of being very nice but not extraordinary.
Other reactions?
What can I say? IMHO, the PLG house tour is always a great experience! Although I agree it was a particularly good tour this year. For one thing, with 11 houses on the map, it was a bigger than usual tour. More bang for the buck! But, one of the reasons why we especially love the PLG house tour is because it’s always a People’s Tour. By that, I mean this tour always faithfully covers the spectrum — from high end renos and restorations that are the product of big budgets and reflect the will and skill of architects, big time GCs and professional designers to extremely modest DIY efforts that are primarily fueled by the owners’ imaginations and creativity. In this way, we never walk away from the PLG house tour feeling somewhat deflated after seeing nothing but one fabulous high end home after another, all suitable for the pages of Architectural Digest but totally out of our financial reach. Instead, we are always treated to seeing a healthy sampling of homes so tastefully and reasonably done that, in the absence of hitting the lottery, we know we can realistically imagine lifting an idea or two or three and adapting it for use in our own home someday. And this year, the full spectrum of high end to budget renos and restos, in both houses and gardens, was bigger and better than ever– with each and every one them beautiful!
The other consistently great thing about the PLG tour every year is, of course, the people. With the assistance of really sociable tour guides and other volunteers, it always turns out to be one rather festive occasion with lots of opportunities for ogling (houses, of course!) schmoozing, noshing (free refreshments!), and hugging. (Great to see you MM and BXgirl! And heck yeah we’ll be at the CHN tour this year. No way we’re gonna miss it!) Even so, there was a bit of added social sparkle with the Maple Street and Lefferts Ave stoop sales which helped to show off more of the laid back and “gently recycled” character of the PLG community. :-> And, if all the above wasn’t enough to make for a great house and gardens tour, the weather was simply superb!
Bob, your photos are great! I find myself revisiting the tour over and over again as it was captured through the lens of your camera. Thanks!
Was visiting family out of state, thanks for the great pictures.
Wanted soooo much to do this tour, but we couldn’t budget $40 (again)…I know they’re fundraisers but wish they weren’t so expensive. At least I can drool at some pix, looks like it was a great day in a great nabe.
Vinca–very interesting comment about the fences. My block has mostly just 3′ chain link fences in the backyards and it creates a wonderful open, neighborly feeling back there. It’s one of those things I never would have thought I’d like in the abstract, but in reality it’s nice. Locked myself out on the back porch on Saturday and my neighbor who was also out back was able to come let me back in.
The slideshow is wonderful, so great to see what people do design-wise! Gorgeous elements. Note to self: Must get out to these house tours!
Loved the tour, and loved how very many of the homes had backyards with NOTHING between neighbors. Fences completely absent, partial fences with wide open access between backyards (no gates), backyards in a row separated by nothing but 3′ tall chain link. Very old-school Brooklyn, where you sat on your front stoop playing cards with neighbors as the day’s heat dissipated, or went out back to exchange pleasantries.
It was a lovely house tour. I really appreciated how people didn’t do gut renos and put in modern interiors, but chose to respect the house and its history. And everyone was so nice- it was a beautiful day, all in all.
Those homes were magnificent!!! It looks like a great time was had.
i had to speed through the tour as my pollen allergies were getting to me that day – so i wasn’t able to spend too much time looking at details. i was impressed by the variety of styles, lifestyles of different economic backgrounds represented and the hard work put into each home. and the especially the two houses that had suffered from extensive fire damage. also impressed by the positive energy from all the tour guides (who were as sweet and informative as can be) and fellow visitors.