My House: A Brooklyn Couple’s 1800s Townhome Melds Eras, Heirlooms, and Artwork
Before coming back to New York, Maureen Meyer and Timothy Nazzaro lived in a converted factory loft in North Adams, Massachusetts. "It had amazing exposed brick walls and massive windows," says Maureen, "but it was 3,000 square feet, with 14-foot ceilings. For just the two of us, it started to feel like a lot of dead space." When the couple, who met working in Manhattan’s fashion industry, decided to return to city living, they immediately fell for a compact row house in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood. "In contrast with the loft, it felt homey and purposeful," says Maureen. "We knew every inch of space would be loved and used."
Maureen and Timothy’s renovation focused on respecting the simplicity of the original layout. They particularly appreciate that with just two rooms on each floor, one facing the front courtyard, the other facing the back garden, every space is filled with sunlight and has access to fresh air.
The tiny townhome is part of a Gothic Revival development that Brooklynites call the mews. Tucked away from the street behind a wrought-iron gate and featuring a leafy green courtyard, the block resembles something more commonly found in England, but suits the appellation. "It is a very special place," says Maureen. "A little sanctuary in the city: very small, very green, very quaint, and very neighborhoody." She pauses. "But it is not a mews."
The home is one of 34 identical workers’ cottages lining a lush central courtyard. Cloistered from street traffic by iron gates at either end, the row houses feature paired arched doorways under Gothic gables, decorative brickwork, and delicate wrought iron over windows and doors.
By the book, a mew, or mews house, is a stable that’s been converted into a living unit, often as part of a series (hence the plural, mews). This collection of terraced homes was built in 1877 by philanthropist Alfred Tredway White in that style as low-income housing. An advocate for the less wealthy, White developed homes and apartments meant to promote mental and physical health through cross-ventilation, easy outdoor access, abundant natural light, and shared community spaces. He was ahead of his time: It was another century before the term "neuroarchitecture" was introduced to describe design with a focus on well-being. "Well it is to build hospitals for the cure of disease," he said, "but better to build homes which will prevent it."
If any home helps its occupants flourish, this row house does, with its fanciful facade and arched twinned door, its small but high-ceilinged rooms, its large windows allowing for abundant natural light and tree-filled views, and the semi-private green spaces in front and back. And it is all a quick walk from independent shops and cafes.
While landmark laws restrict even minor changes to the exteriors of the historic residences in Cobble Hill, many homeowners have gutted the interiors, removing walls to open and modernize spaces. Others choose to preserve them, like Maureen and Timothy did. "We loved the original layout," she says. "The simplicity of six small rooms, two on each floor, suits our lifestyle perfectly." Maureen, an artist, and Timothy, a photographer, have been delighted that White’s straightforward setup accommodates a well-lit studio for each of them to work from home, and appealing indoor and outdoor spaces for relaxing and entertaining friends.
Here, Maureen shares how she and Timothy have made the house their own over the last nine years, filling the rooms with a melange of retro and vintage furniture, art, and modern light fixtures, all while maintaining the essence of what attracted them to the mews in the first place.
"We kept all of the original wall and window molding," says Maureen. "It’s very beat up but we love the character." They painted the molding, as well as all the walls and ceilings, a crisp white to amplify the sunlight pouring in through the generous windows. The kitchen door leads directly to the back garden.
Dwell: What condition was the original space in and what were your central goals for renovation?
Maureen: The house was beautiful but very tired. The plaster walls were cracking, the windows needed to be replaced, the utilities were outdated and the kitchen and bathroom were in disrepair. Our main goal was to make it as livable and functional as possible using the simplest means.
What was the biggest adjustment you made?
The kitchen had to be completely renovated. During this process we exposed the old wooden beams and uncovered the original brick hearth, both of which restored the room’s European flair and inspired us to select and install a French range. To complement the look, we added texture to the walls using a combination of shiplap, decorative tin, and bead board.
I cook often, especially on the weekend when we tend to have guests, and I’ve been surprised at how spacious the kitchen feels. It’s really a joy to be there, especially with the door leading directly to our back garden, which creates a beautiful indoor/outdoor flow.
While renovating the kitchen, the couple uncovered the original wooden beams and brick hearth. To emphasize its European style, they installed a Lacanche French range and open shelving.
The refrigerator has vintage charm but is brand new, a Northstar by Elmira Stove Works. The hexagonal floor tile, also new, complements the original wood timber beams.
Maureen's most recent artwork incorporates folded linen, which has ignited an interest in texture as a design element. In the kitchen, she and Timothy added tin paneling to contrast with the smooth walls and rough, rustic beams. Here, aprons, a coiled rope basket, and hammer-textured pottery create an invitingly tactile moment.
How does the home suit your work as an artist?
The majority of my works are medium in scale, so I am able to use the front parlor as my art studio. My view over the front courtyard is incredibly calming and makes for an enjoyable working environment. Timothy uses the second bedroom upstairs as his studio. We both love our work spaces, and feel lucky the original layout complements our daily routine. The renovations in both rooms were pretty minimal.
It has been great working from home, especially since Timothy is close at hand during the day and we can critique each other’s work. As an artist, it’s really helpful to have another set of eyes—someone whose artistic sense you trust.
Maureen’s studio, though narrow, is high-ceilinged and filled with light. Here, a few of her newer works featuring folded and pinned linen add a softness to the otherwise quiet space.
How do you separate work life from life life?
We use nearly every room for both work and play. There is always an element of both in each room, which we enjoy.
What’s your day-to-day routine?
It varies, but ideally I’m in the studio working for most of the day. We’ll go out for dinner a lot during the week so we can get out of the house. The weekends we tend to garden and entertain friends. We live, work, and entertain here. It’s our sanctuary.
Maureen and Timothy use the back parlor mostly for leisure, so Maureen added a thick shag rug to soften the mood. The rug is from Design Within Reach, while the Bertoia chairs and the Saarinen tulip table are both from Knoll.
You started your career at Calvin Klein, and went on to cofound a line of women’s clothing with your sister before becoming a full-time artist. What effect do those design experiences have on your art and your home?
Working in fashion, I developed an appreciation for textiles and a love for pattern and texture. In 2006, I took a workshop on indigo-dyeing fabric, or shibori, and the seductive nature of indigo, as a dye and as a color, really inspired my pivot into art. I began translating the shadings and patterns I created with the shibori technique into paint on canvas.
I am most interested in the spontaneous, imperfect patterns that appear in my shibori fabric—natural "mistakes" as opposed to the pristine and planned. More recently, I’ve skipped the interpretive step and have been pinning dyed linen and draping it over a frame. I select pieces with the most interesting markings, and drape and stitch and stretch and pin them. The finished pieces have both a sculptural as well as a painterly quality, yet also a softness that has an appealing presence in a room.
I think this same imperfect, unplanned, and very natural look comes across in our home’s design. We put up pictures that have meaning for us, fill the house with plants we like, and put up our own work, as much as to evaluate and discuss it as to admire it. The result is a bit haphazard, but feels just right for us.
Beneath an example of Maureen's stitched linen artwork, she added a few dried flowers to her jar of paintbrushes to create an unexpected bouquet.
"Timothy and I think it is important to incorporate our own work into our daily surroundings," says Maureen. "We enjoy seeing our work side by side with the other works we have collected."
"I enjoy using the house as another outlet for my artistic style," says Maureen, which she describes as eclectic.
The home feels true to its 19th-century roots, but has a fresh, updated feel. It even appears increasingly modern as you move upstairs from the kitchen to studio and bedroom on the top floor. Was this purposeful?
Weirdly, the original setup feels very modern, partly because everything, including the molding, is so simple. Also, for a small house the windows are exceptionally large, and almost as wide as the narrow rooms. The builder, [Wright], felt strongly that light-filled homes would make workers healthier and happier. It certainly works for me.
I see the house as an extension of my creativity—another artistic outlet. Each piece of furniture and decoration here has meaning for us, and I think overall the house conveys our personalities.
We have a few antique things we inherited from grandparents, but most of our furniture is modern. And while the lighting is mostly modern, the switches are antique. We love to play with the combinations of old and new elements. All of it is simple, and the eclectic pieces work pretty well together.
I love plants, and having plants throughout the house adds a different modern aspect to the design, an easy, natural style. A simple floral arrangement can also instantly bring style and warmth to a room.
A small wooden wall cabinet Timothy’s grandfather built for his screws now hangs beside the fireplace. Each box in the cabinet has a sketch of the type of screw inside. "We knew we wanted it as soon as we saw it in Tim’s parents’ basement," says Maureen. The framed photo of The Band is by Elliott Landy.
Each corner provided the couple with a chance to set a scene. In this media space, the tone is set by the vintage turntable and amplifier, hand-me-downs from Timothy’s father, and by the record collection, many from Maureen’s father. Maureen finished the look with a dark blue painting and a delicate bouquet. The record shelf is from Modernica’s "Case Study" furniture series.
What are your favorite features of the house?
There are so many! The central winding staircase is a unique design and has a curved plaster ceiling.
The stair is the core of the home’s original design. While some mews owners reposition their stairway to create larger open living spaces, Maureen and Timothy maintained the setup, sanding and re-staining the bead board and dark wood.
The dining room is an amazing space: the grid motif in your painting on the wall is repeated in the hanging light fixture, the window panes, and the ceiling. How have you made this space so special despite its size and awkward shape?
It feels very special just to have a dedicated dining room. We painted everything white to brighten up the space, and the combination of furniture, art, and objects creates warmth. We spend a lot of time in this room with friends, and we love that it has a certain romance and coziness.
The couple already had the four white Saarinen tulip chairs when they moved into the house. For contrast, they wanted chairs with a slimmer, more traditional profile and selected these Ton Salt chairs in black. They purchased the Noguchi lamp on the side table at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City.
Describe the art and furnishings here. What are some of your favorite pieces and where did you source them?
The sculpture on the side board, assembled from found objects, is one of our favorite pieces and was made by our friend Trevor Hopton. Some of the ceramics are from our travels and others are from The Primary Essentials shop in Brooklyn. The black and white photograph is one that Timothy took of our friend Audrey. I particularly love the floral study by Adolphe Braun, which is an albumen print from 1854, purchased at Galerie f5,6 in Germany.
Your spaces are relatively small. Can you talk about the importance of the size of a piece of art?
I tend to lean towards intimate things and I appreciate the power a small work can have.
Artistic details make each room feel warm and inviting, never cluttered. Beside a floral albumen print by Adolphe Braun, Maureen hung one of her own acrylic paintings, The Road and the Common, above the dining table.
"I enjoy using the house as another outlet for my artistic style."
—Maureen Meyer, resident
The couple enjoy antique hunting in the Berkshires, and found both the Eileen Gray adjustable side table and the low carved wooden table at a favorite secondhand shop. The Togo couch in "Goya red" is from Ligne Roset, and the bookshelf is from Triboro Shelving. "We painted the piece white and added wood shelves," Maureen says.
The back parlor has plenty of cozy seating for listening to music or chatting with friends. Maureen added a rug to soften the mood. The horn pendant lamp is by Noguchi and the vintage arc lamp was a gift from Maureen's father.
You have a record player, and Timothy plays guitar. What is your relationship with music?
We usually have music playing throughout the house. It’s an important part of our day. The vintage turntable is a hand-me-down from Tim’s father, while many of the records in our collection are from my father, and we listen to these all the time.
Tim has played guitar since he was a kid and he likes to have a few around. When friends are over, Timothy will often bring out a guitar and play.
While Timothy has guitars throughout the house, he keeps the majority of his music equipment in his study, where it makes a fun, colorful corner.
The bedroom is very simple, but also inviting and relaxing.
The pinkish red glow in the bedroom is from the light hitting the Japanese maples and the red brick in the front courtyard. That inspired the blush bedding. We enjoy elements of nature in the bedroom so we have various plants combined with a soothing palate and warm wood accents.
We acquired the vintage 1960s molded plastic lamps from our favorite second hand shop in the Berkshires. The hanging light fixture is by Ladies & Gentlemen Studio. It has a warm glow and an ethereal quality.
The blush linens from Hawkins New York along with minimal decor, the plants, and the warm wood furniture combine to give the room a calm feel.
The lamp on the dresser is a 1960s molded plastic lamp the couple found at a secondhand shop in the Berkshires. The Tab floor lamp is from Flos.
How does Timothy use the office space upstairs?
The second bedroom serves as his studio and as an office that we share. We don’t own a laptop, so it’s where the computer lives too. We built the computer table with three custom-made legs and a Baltic birch top. We even built the door for the room. The drafting table, which remarkably fits in the room, belonged to Timothy’s grandfather, who was an engineer. I sometimes set up my sewing machine there. There are photographs by Larry Clark and Raymond Meeks and magnetic bulletin boards that are always changing with working prints or inspiration.
![Timothy’s studio features his grandfather’s drafting table. "We found the [37] sign on the beach at Fort Tilden," Maureen explains. "It’s where we spend a lot of our downtime."](https://images2.dwell.com/photos/6676846327473246208/7088196602191396864/original.jpg?auto=format&q=35&w=160)
Timothy’s studio features his grandfather’s drafting table. "We found the [37] sign on the beach at Fort Tilden," Maureen explains. "It’s where we spend a lot of our downtime."
Timothy keeps his negatives and prints organized in archival boxes, and uses a darkroom offsite. The couple built the desk using three custom-made legs and a Baltic birch top. They also built the shiplap door.
And what about your studio space?
The upstairs space is a bit more utilitarian. My studio space has a softer feeling because of the textiles on the walls, the view of the garden, the exposed brick fireplace, and the absence of a computer.
While the couple installed new and vintage light fixtures, they maintained the old light switches, like the one seen here. The art hanging at the top of the stairs outside Timothy’s office is one of Maureen’s larger pieces, an acrylic on canvas measuring 60 x 48 inches.
How do you use your garden?
The front courtyard is beautiful year round, but having our own outdoor space through the back kitchen door is a true joy and can make living in Brooklyn feel like living in the country. It’s amazing what a difference it makes. We treat it like an additional room, and whenever the weather is nice, we’re out there. Technically, there’s an easement for neighbors to walk down the back walkway, but it’s usually pretty quiet, and we’ve got lots of large plants in containers, and they create a sort of wall.
We both really enjoy gardening and are constantly tending or replacing our plants, depending on the season. In the mornings, Tim and I sit out with coffee mugs and read. On a weekend evening, we crowd around our little café table with friends for a cocktail before heading into our dining room for dinner.
I do some smaller dyeing projects in the garden, though for my big indigo, resist-dyeing projects, I go to Tim’s family’s home in New Jersey where there’s a bigger garden. It can get messy and it’s nice to have a wide open space. I do a whole bunch of fabric at once, and then sort through it for inspiration back in my studio.
The kitchen door leads directly to the back garden. Originally, the lane was a cart path for coal delivery, and while the lane is now a public easement, Maureen says it feels very private and that she and Timothy use it "almost like a living room."
"It feels strange to use the words ‘Gothic Revival’ and ‘charming’ in the same sentence, but that is the result with this home," says Maureen of her 1,000-square-foot row house.
Any advice for small-space living?
It’s all about editing. Only use things you really love—it makes everything more precious.
You mentioned there are a lot of shops in the neighborhood. What are your favorites?
The Primary Essentials has objects for the home and beautiful ceramics. Measure Twice is a lovely gift and card shop. Three 80 Atlantic has beautiful clothing using natural dyes. Henry Public is our local pub. Popina and La Vara are our go to dinner spots. Poppy’s for coffee and lunch.
What’s one detail that makes this truly feel like home?
Sharing it with Tim. The house is our ongoing collaboration.
Cast iron pans on hooks and a few favorite items on open shelving double as decor.
More My House:
A Designer Couple Treat Their Eichler to a Refresh With Funky, Vintage Style
A Filmmaker Couple Put a London Shoe Factory Back Into Production as Their Home and Studio
Project Credits:
Select Artworks and Interior Design: Maureen Meyer / @maureenmeyerart
Select Building & Carpentry Work: Richard de Maat of Dutch Carpentry, LLC
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