A Tattered Brooklyn Brownstone Is Brought Back to Life With Big Doses of Color

Michael K. Chen Architecture resuscitates a Clinton Hill residence by restoring its historic details and applying bold hues throughout.

Text by

Melissa Dalton

View 31 Photos

Rotting ceilings; peeling lead paint and crumbling plasterwork; warped floorboards: Just a few years back, this brownstone in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn seemed beyond repair. "To call it faded would be a gross understatement," says architect Michael K. Chen, the founder and principal of Michael K. Chen Architecture.

Built in 1895, the four-story, 3600-square-foot home had been abandoned for 20 years, and looked it. But when its newest owners—a tech investor and an art teacher at a public school—purchased the home, they were inspired by what was still apparent underneath the grime and decay: a playful color palette that included a bright raspberry in the living room, a sky blue at the staircase, and a fern green in the front hall.

Before:

Courtesy of Michael K. Chen Architecture

Get the Renovations Newsletter

From warehouse conversions to rehabbed midcentury gems, to expert advice and budget breakdowns, the renovation newsletter serves up the inspiration you need to tackle your next project.

Courtesy of Michael K. Chen Architecture

The ensuing top-to-bottom renovation restored key historical elements, like the large built-in mirror in the entryway. The doors, baseboards, arched casework, wainscoting, and plaster were all reconstructed.

"We took castings of the original carved plaster brackets and moldings, and replaced them in kind," Chen says. At the staircase, the architect merged old and new, reworking the original railing profile and integrating it with a modern bent steel treatment, fabricated by Kin & Company.

Parlor Floor:

Photo: Alan Tansey

With the bones of the house restored, it was time to bring back the color. "Our strategy was really an attempt to tease out the qualities of light, and to maximize delight in the individual rooms," says Chen. "We had epic color palette meetings, looking at deck after deck for paint colors that spoke to us or provoked a particular sensation."

Photo: Alan Tansey

The eponymous founder and principal of Michael K. Chen Architecture resuscitated a four-story, 3,600-square-foot home in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood that was built in 1895 and had been abandoned for 20 years. Its newest owners—a tech investor and an art teacher at a public school—were inspired by the playful color palette that was still apparent underneath the building’s decay. "We had epic color palette meetings, looking at deck after deck for paint colors that spoke to us or provoked a particular sensation," says Chen. "You don’t look at the color, you inhabit it."

Photo: Alan Tansey

If color doesn't scare you in the slightest, go for broke!

Photo: Alan Tansey

Shop the Look

Gubi Grasshopper Floor Lamp

Upon moving to California in 1940, Swedish architect Greta Magnusson Grossman began combining her European training with a West Coast aesthetic, adding a sense of play. Her Grasshopper Floor Lamp (1948) resembles its namesake in form, with a lithe tubular steel frame and elongated conical shade. Ball-jointed, the shade can be moved in any direction to focus the light and minimize glare.

Shop

Urban Outfitters Theo Convertible Sofa

Transform your space with this upholstered floor sofa that converts to a bed when your friends are crashing for the night. With allover tufting and cushioned build, sofa folds down to convert to a bed. Photo Courtesy of Urban Outfitters

Shop

Dwell x Concrete Collaborative Tails Tiles

Dwell has partnered with concrete collaborative on the ultimate California modern collection. Taking inspiration from surfboard shapes and the California surf culture. The Dwell x strands tiles brings a California modern aesthetic, signature to Dwell, to design professionals and design enthusiasts alike. Using smooth, clean shapes and lines in timeless colors, strands tiles are crafted using careful consistency and superior design. They are environmentally preferable and ideal for both interior and exterior applications. 8 x 8 x 5/8" What's in the box: minimum 4 squash, 4 swallow, 4 pin. Tiles come in boxes of 13. Our products are made to order. Please allow a lead time of 8-10 weeks.

Shop

The color picks are bright, moody, and saturated, and range from an earth pink in the living room, to an orange sorbet in the office, and to a serene blue at the stairs. On the garden level, Chen employed 2,800 custom encaustic floor tiles in 17 colorways to create a gradient that runs from the front of the home to the back of the garden outside. "You don’t look at the color, you inhabit it," says Chen. "It surrounds you, and you perceive the shifts and play of natural light in the space in a way that is both subtle and rich."

Garden Level:

Photo: Alan Tansey

Upper Floors:

Architect Michael K. Chen, founder and principal of the eponymous New York–based firm, resuscitated a four-story, 3600-square-foot home that had been abandoned for 20 years by incorporating a playful color palette and interesting details, such as this oval-shaped skylight.

Photo: Alan Tansey