Looking around ceramicist Josephine Heilpern’s kitchen, with its crisp-white cabinetry, checkerboard floor, and cheery, primary-colored accents, it’s hard to imagine the filthy state in which she first saw it. The founder of Recreation Center, a Brooklyn ceramics studio, recalls a stomach-turning scene of dead bugs, mouse droppings, and decades of caked-on grease in the existing cooking area—not to mention the 40 years’ worth of belongings from the previous tenant that still filled the apartment. But the south-facing unit in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood had windows in every room, parquet floors, and a dining area that could function as a second bedroom. Plus, it was rent-stabilized.

When Josephine moved into the apartment in January 2019, the landlord had done the bare minimum required to hand the residence over, leaving the bathroom and kitchen in nearly the same state as when she first viewed the unit. Needless to say, the situation was irritating—“I was pissed,” Josephine admits—but she saw it as an opportunity to make the space uniquely her own.

“I’m a very aesthetic person,” says Josephine—a fact that’s obvious to anyone who knows her work. Through her one-person ceramics studio, Josephine creates a range of playful pieces, from lamps, to dog bowls, and dishware. Recreation Center’s functional objects include wheel-thrown tea cups with rims shaped like flowers, serving platters hand-painted with funky, Memphis-inspired shapes, and speckled clay bowls with vibrant cobalt, scarlet, and sage interiors.

To update the residence and infuse the interior with her personal style, Josephine started with the bathroom, which she deep cleaned and bathed in a cheery, bubblegum-pink paint color inspired by vintage California homes with bathrooms lined in salmon-colored tiles. A transparent magenta shower curtain diffuses sunlight from the window while adding a rosy glow to the room. Josephine also swapped out the existing toilet seat for a blue acrylic one with an underwater scene. “That was more my style than plain white,” says Josephine.

After a few weeks of living in the unit, the Recreation Center founder finally worked up the courage to tackle the room that needed the most TLC. “When we first moved in, I would not step into the kitchen,” says Josephine, who initially lived in the apartment with her brother, but now shares the space with her girlfriend, Alexis, and dog, Harpie. “It was basically closed off—I would just tiptoe in and open the fridge door,” the ceramicist adds. The landlord wouldn’t replace the range and refrigerator because they were still functional, so Josephine decided to buy new appliances rather than try to scrub off decades of grime and food residue. “I cook a lot,” she says. “I needed a stove I felt comfortable using.”

Next, Josephine tackled the kitchen cabinets, of which there are nearly 20. She spent days “sanding, disinfecting, sanding again, and vacuuming” before whitewashing the exteriors and color blocking the open shelving with mustard yellow, denim blue, primary red, and the same pink paint she used in the bathroom. Josephine left off most of the doors on the upper cabinets—in part so she didn’t have to paint them, but also to put her colorful collection of glassware and ceramics on display.

“As I was doing this, I had a vision of my mom,” Josephine says. “Every apartment we ever lived in, the first thing she would do is take off the kitchen cabinet doors. It just really opens up a space.”

The ceramicist also covered the beat-up hardwood floors in the kitchen, adding peel-and-stick vinyl flooring that depicts black-and-white tiles. These updates “changed everything,” Josephine says. “Now, the kitchen is a room we spend a lot of time in.”

The living room and bedroom required less heavy lifting, but Josephine personalized both spaces with curated artwork and plenty of greenery. She gave a French door in the living room a Mondrian-like treatment, covering various panes with red and yellow vinyl. She also swapped the light fixtures throughout the home, removing the generic domes that are standard in New York City rentals and installing colorful conical pendants instead.

“I love colorful objects and unnecessary things, but most of all, I want functionality and coziness,” Josephine says. “I want things to feel lived in. I like it when I walk into a space and it feels like a hug.”

Have you taken on an ambitious Rental Revamp—or do you know someone who has? We want to hear about it! Reach out to edit@dwell.com with photos and a brief description.

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Project Credits:

Design: Josephine Heilpern, Recreation Center / @josephinenoel

Photography: Matt Dutile / @mattdutile