A Minimal Yet Mighty Brooklyn Apartment

Stepping into the cool kitchen recess of an upper-floor apartment in a grand brick building along one of Brooklyn’s leafy avenues, one can be forgiven for not immediately identifying this home as a project driven by application of color. Walls are mostly painted gray, floors stained ebony. A slab of black walnut from North Carolina, beautifully grain-matched, folds over the top and side of the kitchen island. Ceilings are white, the linen curtains natural, and lighting fixtures, the designers’ own, are made from black steel-pipe rods. There is gray stone in the shower surrounds of both bathrooms. Outside, through tall windows, there may be a blue sky over Brooklyn or a shot of color off a Manhattan tower in the distance—the view from the top floor of this prewar on Eastern Parkway is ridiculous—but otherwise nothing jumps out, colorwise.