This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.

Katie Fallow and her husband, Bruce, had rented their home in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood for three years when a nearby brownstone went up for sale. Mere steps from Prospect Park on a quiet, tree-lined street, the 1905 four-story building had historic charm and sky-high ceilings—plus “we loved the layout,” says Katie, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute. They decided to buy the brownstone because it could accommodate the couple and their now 13- and 17-year-old daughters, but it needed work.

“There was a lot of chipped paint,” Katie says, and the kitchen was sequestered in the dimly lit back of the parlor level. “You could see down through the damaged floorboards into the basement.” But some of the home’s original features—its crown moldings, fireplaces, and stained-glass windows (most salvageable, albeit neglected)—lured them.

Katie and Bruce, a health-tech executive, were keen to preserve what they could, but agreed the home shouldn’t feel old-fashioned. They were referred to architect Sarah Jacoby, learning that she and Bruce went to the same college and had a close mutual friend, so there was “a level of familiarity,” Katie says. When the couple met with Jacoby, they particularly liked that she seemed on board to renovate the home without stripping its history.

Their first order of business was the kitchen. “We wanted to have as much counter space as possible…a real cooking kitchen, which was hard with the narrow dimensions of the room,” Katie says. Jacoby had the idea to relocate the kitchen to what had been the dining area at the center of the main level and create a new dining room at the rear. “I was worried,” Katie admits. “If we had people over, would having the dining room in the back be odd?” Now, though, she’s pleased: “I really like having the kitchen be the center of the house.”

“There are some houses on this block where they just stripped all the historical details, and it’s purely modern inside. That wasn’t what we wanted.”
—Katie Fallow, resident

During the kitchen design process, Jacoby preserved the room’s original parquet floor, moldings, and central fireplace. The existing glass-fronted dishware cabinets flanking the fireplace were carefully removed and repositioned in the nearby parlor, where they now hold a portion of Bruce’s extensive book collection. In their place, Jacoby inserted custom cabinetry concealing a refrigerator, a pullout freezer, and a pantry. The goal, Jacoby says, was to “make it look like furniture.”

Upstairs, a palette drawn from the refinished stained-glass windows kicks up a playful energy. “We like pops of color,” Katie says. Splashes of blue and green swathe cabinetry in the bedrooms. Multicolored tiles in the primary bathroom were selected to reflect the colors in the stained-glass skylight. “It should be fun to be in your house,” Jacoby says.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Sarah Jacoby Architect / @sarahjacobyarchitect

Builder: GTN Renovation

Structural Engineering: CMCE

Landscape Design: Thicket

Interior Design: Alexis Winter Design

Cabinetry: Shearman Cabinets

Additional Millwork: Delux Construction

Stained Glass: Sunburst Studio

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