tile

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.”

The color is repeated in the main floor’s guest bathroom, adding an unexpected twist to basic white tiles. “Everyone has black or white grout,” says Marc, “but red is different and goes with the ’60s theme of the house.”

In the first phase of the remodel, the couple completed one side of the kitchen, as the stair redesign was part of the upstairs overhaul. The kitchen is composed of Ikea cabinets with Caesarstone counters.

The solid support wall was swapped out for a wood slat wall. Dunn Edwards “Revival Rose,” an update on the terracotta color, was used to define the kitchen from the rest of the home.

Boudreau covered the walls in unexpected dimensional mustard tile in two different patterns, both from Italian company Marca Corona. The penny rounds on the floor are a “Sliver Sage” color. A custom sconce from DL Design Works hangs above the mirror.

"The timeless and distinctive aesthetic of minimalism that Koto embodies is accentuated in the interiors,