Wallpaper is BACK and we are here for it. As longtime lovers of wallpaper, we feel vindicated by its return. It was most popular during the Victorian Era, and saw resurgences in design in the 1920’s, 50’s, and 70’s, however, in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, the wallpaper witch-hunt began and it was stripped from many homes.

Obviously, as designers of historical homes with passions for preservation and restoration, we’re partial to elements from yesteryear, but make no mistake: we are not here to sell you your Grandmother’s wallpaper. We want to help you make the most of your wallpaper journey and use it in ways you might find unexpected or interesting, plus give you tips on what to avoid.

1. Pay attention to the scale of design. Small, repetitive scale can create the illusion of a texture on the wall versus a larger scale that reads more graphic. We suggest ordering samples before you buy so you can see it in the natural lighting of a room and decide whether or not the scale works for your desired look! The scale on this one is just perfect!

2. Skip the accent wall! We know it can seem tempting to break up the pattern by only wallpapering an accent wall, but wallpapering all walls will fully envelope you in the design rather than cutting up the room. If you really want to break it up, painting the trim in a color pulled from the wallpaper can give a really cohesive, polished look! We love this one for full immersion!

3. Do the unexpected. Wallpaper is a gorgeous design element to use on ceilings, kitchen backsplashes, or in open shelving. Adding the dimension and design of wallpaper in spaces where we’re not used to seeing it can give the entire room an elevated and visually interesting infusion of style! We might just have to put this one on our ceiling!

There you have it! Make sure to tag us @brownstoneboys in your designs if you use any of our tips! We can’t wait to see what you create.

XO, Jordan & Barry

Welcome to the Speakeasy Werkroom for our One Room Challenge Spring 2021 makeover. As you know by now, we were selected amongst 20 featured designers to take on a challenge in 8 brutal weeks to transform a space. Its finally time to show you what we have been working on so hard on, and while we’re a little bit nervous, we’re also very, very excited to show you this transformation! Over the past 8 weeks we have been transforming our basement from a dusty, unfinished, storage area to an entire new floor of living and work space. We needed a place to work (hence, “The Werkroom”, spread out material samples and sketches, host clients, and just an area to relax. We’re excited to say that the space is finished and we can’t wait to show you!

Before we get started on each gorgeous area of the speakeasy, take a look back at the transformation of the space. We’re shocked that the space has transformed into what it is:

Week 1 | Week 2| Week 3 |Week 4| Week 5 | Week 6 |Week 7

THE BEFORE’S

Since we were transforming our windowless basement we decided to create a speakeasy feel. The details would make for a warm and cozy space that might have no windows but doesn’t need them. To make sure we didn’t miss them too much we did bring in the illusion of windows with some antique stained glass and some vintage industrial windows that offer a glimpse into a second top secret space (more on that below!). One of the most important things to us was to have ample storage to organize our growing material samples collection and, of course, we needed a big table to spread them all out on. We also wanted to feel inspired to design and create in the space.  So how did we do? Let’s start the tour! 

As soon as you get to the basement door you know you’re in for a treat. The vintage door with chicken wire glass is a salvage item. We have 4 of them throughout the space. We installed the name “The Werkroom” in a vintage inspired decal from House Number Lab on the glass. As you open the door you are greeted with another vintage find from eBay, a small wall sconce that lights the stairway just enough to guide your way into the space. As you walk down the stairs you can catch glimpses of what you’re in store for through the new wood slats that double as hand holds. 

At the foot of the stairs we created a small sitting area where we can relax when we need a break to find some inspiration. There is a leather chair and magazine holder from Apt 2B to encourage lingering. A small side table and jute rug were eBay finds. The entire area is lit with one of our favorite light fixtures in the space, the bi-focal light from NYC based Blueprint Lighting –  USE CODE: BrownstoneBoys25 for 25% off your order too! It comes in an amazing 36 colors, we went with Paris green. As a backdrop to this area and extending into the workspace is an ode to Brooklyn, an entire wall covered in a vintage Brooklyn map wallpaper from Spoonflower. 

Moving on from the sitting area you will see one of the most transformative parts of the project. We turned the old structural columns into dramatic arches that define the workspace. The soft curves of the arches create a warm, cozy quality that a squared edge would lack. They are each lit with a sconce that evokes the elegance of antique candle holders from Alora Lighting. 

On the opposite wall is one of the most prominent features in the room, and definitely the most useful, an entire wall of cabinetry built by Ethan Abramson of The Build With Ethan. It is designed to have an apothecary feel with a marble top and backset uppers with reeded glass. The curve detail on the cabinet fronts echo the soft curves of the arches and adds an elegance you might find in an urban speakeasy. 

One of the things we are looking forward to the most is working at the beautifully built, long oak table from Self Made. It came easily packed to fit in our car and was quick to assemble. The leather and metal work light above from Alora Lighting illuminates the work space perfectly.  To warm up this area we put the most beautiful rug under table from Loloi Rugs. Of course, we went with the area rug from the Chris Loves Julia collection! It really is the perfect color for the space between the white of the arches and the green of the cabinetry.

The cabinetry flanks both sides of the centerpiece of the room, a salvaged antique stained glass window that is backlit to bring some drama and interesting lighting to the room. We really love the glow of the soft light that filters through the vintage glass and the color that it casts into the space. 

The stained glass window is mounted in another organic texture we brought into the space, rich walnut stained wood slats. They continue to the far side of the cabinetry and around a gentle curving wall that functionally hides our basement mechanicals, but is a feature on it’s own. The curved wall opens up the space in a way that a 90 degree angle would have chopped up. The transition from the work space to a hallway is blurred in a way that extends the space and draws the eye. It’s from here you can get a peek through 2 salvaged industrial windows that tilt open just enough to make you think: “What in the world is going on back there?!” 

Another huge transformation of the space is the new tin ceiling from American Tin Ceilings. We went with a classic New York feeling (Pattern #2) in Bright White Satin, with a satin sheen.The easy-to-install paneling has brighten up the space and has provided an illusion of the ceilings looking taller than they are. We had so much fun installing these!

One of our secret weapons to put this space together to find the right pieces on a short timeline was eBay. Throughout the basement there are vintage accessories, chairs, cabinet hardware, and even the recessed lights were all sourced on eBay. It’s one of our favorite places to find interesting items and shop local here and across the country.

Now it’s time for a secret space that’s been teasing itself throughout the room. A speakeasy within a speakeasy, if you will. It’s been there all along but she’s got a whole new look. Our laundry room has been reborn into a RuPaul’s Drag Race inspired space. Bright pops of pink-on-pink, a splash of purple, a little sparkle, but a space that is utilitarian by use. Why not make our laundry experience something to look forward to? Before we transformed this room, in our messy, dusty storage space of a basement, we were drawn to a brightly painted pink door. It was here before we were, always there inspiring us to create something more. We knew it needed to come down, but we wanted to transform it into something constructive. It has found a new home, still the same shade of pale pink, but now as a useful laundry folding table. The brightest addition to the room (and most fabulous) is the custom neon “Werk” sign from our new friends at Custom Neon. We had the best time designing our light but wanted to tie in the Werk motif throughout the speakeasy.

It’s hard to imagine that the space we sit in now was, only weeks ago, your average (below average?) Brooklyn basement. Used only for storage, upturned dead bugs, a layer of dust covering everything, an unrealized potential of a space. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome, and we cannot wait to fully realize the usefulness of an entire new floor of living and work space. We hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did. Subscribe before for updates (lots of amazing things coming!) and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and YouTube! We’ll have a basement tour coming this weekend with all the before and afters of the space so make sure to subscribe for an alert!

Thank you to ALL the sponsors who believed in us and this space. We’re so excited to start sharing more of each incredible item, piece and feature we brought into the speakeasy over the next couple weeks. And to Linda Weinstein (creator of The One Room Challenge) & Better Homes & Gardens– we are forever grateful and so appreciative of this journey & opportunity. This was the push we needed to complete our basement and we really would have an unfinished basement if it weren’t for you so THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. This was so fun!

Now that we are done with our space, it’s time for a much deserved glass of wine (or whiskey on the rocks). It’s also time for us to check out the other 19 amazing features designed completed rooms! Join us!

If you want to see more check out our full video tour!

The first impression you get of a house is often the front door. It can be inviting and add to the curb appeal or it can detract. The same is true of each room in the house. The impact of having beautiful doors is often underestimated. They are one of the last things we’re ordering, but definitely not the least expensive or impactful. Custom front doors can add up to $10,000. That’s just not in the budget for us.

The first door that you’ll see is also the most expensive and hard to find for us. The traditional double front doors to our house was unfortunately replaced by a modern single door with filler on each side. We feel that we need to restore the double doors to retain the original look of the brownstone. It’s been important for us to restore any original details that we can, but in this case replacing is “restoration”. Our first thought was to find a set of doors that were salvaged from an old house. We thought it would be great to have an old set of doors that we could restore. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find some that would fit and the amount of restoration work they would need made them very, very expensive. The most important thing for us was to make sure the front of our place retained the original look of double doors. We found new wooden custom doors that we could get made to fit that will be easier to install and less expensive. It’s disappointing to not have vintage doors but we think the doors we’re getting will look great and give us the same effect, without breaking the bank. 

There is only one door in our house that was here when we bought it that is staying. And it’s a beauty! The original second entry door that we had painstakingly stripped of multiple layers of paint. It looks beautiful now that it’s stripped, although it does need a new pane of glass.  

 We found old pocket doors built into one of the walls we removed but sadly we don’t have a place for them. We won’t have interior doors downstairs since everything is open, and they are too tall to be used upstairs. We plan on keeping them and hope we can find a use for them one day. 

Most of the other doors in the house were replaced with cheap modern doors in one of the prior renovations. For the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs we are replacing the cheap modern doors with simple shaker solid wood doors with 3 or 5 panels. Most are standard sizes so ordering them was relatively simple and inexpensive. We think they will give us a custom high-end look and a touch of modernity since they will be shaker style. 

Finally, we are replacing one of the rear windows on the parlor level with a single glass door with a wood frame. We decided to keep the original molding around it so the door will be fit into the existing space. 

We’re excited about how all of our new doors are going to complete our space, and we’re excited about the fact that it means we getting close to being done! But there is still lots of work to do! The cabinets were just delivered today and the wood floors have been sanded and stained! We’re looking forward to keeping you posted.

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For many of us when we step through the double front doors of a historic Brooklyn brownstone we feel a rush of excitement to see the charm and character of original features. The high ceilings and tall doors, the grand banister and woodwork, the huge windows with wooden shutters, and of course the sometimes ornate plaster mouldings. One of the things that attracted us to our place the most is that we have really nice original plaster mouldings throughout a lot of our brownstone. They aren’t overly ornate, but they gave us that feeling of something that is special. The parlor level is especially nice. There’s a crown moulding on the wall and ceiling with a cove. There’s also a ceiling picture frame in the living room. The plaster isn’t in an amazing shape, you can see where it has been repaired over the years. Our contractor suggested that we should just rip out all of the ceilings out and replace it all with new crown moulding. We appreciate the suggestion as it solves some problems, but we just think it would be too sad to lose all of the history and character in favor or sharp new mouldings that can be found in a new construction condo.

When we were looking for our place we also stopped by to see a few developer renovated buildings. They are beautiful, but most of the original features are removed in favor a modern open space. The main wall that separates the foyer stairwell and the living area is typically gone. All of the ceilings are new. Fresh new mouldings are up with recessed lighting and central air & heat. It looks great and sometimes it’s done very well, but we want our place to look like a 18th century brownstone as much as possible. So we are going to pass on the recessed lighting and central air in favor of our original mouldings and 18th century character!

Our mouldings won’t be perfect. They have been painted many times and there are a few spots where you can see that it has been repaired. There are also several places where we need to restore them as we reconfigure a few spaces. It’s not something that we have done in the past and it was really interesting learning about the process. We have about a 12 foot section that needs to be restored in our living room, about 8 feet in the kitchen, and about 10 feet in our master bedroom. We looked into matching with new moulding, but we decided that the new moulding would be too much of a contrast to the old. We also looked into fabricating a replication and having our contractor install and plaster, but we were worried what the finished product, especially the cove, would look with having a different moulding fabricator than the installer.

Finally our friend Jason from Urban Plaster stopped by to take a look at our place. He is able to take moulds, fabricate the mouldings in a way that they will resemble the old ones (less definition to account for the many layers of paint). He will finish the plaster work, restore the cove, and blend the new sections in with the old to get the best finished look possible. Our mouldings are not especially ornate, and Jason often does much more intricate work, but it still an expensive part of the project. We’re expecting to pay $5,000-$8,000 for all of our plaster work (depending on the extent). This is not in our original budget, but we decided that it’s just too important to finishing the project that it’s worth the extra expense.

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Our building has a few interesting challenges that we need to solve as we complete the design. We’ve been working on one situation and we have some ideas but we haven‘t fully decided how to resolve it yet. Our building is configured as a garden level 1-bedroom rental and a parlor/topfloor duplex. The garden level entrance under the stoop opens up into a common hallway with a staircase that goes up to the parlor level. The one bedroom apartment is self contained and there is a door off the common hallway. The issue is that if our future tenant climbs the stairs from the common area they will be in our duplex apartment. So a wall has to be built. We’re trying decide where.

We’re not excited about building a wall. We want it to be the least intrusive to the space as possible and for it to seem like it belongs there. There are also some really nice original details on the bannister and stairs that we would potentially lose with some of the options. Closing the stairs up all together is also not an option because we could still like access to the basement where we will have the laundry. We’re hoping some of you may have had a similar problem that you’ve already solved or may just have some great ideas!

OPTION A- Build the wall on the parlor level under main stairs. With this option the wall would be on our level. We could extend the Wall down from the bottom of the staircase to the floor so that you can see into the stair well that goes to the parlor level. There would be a door at the top of the stairs. We think this option could look like it belong there, especially if we match the moldings and woodwork that is on the bottom of the stairs. It also has the advantage of hiding what would be a dark staircase to closed door. If we chose option B the drawback is that we are closing in space on the duplex level. We would also lose some nice detailing and we would need to remove the bannister railing that separates the parlor hallway from the stairs below.

OPTION B- Build the along the garden level stairs. This option would put the wall on the garden level. We could keep the openness in the duplex stairwell and entry. We could also keep the parlor level details and bannister in tact. The drawback is that the lower stairs that would be visible from the parlor hallway would be closed in and lead to a closed and locked door. It has the potential to be dark unless we figured out a way to cleverly light it. We would also need to completely remove the bannister from the lower stairs. Instead there would be a wall with a simple handrail.

OPTION C- Build a wall at the garden level entrance. This option would be nice as it wouldn’t require us to alter the stairs or bannister at all. We could just build a wall in the garden level common hallway that would separate the stairs from the part of the hallway that rhe tenants have access to. So far we have not been able to figure out how to do this without further reconfiguring the garden apartment. The current door is too far back to be able to build a wall in a place that makes sense.

Options A & B seem to be the most viable options. We aren’t particularly excited about either of them but we need to separate the apartments. Are there options that we haven’t thought of? Or should we go with one of the ideas we have? Let us know what you think!

Options A & B seem to be the most viable options. We aren’t particularly excited about either of them but we need to separate the apartments. Are there options that we haven’t thought of? Or should we go with one of the ideas we have? Let us know what you think!

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We’re in a holding pattern right now waiting for DOB approval to get the sledgehammer out. Our architect is doing a great job managing that, and our contractor is sidelined waiting for approval. So this downtime in physical work is a perfect opportunity for us to plan out our budget. Our renovation is especially exciting because all of the projects are a product of a lot of our own dreaming. We’ve decided to use our vision, our plan, and our tastes for the design. Much of this came from inspiration over the course of the last couple of years. I think it can be summed up this way: We wanted to buy a brownstone, with original details, restore the history, and modernize the finishes.

Someone commented on our first post on Brownstoner and said that they hoped that our story is not one of “a million dollar renovation with exotic finishes, super-expensive European appliances and the over-the-top bespoke stuff.”, but rather one that will be “relevant to readers.” That couldn’t be more the case. Words used by our contractor and architect to describe our budget are: “modest”, “tight”, and just straight-up “not enough”. But I’m confident that we’ll get it done and this will be our dream home.

Our tastes are classic. We are going to keep it simple and we’ll need to find savings along the way. The key will be to splurge in a couple of areas so that our renovation seems high-end, but stays within our “tight” budget. We’ve already scaled some things back to limit the construction and we may need to do that again. We’re going to try to be smart about buying with discounts. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are on the horizon and this is a perfect opportunity to take advantage of 20-50% off. We’ll need it! (We will have an entire Black Friday shopping list coming soon so look out for that!). We want to reproduce some high-end designs we’ve stalked, with less expensive and discounted materials. It’s likely we’ll make compromises or put off some projects until after we move in. Despite our contractor’s warnings, we’ve settled on a plan and we think we can accomplish it, but if not we’ll adjust. But we do have priorities of things that have to get done.

Our building has a garden rental and a duplex on the parlor and 3rd level. We’re leaving the garden rental as-is (it’s in good shape) and renovating the duplex. Currently the duplex is configured as a 5 bedroom with 2 bathrooms. The parlor level as expected has the living room next to the entrance (with original structural wall separating the entry and staircase that has original woodwork and other details remaining! See previous post for that story), the kitchen in the middle, then a non-original wall with a bedroom in the back, with a full bath next to it. The parlor level plan is to demo the existing kitchen, the wall between the bedroom and kitchen, the full bath, and the wall separating the bedroom and the bathroom.

After the demo we will have an open space from the front of the building to the back. The kitchen will go across the back of the building with the main water/gas wall on the wall where the bathroom was. A powder room will be next to the kitchen. The living and dining area will be one open space. We’re building a deck off the back, and popping in a glass door where there is now a window. We know this is an additional expense but we feel it will be worth it in the long run.

Upstairs there are currently 4 bedrooms and a full bath. The plans are minimal. We’re moving one wall to create a larger master bedroom in the back, renovating the existing bathroom as the master bath, and creating a guest bath in the smallest bedroom that is over the vestibule (you know the one).

A month ago I would have told you we were replacing all of the hardwood flooring and leveling the floors (they were replaced a few years ago with solid white oak flooring in a very light white-washed finish that has to be changed). We were also going to open up a larger opening in the back of the building for a glass slider. But the budget has altered these 2 things as well as a few others. We are happily going to refinish the floors and live with a couple of slants (that will save us probably $20-25,000). It also gives us the advantage of not losing a lot of the original baseboards (which saves on that as well). For the deck door, we are saving thousands by using the existing opening for the window and just having a single door rather than a slider (saves us about $7,000-$10,000 and a lot of annoying structural work).

Those are the big overall projects. Some of the smaller things that we think will go a long way are: removing the carpet and restoring the stairs (who knows what’s under there), removing the baseboard heaters and installing radiators, stripping the layers of paint off a lot of the woodwork including the original interior window shutters, and we’ll create some interesting features and nooks. For instance, at the top of the stairs in a place that can be seen as soon as you walk in, there is door that leads to the closet where there is a ladder for roof access. It’s not the worst, but a good friend of ours (who designs spaces for a global clothing brand) suggested that we move that door around the corner and create a space to hang a great piece of art (or a bookshelf nook). It will cost a bit to do that, but I think the effect will be worth it.

So that is the overall scope of the project. We originally posted this without mentioning our actual budget. The reason why is because it’s still a little bit of a work in progress. We may need to adjust a bit. Several people have reached out wondering. Mostly because they have their own projects and they are very curious about what others are spending (or targeting to spend). As of now, not having actually started the project, we are trying to keep our renovation at or under $200,000. As we progress we’ll share details on each area one at a time. Look out for more! Subscribe below to be updated for new posts and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!