HiLo Brooklyn’s Upcycled Furniture Can Make Your Vintage Sofa Dreams Come True

Today’s off-the-shelf furniture can seem like it’s built to last a couple of years at best. Sofas in particular are pretty high on the "they don’t make ‘em like they used to" list. Laura Deutsch is trying to change that with her company HiLo Brooklyn, which specializes in reworked vintage seating that’s completely tailored to your space.

Stepping into HiLo’s sunny studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn, it’s hard to know where to look first. The floors and walls are lined with beautiful sofas and chairs, some finished and others waiting to be transformed. The far wall holds several long bars covered with fabric samples, each one better than the one before it. "These are my loves," says Deutsch.

Deutsch, who used to source and sell vintage furniture, pivoted exclusively to seating last year. She takes vintage sofas and chairs, often sourced from Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and estate sales, and completely reimagines them using beautiful fabrics, creative upholstery techniques, and custom frame alterations, working with local upholsterers and fabricators.

The majority of Deutsch’s projects are for clients, but she allows herself one "self-funded" project at a time. Her most recent one, a modular leather sectional with a chrome base, made me gasp as I entered her studio. The sofa’s refinished base was beautifully shiny, making its plush leather seats almost look like they were floating in mid air. What was once sad waiting room seating now seemed so inviting I wanted to sit on it forever. I had already seen it on Instagram weeks earlier and had gasped then too. 

Though Deutsch is based in Brooklyn, her pieces come from all over the country with the help of shippers located in the Midwest. "I search all the way to California sometimes," she says. " And that’s where I win. I don’t think people really go that far because they don’t have the capacity to ship it."

So how does it all work? The HiLo Brooklyn owner let me tag along on an in-progress project to see for myself. Her client, Katherine Lewin, founder of New York "dinner party shop" Big Night, recently moved into an Art Deco-style apartment in Brooklyn Heights with a sunken living room. "I had this immediate dream for a couch that sort of felt like a conversation pit, [one that was] deep and low and that kind of curved around the perimeter of the space," Lewin tells me. "I definitely did my research looking for something like that and couldn’t really [find anything] within my budget." 

A mutual friend introduced her to Deutsch. Lewin was intrigued by the idea of taking an older frame, whose quality might even be better than that of a new sofa, and creating something tailored specifically for her living room.

"While it certainly wasn’t a cheap purchase, I will say I’ve done a lot of scoping around for what couch prices for my size space would cost and it feels like such a better investment to do it this way," Lewin says. "I can feel good about the fact that I didn’t bring a new big-box piece of furniture into the world." (For reference, Lewin’s project cost around $8,000. HiLo’s re-worked sectionals start at $7,500 and sofas, at $4,500. It’s not cheap but it is an investment in a piece that will last you much longer than a cheaper, build-it-yourself sofa that comes with free two-day delivery.)

The Consultation

To organize her thoughts, Lewin put together a mood board for her living room. "I knew I wanted something kind of eighties in shape," says Lewin. "I have a fascination with hotels and I wanted something that felt really like you just want to sit down on that sofa in the lobby bar."

The pair had initially discussed a chunkier, oversized serpentine sofa. Deutsch had a frame in her "bone yard" that seemed like a good match. But once she saw Lewin’s living room, the plans changed. "It was entirely too big for the space," she says.

The Sourcing

Deutsch then went to Facebook Marketplace in search of a sofa with the right bones for her vision, and eventually found one in New Jersey— a curved sectional that looked like it belonged in the 1980s. You’d think that someone in Deutsch’s position would constantly scroll through online marketplaces, even while not working on a project. "I used to, but I had to stop," she says. "That’s the thing, there’s always another piece out there. Like there’s no need for the emotional like ‘oh god, I just lost it.’ Guaranteed you’re gonna find something else very quickly. There’s just so much."