How a Terraced Garden Helped a Brooklyn Home Rise to the Occasion
The bottom floor of this townhouse renovation now connects to the outdoors via a new ADU home office.
The bottom floor of this townhouse renovation now connects to the outdoors via a new ADU home office.
In New York City, the boundary between public and private space often gets blurred—think of subway commuters packed cheek by jowl or parks moonlighting as backyards for barbecues. In Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, architectural and interior designer Rebecca Cohen-Scharfman renovated a two-unit, four-floor townhouse with this ambiguity in mind, creating a home where the interiors seem to flow outside.
Designer Rebecca Cohen-Scharfman and her filmmaker husband, Alex Scharfman, turned a mundane Brooklyn townhouse into a home with personality and an exceptional outdoor space. In the dining area, an AGO Cirkus chandelier hangs over a Laurel table from Burke Decor. The black Salt chairs are from Design Within Reach, and the Stature end chair is from CB2.
Photo by Brian W. Ferry
Rebecca and her husband, Alex Scharfman, a filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter, have lived together in Greenpoint for four years, renting a one-and-a-half-bedroom apartment two blocks away just prior to taking over their new place.
"We love this area," Alex says, so much so that the couple wanted to make sure their building still blended in with its neighbors after the renovation. Though they changed the exterior color from red to dark gray and ditched the old shingles, they stuck with the horizontal siding and general proportions common in the area. "From the front," Alex says, "the building looks a lot like the box frame houses that you see on the block."
Before: Rear Facade
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Cohen-Scharfman
After: Rear Facade
As part of the renovation, they extended the rear of the bottom two floors—their apartment—by 10 feet. The extension not only gave the couple more room but also created a terrace for their tenants above.
Photo by Brian W. Ferry
See the full story on Dwell.com: How a Terraced Garden Helped a Brooklyn Home Rise to the Occasion
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