Inside a Restored 1890s Brooklyn Brownstone | Full House Tour

Borum Hill Beauty is a four-story brownstone renovation where we restored historic details, reimagined the floor plan and staircase, and built a double deck. Hey everyone, we are so excited because today we are taking you inside one of our renovation projects that was a year and a half in the making. Today we are taking you inside our project that we lovingly call Borum Hill Beauty. So we're here in Borum Hill, Brooklyn, which is one of our favorite neighborhoods. It's very central in Brooklyn, so it's right next to downtown, very close to Brooklyn Heights, so there's a lot here. Let's head inside this stunning home that we've been working on for the last year and a half. So this house is beautiful from the minute you walk up to the front door and the front door is massive. We had to completely restore the wood. We dealt with a lot of wood stripping and then we re-stained the door in beautiful walnut color. We really love that we kept a lot of the original walls on the parlor floor, so it kind of keeps the integrity of the home. We're also able to keep these original cased arched openings that go from the hallway into the living room and then the living room into the kitchen area. And we were able to save the crown molding. The crown is gorgeous. It is original to the home and it was really important for us to keep the integrity of that throughout the restoration. A big part of the design is figuring out how we can get the HVAC that is important in a modern lifestyle here without interrupting the crown molding. So the parlor living space is really used for now dining and living, framed perfectly with new windows with the grid from Pella. I really love the restored shutters. We really want to retain the natural look of the shutters against that wind-borne white on the walls. Our personal favorite place in the home and that's the new kitchen. So this is a custom kitchen and we went dark and moody on these cabinets. It's a vibe. It is a vibe. So the marble is one of the stars of the show in this kitchen. This is Calcutta Monet. Super beautiful, very dramatic and veiny. You can see the way that we tied in this natural kind of like gold and beigey color with the wall tile and the wood as well. On the range walls, countertop to ceiling tile. This is from Zia Tile. The name of it is Glazed Earth. It's a Zelige tile. There's a lot of variation in it and we have this beautiful plaster hood. Gives it a lot of variation as well. It's done by Michelle Cole, one of our plaster artisans that we work with. I love that we were able to get the two sinks in as they are both big cooks. So there is an area for prep work, while the other might be doing dishes. But because of that L shape, we were able to get in a lot of lower cabinets. Everyone needs more storage and I think that this kitchen really exemplifies storage solutions. On the floor of this deck is Zia Tile and this really gives it that beautiful indoor-outdoor lifestyle with the terracotta tile and you get the beautiful view. I just love the view from their kitchen. Seeing that bamboo, seeing the original brick buildings in the background, I think that's just really pretty. So there's also an entryway back into the hallway. We decided to remove the original doorway that was there. So when you open the front door and you see the staircase, you can see down that hallway. We knew that this was the area that we were going to build that powder room. We went really dark and moody in here. When you're designing a small space like a powder room, it's creative to really think of space-saving solutions and that's why I'm really grateful that Gebre is one of our partners because putting a wall-mounted toilet is something that we don't usually think would be space-saving but you really just need that four-inch wall there for the tank to go into the wall. One of the things that I love in this entryway too is the storage that is tucked away under the stairs. We were able to sneak in these three little storage cabinets. One of them is for a vacuum cleaner or cleaning products or something. One is for hanging up some coats and one is a drawer that pops open for shoe storage. So we used paneling on the outside that makes it look like it's original paneling. Staircase came with a lot of problem solving and it was a large part of the renovation itself. There was a thing here in this home when we first discovered it with Mike and Kate and that was all of the floors had different levels. You stepped up to go into certain rooms. You stepped down to go into bathrooms and we knew that there was some structural work that needed to be done and the only way that we could really discover what was happening was demoing all of the floors. Fortunately these weren't the original floors to the home but after demolition we discovered that there was a lot of joist problems and all that was stemming from the unlevelness of the staircase. And so when we leveled all of the floors it also required the level of the stairs to come up a little bit. So each run of the staircase was completely detached from the wall, moved up a little bit and then reattached. So it's the original staircase. It's all the original parts. It just needed to be taken off and repositioned. But it was worth it 100%. I mean that staircase really I think was a statement piece and kind of sold Mike and Kate on the home. And we love the staircase because we incorporate things that are very important for us which is the natural wood. Yes we found the right stain. We found the right finish. We brought black paint onto the staircase. This is the primary suite floor. We went with the nigeria blue from Ferrum Ball on the walls here. We carried that into the ceiling so you almost have this color drench. But contrasting that beautiful rich color we have the original shutters that we kept in the same tone from downstairs on the parlor floor. And this nook was just crying for the bed to go there. So we put a king-sized bed from Thuma. On the floor here is the same hardwood floors from that parlor floor. The ashrid from Stuga. This room also has original crown molding. But we added picture frame molding here as well just to bring in some character. We really love it and we know that Mike and Kate have really enjoyed this space as well. So one of the requests that Mike and Kate had was to have a sauna in their primary bathroom. And a lot of people are asking for saunas these days. So it wasn't an unusual request but we usually don't put it in the primary bathroom. So we searched long and hard to find the right one for this space because we wanted it to not only be very effective for them and very functional for them. We also wanted it to look beautiful in the space. And so we found this one from a company called Sunlighten. It's the Amplify. And it is this beautiful eucalyptus wood, eucalyptus color. And it's great. It fits very well in the space. It has room for two, maybe three. And it is infrared technology so it's really great for muscle recovery and detoxification. Kate works in the wellness industry so that was a huge tech mark for us. But we also really like this company because they design with craftsmanship in mind. So we love that it was shipped in different pieces. Really easy to assemble. And we think it fits pretty well here in this gorgeous primary bathroom. One thing that I love that we did here which really brings it to the next level is we built up the stone on the top so that you have a really thick looking countertop. You just use two pieces of stone. You miter them together. It adds so much character to this vanity. We have a separate walk-in shower. We have the little toilet section with a niche. And then I really love that we put the tub right in front of the fireplace. Very common in a lot of our renovations that our clients let us know that they're pregnant halfway through the journey. And I think that this color is just stunning. It's Dead Salmon from Barrow & Ball. And the namesake crib, dresser, and chair really complement the space well. We actually have access to the second floor deck right off the nursery. And here we are on the very top floor. And let's talk about this beautiful landing. This original skylight was one of the show's stopping pieces that we knew we had to lovingly restore to bring back to its natural glory. We also were able to work in these two light fixtures that are very special to Jordan and I because these are from our lighting collection with blueprint lighting called the Burrows. This is the Queen Sconce. And it has this beautiful pop of black with the metal around the edging and this gorgeous translucent marble. The thing I really love about this top floor is we got very creative with the layout. We were able to get in a laundry closet, two very nice sized bedrooms, two bathrooms. One is conjoined with a jack and jill between two bedrooms. And we got in a flex office space that can be utilized as a bedroom as well. Having laundry on the floor where most of the laundry is going to be produced is very important. That's why the laundry is up here where the kids bedrooms are because we know that's where most of the laundry is going to be. It's tight quarters but we got it all in and I just love this floor. We did a vintage inspired bathroom here. Yeah it's classic New York City black and white tile. We have a chair rail that runs around the room. Hex floret on the floor. So really classic vibes. And there's two very similar bedrooms front and back so the kids won't fight over who gets what room. These lucky kids they have original marble fireplaces. Each one of them of course has a fireplace. In between those two rooms we have our jack and jill bathroom. We went with a very monochrome look. We have a blue two by two tile on the floor and in the shower. And then this entire room is covered in a blue tadalac to match the tile. I love designing this area of the house because where this little nook is there's closets on both sides. There's a laundry room on the other side and everything fits together perfectly to create this little special area. And I love the office space. I love this blue color from Ferrell and Ball with the ceiling wallpaper. It just kind of gives you this like you're in a different world here in this room. And now we're on the back of the building. I'm on deck number one off of the parlor floor. And I'm on deck number two on the second floor. And this is our first double deck and I really love how this came to life. I love that from the parlor here Kate and Mike can come down and enjoy their future garden. All the way they can enjoy the second deck from their primary level. And a lot of people said that we couldn't build a double deck but we were determined. We figured out with the architect and the engineers how we could have this deck space on the parlor floor but also have this deck space in the second floor so they could have as much access to the outdoors as possible. Well friends that concludes our house tour here at the stunning Boreham Hill Beauty. Thank you so much. We will see you on the next house tour. Make sure you like this video. Send it to a friend or two and we'll see you on the next one. Bye!