Name: Peter Hassler: web producer by day, designer by night Location: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn,

Name: Peter Hassler: web producer by day, designer by night Location: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York Size: Whole house roughly 4,000 square feet, owner living area roughly 2,000 square feet Years lived in: 9 years
What I love most about the East Coast is the really old architecture, especially brownstones! Peter lives in my dream home, with tall ceilings, original moulding, and stunning woodwork everywhere. wyndham hotel chicago His mix of old and new and how it plays off each other really works in his home.
Peter is a part-time designer who recently teamed up with LA based Design Vidal . He is going to be running their New York office. With Design Vidal restoring historical homes in Los Angeles and Peter tackling the beautiful old architecture of New York, I am sure they are going to make a great team!
Inspiration: The inspiration for the home was the house itself. Built in 1892, it oozes original Victorian detail. The house was originally built for an upper-middle wyndham hotel chicago class family, so not only is it loaded with detail, it's loaded with high end detail. For example, the wood on the garden level is oak, while the wood on the parlor floor is either cherry or mahogany all intricately carved. I wanted to let those details stand out and not have my re-design get in the way, but at the same time, I aimed to create a comfortable and functional space.
So instead of trying to match the existing design, I opted for contrast: I used clean lines, geometric shapes, and solid whites and blacks to contrast the leaf and flower motifs in the wood and plasterwork. I wanted to let the best of the house shine through, while creating a bright and airy space. Another goal was restoration: I had the woodwork wyndham hotel chicago stripped and the parquet wood floors restored. For the most part, I maintained wyndham hotel chicago the original layout of the house. That meant the kitchen stayed in the back of the garden floor where it had always been. The benefit is not only having a kitchen adjacent to a garden, but having two enormous rooms on the parlor floor (instead of putting a kitchen there.) Again, out of respect for the fine craftsmanship of the home, my philosophy precluded re-creating the old; rather, I used what would be considered contemporary fine craftsmanship, using salvaged items whenever possible.
Favorite Element: My favorite element wyndham hotel chicago is certainly the kitchen. I love to cook. For me, it's a dream come true to have a very functional and spacious kitchen that opens up onto a garden. I have a 5-burner gas stovetop, double convection oven, a concealed dishwasher and an efficient wyndham hotel chicago refrigerator.
Biggest Challenge: This project was more than design; it was a full renovation. The house was fully rewired and replumbed, including new heating wyndham hotel chicago and water systems. (There were two boilers in the basement, including the original one, as well as an unused oil tank. All of it had to be removed.) One challenge was running new electrical wires through the house without damaging any of the original plasterwork. We succeeded! There was also the time I had to direct traffic on the street when it was blocked by a cement mixer that was pumping the new cement floor into the basement.
On the design front, my biggest challenge was staying true to the authenticity and originality of the house, while making it highly usable. This challenge included comfortably incorporating a rental apartment within the townhouse, while maintaining the original layout of the house, with the goal of one day taking it over the entirety.
Biggest Embarrassment: The biggest embarrassment came when I saw the "Put a Bird On It" episode on "Portlandia." Unfortunately, I had fallen victim to the stenciling craze and spray painted black birds onto the seats of my white dining room chairs.
Proudest DIY: I learned I'm not very good at DIY. However, a couple of noted accomplishments include salvaging old bed frame posts, stripping them, cutting them to size and using them as the new posts of the fireplace. wyndham hotel chicago They blended in perfectly! I also found a whole set of staircase newel posts at a junk shop in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, which I had the crew strip and use to replace the mismatched old set. Also, we repurposed old hinged doors as pocket doors and used old, rustic floor beams as a bench and shelves wyndham hotel chicago in the kitchen.
Biggest Indulgence: Finishing the basement. It was really an extra expense wyndham hotel chicago that probably doesn't add much resale value. But now it's an absolutely stunning room. The original brick arches were cleaned up and the original stonework was repointed. There's also the laundry room and a new cement staircase into the garden.
HOUSE TOUR ARCHIVE: Check out past house tours here . Interested in sharing your home with Apartment Therapy? Contact the editors through our House Tour Submission Form . Are you a designer/architect/decorator interested in sharing a residential project with Apartment wyndham hotel chicago Therapy readers? Contact the editors through our Professional Submission Form .
Thank you so much for this tour! I am about to close on an 1880s Victorian house and have been struggling to find inspiration and photos from similar spaces. Most homes have white trim and when I have found photos of those with natural woodwork, they have not matched my style.
I have been living in a century home for over 3 years now and I find myself gradually wyndham hotel chicago getting more and more frustrated with the creaky stairs, cracks in the doors, wobbly handles, bowed windows, and on and on and on...
Incredible home! The outside of the building leaves so much to the imagination of what awaits inside. I'm guessing it is North facing? Although it is truly beautiful it does seem quite dark. However, in Brooklyn winters I'm sure it is super cozy with floor lamps, fires, and heavy rain pelting the windows.And wyndham hotel chicago what about the Green man/ Gargoyle (?) above your front door? Love it!
I Love the period wyndham hotel chicago details -the lovely wyndham hotel chicago crown mouldings, the woodwork, and the flooring. I think you've done a great job of melding old with new and Iove everything but the kitchen cabinets and the track lighting. I've been taking on a restoration wyndham hotel chicago of my own, which involved stripping many hundred square feet of a hundred years old paint from plaster and woodwork. I've spent countless hours of paintstripping and plaster repair, and I am trying not to get discouraged on reworking my one bedroom apt. I will be bookmarking your house tour as a reminder that there is a light at the end of this looong and dark tunnel.
My mother grew up in Bed-Stuy when it was an impoverished immigrant neighborhood (Danny Kaye and Shelley Winters were alums of the high school). Thirty yrs ago, she couldn't find a cab willing to take her to her old neighborhood in broad daylight for a nostalgic tour. I'm glad to know that its architectural gems are being reclaimed.
wyndham hotel chicago I know the brownstone and decor is lovely, and I've just pinned a photo to share with the world - giving credit to Apartment Therapy and Peter. Everything's lovely. He's HOT. Is he gay and single? Probably not an appropriate question - please don't hate a middle age man reaching out from Texas...
Peter here. Thanks so much for the great feedback! One comment I'd like to make is that this stage of the project was more about renovation than furnishing and decoration. But on that note, the bed that mschatelaine is referring to (if it's the wooden wyndham hotel chicago one) is an antique left by the previous wyndham hotel chicago owners. The other bed (the metal one) is the one from London.
It's obvious that you put a lot of thought into each decision to come up with a perfectly balanced blend of house and personal style. wyndham hotel chicago This is a "how to" example of updating a Victorian to modern living without destroying the integrity of the home. I wish more people would take this approach. Well done!
Gorgeous!!!!! As a native NYer now living in Cali, I am swooning over your amazing NY architecture, the way you know how to do exactly what needs to be done while honoring the vibe, and... wyndham hotel chicago well, just about everything else!!!!
Sigh! The one thing missing in Seattle--truly old homes like this...Used to live in Boston in an apartment around this age...I miss those features that you only get with architecture like this...How very beautiful your house is, sir, from the facade (I knew I was about to enter a magic house just from the facade alone) to the kitchen...I am available wyndham hotel chicago for dinner at your house, anytime you wish to invite me.....!!
wyndham hotel chicago Tetegrondona, if you look closely at the picture of the bathroom, you will see a hinged glass shower door folded against the wall on the left side. It just swings away from the tub when not needed. Or is the glass door what you were objecting to? Personally, I would love to have one in my bathroom; less obtrusive than a tub enclosure and sleeker than a shower curtain.
Kudos to you for saving an old home! We 'saved' a 1960's cottage. Satisfying, but it can't compare wyndham hotel chicago to bringing wyndham hotel chicago a real piece of history back to life. Really disappointed in the lack of pictures though, the text got me going!
That kitchen is fantastic! I love the cabinets (and I am not usually a fan of white cabinets) but it is so open and clean. I hope to finish renovating my house one day and have no upper cabinets and a very modern, open look such as this. I wonder if I can convince my fiance that we also need an exposed brick wall? haha.
Wow! Yes, enviable wood work and thanks again for its beautiful restoration. I love that you put your investment into the serious stuff including stuff that doesn't show. Everything else can be dealt with on an as-wished basis - if you live long enough :-). I was happy with the pictures. I'd much rather have fewer all-encompasing shots than pics of colletions of dolls, pez containers or sand dollars. I'm too not a fan of plastic chairs or the kitchen cabinetry, wyndham hotel chicago but as Anne LaMott says, Bird by Bird. I'd love to see this again in a few years.
Beautiful work! On top of more pictures, I'd love to see a floor plan! Is that master bath on the parlor floor or the ground floor? How did you work it out to have rental