“The Insider” Mini-Site: New on Brownstoner.com

WANT A TON OF NEW IDEAS for decorating/renovating your brownstone, loft, apartment or other urban dwelling?

Brownstoner.com, the colossal Brooklyn-based real estate website for which I write a long-running weekly design column called The Insider, has just created a “mini-site” aggregating all my past columns, from this morning back about five years, in one place.

Just go here, start clicking, and see all  you may have missed.

Best of Brownstoner’s “The Insider”

BROWNSTONER.COM, the behemoth Brooklyn-based real estate website for which I write a weekly interior design/renovation column, The Insider, has a new look.

The redesign brings larger images and easier-to-read typography, along with real-time discussions and other improvements, detailed here.

So I thought this would be a good time to catch up with a few of my favorite Insiders from weeks past. Click on any of the titles below to see the full posts in their new, wowie-kazowie incarnation.

The Insider: Narrow South Slope House Gets New Staircase, Extension and Lots of Light

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The Insider: This Light, Bright Williamsburg Row House Was Rebuilt From the Ground Up

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The Insider: Park Slope Brownstone Has Room for Bold Accents and Quirky Detail

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The Insider: Modest Fort Greene Reno Becomes a Total Gut, With Happy Results

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The Insider: Spare Modern Décor Enhances This Park Slope Limestone Beauty

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The Insider: Revamping a Sunset Park Row House for a Clean, Modern Look

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The Insider: Rethinking a Carroll Gardens Brownstone for the 21st C.

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I DIG THE AUDACITY of Tamara Eaton‘s interior design for this no-compromises reno in Carroll Gardens: a five-story overhaul of a decrepit brownstone by Brooklyn’s CWB Architects, complete with elevator, new roof deck, and lots more (the homeowner’s quote from when I first wrote about this project for New York Cottages and Gardens magazine: “We took it down to the studs, and then we had to replace the studs”). Below, the front parlor nods to formality and tradition with billowy curtains and a crystal chandelier, but over the fireplace hangs digital-age art by contemporary artist Wayne Gonzalez. The furniture mix includes antique Chinese chairs, a yellow leather barrel chair, an Empire style love seat, and a flying-saucer coffee table. To see the rest of the building as it appeared on Brownstoner, go here. 

The Insider: Crazy for Color in Fort Greene

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NO NEUTRALS OR MONOTONES for these color-happy folks, the owners of a Fort Greene row house recently renovated with a modernist bent by the Brooklyn Home Company. Then they called on Portland, OR-based Jessica Helgerson Interior Design to help them realize the home of their vivid dreams. Love that sectional sofa, below, upholstered in vintage Peruvian blankets. To see more of this project, go to this week’s installment of my column for Brownstoner.com, The Insider.

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The Insider: Mid-Century Modern in a Park Slope Limestone

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THE REVELATION HERE IS HOW WELL classic mid-20th century furnishings by Vladimir Kagan, Milo Baughman, Jens Risom et al, along with contemporary high-end craft furnishings from local makers City Joinery and BDDW, work in a c.1910 Park Slope row house. The sensitive mix was pulled off by Brooklyn-based architects Delson or Sherman and interior designer Kiki Dennis.

See and read more here, in this week’s column for Brownstoner.