Above, the recently updated kitchen, which may have once been a butler’s pantry, mixes vintage cupboards with
new counters and subway tile. Right, the art in the baby’s room is a barbershop sign from Africa.
neutral; the pier mirror is not needed to bring more light
into the space, as once intended, because it already feels
so bright and airy.
There’s a sofa in the bedroom, making that space the
de facto living room. A more formal sitting area lies in
the interior space adjacent. Beyond is the kind of dining
room where you can imagine lingering over an hourslong
dinner party. The baby’s room abuts this (one of
those compromises of urban living that ends up being
sort of practical—you can hang out with guests but still
hear the baby). A kitchen and bath are at the apartment’s
rear.
“I definitely love some modern things, but I'm actually
really drawn more to rustic,” says Avent-deLeon. “But
I feel like if I'm moving into a brownstone, the original
fixtures and hardware should always be the focal point,
and you kind of have to work around that.” Thus the
furniture’s clean lines and natural textures are a kind of
riposte to the home’s architecture. “I chose to go with a
marble dining table and the travertine coffee table because
I feel like they bring some light into the space and
kind of offset the heavy wood that’s in this apartment,”
Avent-deLeon notes.
Don’t worry, though: Avent-deLeon is committed to
the neighborhood where she was raised. It’s where
she opened her store, Sincerely, Tommy, known for its
idiosyncratic mix of fashion and accessories from a wide
range of emerging and independent designers (the store
also sells a smattering of housewares and decorative
objects). And it’s where, later this fall, she’ll open the
boutique’s offshoot, a combination hostel and restaurant.
To an outsider, it might seem both enterprises represent
an all too rare instance; Bed Stuy is one of New York’s
most unpredictably evolving neighborhoods. But it has
a long history of positive evolution driven by locals. “I
think historically and culturally, there’s always just been
this very rich history of community. I know from some
of the research that I’ve done, seeing black people and
this sense of ‘having our own’—it’s something that is so
rare for us, and something that you cherish,” she says. “I
think that’s why I’ve always had this energy of being very
community based and welcoming.”
Welcoming is what the parlor floors of these old brownstones
were for. In this case, the space has been recontextualized
for modern life and transformed into a standalone
residence. The walls are white and the bedding
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