Houzz Tours
House Tours
My Houzz: A Simple and Stylish Small Apartment in Brooklyn
Clean white walls and minimal furnishings give this small but perfectly formed home a peaceful air
Sean Tice and Kristy Hadeka, cofounders of the Brooklyn Slate Company, have a gift for seeing design potential. Their 800-square-foot apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn, had multicoloured walls and an overgrown garden, but the couple knew they could update it to their own taste: clean, with a rustic edge.
Tice, a graphic designer, and Hadeka, a Parsons graduate student, source by hand each of the slate pieces their company sells from Hadeka’s family quarry in New York and run their business from a nearby warehouse. They applied this same thoughtfulness and attention to detail to transforming their rented home, including painting brown and blue walls with a fresh coat of white and pruning their garden to create a lush urban oasis.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here Sean Tice, Kristy Hadeka and their dog, Garp
Location Brooklyn, New York
Size 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Tice, a graphic designer, and Hadeka, a Parsons graduate student, source by hand each of the slate pieces their company sells from Hadeka’s family quarry in New York and run their business from a nearby warehouse. They applied this same thoughtfulness and attention to detail to transforming their rented home, including painting brown and blue walls with a fresh coat of white and pruning their garden to create a lush urban oasis.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here Sean Tice, Kristy Hadeka and their dog, Garp
Location Brooklyn, New York
Size 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
The dining room tabletop is crafted from birch plywood that has been lightly stained to protect the surface from scratches and wear. The couple added hairpin legs from Etsy. Large windows in the dining room light the space and give views to the back garden. ‘I enjoy sitting in the dining room, looking out onto the backyard or the kitchen,’ says Hadeka. ‘Cooking and gardening are two of my favourite things to do.’ The square planter in the centre is from the new line of geometric planters that the couple designed for the expanded gardening collection produced at their shop.
The dining room shelves display books and small curiosities, such as a driftwood turned bookend found at Martha’s Vineyard and tintypes taken of Hadeka and her sister in California.
In the kitchen, the couple added open shelves for more storage space. The shelves hold everyday crockery as well as heirlooms, such as an orange casserole dish that belonged to Hadeka’s great-grandmother.
Two-toned bowl: Farmhouse Pottery
Browse more kitchen storage ideas
Two-toned bowl: Farmhouse Pottery
Browse more kitchen storage ideas
The apartment’s compact bathroom originally featured periwinkle walls with black painted doors. They lightened up the space with paint, then Hadeka swapped out the incandescent bulbs in the existing wall sconce with the largest bulbs she could find. The couple fastened pull-down blinds on the interior of the French door for privacy.
Since there were no windows in the room connecting the bedroom and dining area, the couple decided to make it the living room. Garp, the couple’s dog, has his own sleeping space under the custom-made media cabinet.
The floating media cabinet is one of Tice’s favourite pieces in the home. The shelf displays a vintage receiver and vinyl record player while doubling as a storage unit that hides media accessories.
Dagmar Chair: Urban Outfitters
Dagmar Chair: Urban Outfitters
A photo by Squire Fox, a commissioned portrait by one of Hadeka’s sketching professors, and photos of friends are displayed in a gallery wall above a sofa bed.
Night and Day Convertible Sofa: Urban Outfitters; cushions: Pottery Barn
See ways to display your photographs
Night and Day Convertible Sofa: Urban Outfitters; cushions: Pottery Barn
See ways to display your photographs
The bedroom was originally painted brown and had wooden shades covering the windows. The couple uncovered the windows and painted the walls and ceiling white, allowing more natural light to enter and reflect throughout the room.
Vase: West Elm; wall and ceiling paint: Flat White,Valspar
Vase: West Elm; wall and ceiling paint: Flat White,Valspar
In the last three apartments the couple lived in, they put their mattress on the floor for a cleaner, more modern feel. They continued with that look in this apartment. ‘Sean and I have always, in any space we’ve lived in, sort of redone it and made it our own,’ says Hadeka. ‘So we sort of thought of this [apartment] as a project.’
Minimal patterns and a bright white palette are found in their relaxing bedroom. The mounted deer head is from Hadeka’s father.
Check out these white schemes
Lamps: Charlotte, Simon Pearce; dresser: Malm, Ikea
Check out these white schemes
Lamps: Charlotte, Simon Pearce; dresser: Malm, Ikea
The garden needed more cutting back than adding to, but the result is a lush space that’s a welcome retreat from city life.
Discover more small-space gardens
Discover more small-space gardens
‘My idea of gardening is birds, butterflies, bugs, sun, silence and my Birkenstocks covered in mud,’ says Hadeka, seen here.
What’s next? At home, the couple plan to expand the garden and finish the slate patio. In the studio, they’re working on a new line of slate items, expected to be available in fall 2014.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. If you would like your home to be featured, send some photos to ukeditor@houzz.com.
What’s next? At home, the couple plan to expand the garden and finish the slate patio. In the studio, they’re working on a new line of slate items, expected to be available in fall 2014.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. If you would like your home to be featured, send some photos to ukeditor@houzz.com.
Wall and ceiling paint: Flat White, Valspar