Furniture

In the shower, the Japanese porcelain tiles are all a slightly different finish, creating a shimmering effect. "It feels like movement," says Andrew.

Blackened Steel panels create ground level facade at entry.

The Kast Light Grey Porcelain floor tiles are from Mandarin Stone.

Each of the three bathrooms have been fully remodeled. The primary suite also comes with a spacious walk-in closet lined with hardwood floors.

The kitchen evokes warm, modern flair with wooden cabinetry and a colorful backsplash.

The south façade was the most exposed to intruders. Not surprisingly there were no openings on ground level and very few above. In the mid 20th century two windows with horizontal lintels were introduced, and we further created a door and repurposed scaffolding holes we discovered in the stonework.

Cedar & Moss sconces illuminate the vanity, which has Kohler sinks and Watermark faucets.

Built-in shelves and storage save space in another bedroom.

“The dining room wallpaper [Cole & Son’s Forest] helped bring the outdoors in, which was a parallel play on the large windows selected by the architects. Selecting wallpapers that had a forced perspective also provided a sense of depth for spaces like the dining room and powder room,” says Santos.

The architects set up a cozy reading nook off the kitchen, with furnishings picked by Santos. Positioned as it is beside the big windows, the spot benefits from the views outside, and enables family members to chat easily while cooking.

Storage had to be dialed in within the narrow footprint of the brownstone. The black core holds the pantry, while on the right, a bank of custom cabinetry hosts the command station, mop closet, and a concealed bar.-

A powder room has Mulberry Torridon Woodsmoke wallpaper, a white oak counter framing a Kohler sink, and brass accents by way of the Watermark faucet and Wo & We light fixture.

The black core anchors the home and tucks utilitarian functions behind imperceptible doors. The core “connects the floors visually, enhances the verticality of the townhouse, and creates a dramatic backdrop for the hallway bridges at each level,” notes the firm.

The entry speaks to how the owners’ modern aesthetic was merged with the historic bones of the brownstone. Now, a marble mosaic tile from Ivy Hill Tile, the ‘Prism Pink,’ was inset into the oak floor to define the entry. The interior designer picked a leather-faced wall-hung cabinet, as the leather will gain patina over time from the high traffic area, yet still look good.

A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.

Cox initially conceived the deck as a conventional surface for relaxing and entertaining. With the bench, however, he seized an opportunity to create something both functional and visually arresting. “You go down these paths and, as the design mutates, other ideas attach themselves and make it stronger and more interesting,” he says.

The 18-foot-long built-in floating desk in the workspace has integrated storage for scripts.