The Insider: Boerum Hill Garden Floor Taps English Design

""Upstairs, the high-ceilinged parlor floor is furnished with a sophisticated mix of contemporary and vintage pieces. The garden level "speaks a different language," said Richter, founder and principal designer of Brooklyn-based White Arrow, which masterminded the architectural and interior design of the entire townhouse. "I felt that, if the parlor upstairs is grand and about making a stately impression, the in-law apartment, by contrast, is about casual living and less formality. An English country house feel hit the right note of traditional comfort.""

""Sweet and homey" were the watchwords when interior designer Keren Richter tackled the garden floor of a 19th century single-family townhouse. The downstairs rooms, part and parcel of a top-to-bottom renovation of the building, were conceived as a self-contained unit for the homeowners' visiting parents, also used from time to time as extra family space."

"The comfy living room (top photo) looks out onto the garden through new glass and steel French doors. The bedroom, at the front of the building, is centered on an old-fashioned four-poster bed. The cabinetry in the custom kitchen, "feels freestanding and reads more like furniture," Richter said. A vintage trestle table doubles as a work island. As upstairs, all moldings and details are artful insertions intended to bring back a sense of history where it had been stripped away. Bead board ceilings "weren't needed, but added nice texture," Richter said. "I love using ceiling medallions, crown molding and wall paneling. Plain sheetrock often feels like a missed opportunity.""

The garden-floor rooms form a self-contained in-law apartment for visiting parents and occasional family use, designed with a "sweet and homey" English country-house feel that contrasts with the grand, formal parlor above. The living room opens to the garden through glass-and-steel French doors; the front bedroom centers on a traditional four-poster bed. Custom kitchen cabinetry is inset and composed to read like furniture, with a vintage trestle table doubling as an island. Moldings, beadboard ceilings, medallions, crown molding and wall paneling were reintroduced to restore historic texture. The excavated cellar provides a bar, wine storage, gym, television and storage.

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