The Insider: Crown Heights Parlor Floor Gets Style Upgrade

A family living in a stripped, gray-and-white townhouse wanted color, a prominent place for a piano and art, and a dining area for guests. Studio Y&A reworked the parlor floor into a more traditional layout by adding walls, creating two wide arched openings, and installing crown moldings, baseboards, and chair rails. Rounded forms were introduced to soften the spaces. A deep blue front room was designed as a moody jewel box using Newburyport Blue from Benjamin Moore, chosen after exploring multiple shades. The blue front room contrasts with a lighter, airy dining room and a light-filled kitchen, creating a front-to-back progression from dark to light.

"The facade was beautifully restored, but the developer had stripped the interior down to bare bones. "There wasn't a molding in sight." As for furnishings, "Everything was gray and white." The busy homeowners had not made interior design a priority. Yet they yearned for color, a central role for their piano and art collection, and a dining table with lots of space for guests."

"Studio Y&A transformed the parlor floor from one vast box-like space to a more gracious, traditional townhouse layout. Two wide arched openings define a deep blue front room lined with bookshelves, separating it from an airy, elegant dining room and light-filled kitchen at the rear. "We built the walls, created the curved openings, and added crown moldings, baseboard, and chair rail," Hoorazar said. The duo introduced rounded shapes to make things feel softer and more organic."

"The wife loved color, but had been kind of paralyzed. "We realized she gravitated toward blue, and looked at six or seven" before settling on the super-saturated Newburyport Blue from Benjamin Moore that distinguishes the front room. It was conceived as a moody "jewel box" in contrast to the ethereal paleness of the dining room and kitchen: "We wanted a progression from dark to light, front to back.""

Read at Brownstoner