architecture by: Starling Architecture
interior design by: Emily Lindberg Design
contractor: Euro Art Construction
wood surfaces: Madera Surfaces
photography by: Eric Petschek
words by: Dan Howarth
via: Dezeen
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, New York City, USA
This Carroll Gardens townhouse was previously arranged as a two-family house. For a young family that needed more room, Starling Architecture and Emily Lindberg Design did more than connect the units: they rewrote the circulation, inserted a new stair, and used white oak as the thread that keeps five storeys and 3,700 square feet from feeling pieced together.
The second-floor kitchen shows the planning move most clearly. It was relocated from the middle of the plan to the south facade, where it can borrow far more daylight. Pale oak cabinetry and white upper cupboards keep the room light, while gray stone wraps the backsplash, counters, and island in one continuous surface. Just beside it, the dining room turns that same material palette into architecture: a long built-in bench, a rounded walnut table, and oak panels that continue across the ceiling before dropping into a slatted screen in front of the stair.
That screen is doing more than softening the stair edge. It lets the new open-riser stair remain visible while keeping the dining room from being exposed to the full vertical shaft. The same oak flooring and paneling continue through the garden level corridor, mudroom, powder room, office, and wet bar, giving the lower floors a calm consistency even as the light shifts and the spaces become more enclosed.
What keeps the house from turning monochrome is the supporting material and color mix. Lindberg offsets the warm wood with cool blue and gray notes in the living room, while more durable, family-oriented finishes appear at the entry level, including purple slate underfoot and clay brick elsewhere in the palette. The office is lined in cork rather than oak, and the cellar playroom allows brighter color into the scheme without breaking the house's overall restraint.
The most convincing part of the project is its control. Ian Starling told Dezeen that all of the wood was sourced from one Belgian mill and CNC cut to exact dimensions, and that precision shows in the equal veneer widths, flush cabinet faces, and the way each panel aligns with the next. It gives the renovation a disciplined backbone, even in the softer family spaces.
Tags: Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens, New York City, NYC, Townhouse, Renovation, Starling Architecture, Emily Lindberg Design
