Ever since the fashion designer Rebecca Taylor watched Cher in Moonstruck, she has always wanted to live in a brownstone. These tall, 19th-century houses made, quite literally, from brown stone – a Triassic-Jurassic sandstone – are highly coveted family homes in Manhattan, Harlem and Brooklyn.
“They’re desirable because there’s a limited number of them,” Taylor explains. “They often have the original detailing intact, and they usually have a strip of garden at the back, which makes urban dwelling that much more pleasant.” Those looking for a (relative) bargain might consider Bedford-Stuyvesant, an up-and-coming neighbourhood in Brooklyn, where you can still pick one up for around $2 million.
Taylor, who was brought up in Wellington, New Zealand, realised her dream ten years ago when she moved into her house in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her Texan husband, the artist Wayne Pate, their eight-year-old twin girls, Zoe and Isabel, and six-year-old son, Charlie.
The five-bedroom house is arranged over four floors. Structurally, there was little to be done when they moved in, aside from painting all the woodwork white. “People were horrified when we changed the original woodwork, but it had been varnished and lacquered a strange, slightly orange shade,” recalls Taylor. “Odd, because the couple who lived here before us were designers in their nineties, who had filled it with beautiful mid-century Danish furniture.”
The result is a light and airy space, which is important because, as Taylor points out, “Brownstones can feel a little narrow and confining.” It is the perfect backdrop for Taylor to indulge in an aesthetic based on all things Bloomsbury and William Morris. “I love Downton Abbey, but it’s the downstairs, the servant quarters, I am inspired by, rather than the posh house. I have the sort of geometric tiles you’d have found in their kitchens. I love Farrow & Ball colours and the Plain English-style kitchen units, with marble worktops.”
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Both Pate and Taylor are passionate about interiors, enjoying friendly bickering over what to add. “We have hundreds of World of Interiors magazines. It’s a bit of an obsession of my husband’s to sketch a page from one every day.”
Pate is responsible for adding detail to the house. Much of his foraging comes from vintage websites such as One Kings Lane. Fortunately, the couple agree on the artwork dotted around their house. Aside from Pate’s sketches and paintings, they have bought pictures from interiors shop John Derian and from trips to Paris, where Taylor will look for 18th-century paintings of animals.
“We would love to be serious art collectors, but we’re raising three children in Brooklyn. Otherwise, I’d be snapping up Elizabeth Peytons. I don’t think you should buy for investment, only things you love,” says Taylor.
Her most treasured item of furniture is the leopard blanket box that lives in their sitting room. “It is sentimental, because we’ve had it since the children were born. They would play inside it when they were very young.”
An elegant mix of vintage and Liberty prints punctuates the pared-back decor of her home, on bed quilts, sofas and cushion covers. These prints crop up in her ready-to-wear collection. Ultimately, she thinks the house is very classic. “I can’t help it. I’ve got my parents’ voices in my head, saying, ‘Don’t do anything that might spoil the resale value.’ ”