This Broadway Actress's Brooklyn Brownstone Has All the Charm of a Nora Ephron Movie – With a 'Quirky Victorian' Twist

Set on a picturesque, tree-lined street just steps from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, this 1,100-square-foot parlor-floor home had all the ingredients of a classic New York interior – including the quintessential bay window that first caught Broadway actress Barrett Wilbert Weed's eye. What it didn't have was much of its original character. The previous owners had stripped away many of the details that once gave the 125-year-old property its identity, from plaster ceiling medallions to its marble fireplace mantel – 'a crime,' says designer Molly Torres Portnof of DATE Interiors, who was tasked with bringing back the grandeur to the apartment while keeping it fun and feminine.

'My biggest goal with this project was to honor the property's gorgeous bones and over 100-year-long history,' she says of her part-restoration, part-renovation mission. What lies beneath soaring ceilings, arches, and antique details is a 'love letter to Barrett', bursting with blush pink, Broadway memorabilia, and all the charm of a Nora Ephron movie.

Molly's biggest task was to make sure the interiors had a suitably charming supporting role to the whimsical surroundings. Rather than attempt a lavish recreation of what the house might have looked like in 1900, she took its traditional architecture as a starting point, restoring its sense of former glory, while giving it plenty of room for a more modern, playful personality. 'The location was a huge inspiration,' she says. 'I wanted to bottle up some of that charm for the apartment.' That meant looking beyond simply putting back what had been lost. Architectural details were restored and reimagined, while arches were introduced as a recurring motif, giving the apartment a sense of rhythm from room to room. The aim was to make the new additions feel as though they belonged, rather than creating a pastiche of period details. 'Proportion, scale, architectural detailing, ornamentation, pattern and color were all carefully considered and celebrated throughout the space,' she explains.

The bay window was absolutely the star of the show. A hallmark of Brooklyn brownstones, its generous proportions became something of a 'guiding light' for the scheme. 'I wanted to design a home worthy of that iconic, grand bay window,' she adds. And so the architecture was treated with the reverence it deserved, but never allowed to dictate the mood entirely. But restoring the bones of the home was only half of the challenge. At just 1,100 square feet, every inch of the apartment had to work harder, too.

The original layout wasn't exactly doing the proportions of the apartment justice. The original kitchen was boxed in beneath an eight-foot drop ceiling, while an awkward lofted bed had eaten into the bedroom and closet space. So Molly went back to the drawing board, completely gutting the apartment and rethinking how each room could work harder. 'Opening up the existing ceilings and restoring the kitchen and bathroom to their original ceiling heights was crucial,' she explains. In the kitchen, that meant reclaiming the full 12 ft 8 in height, removing the dividing walls and extending the footprint, while an arched opening now connects it to the living room. 'It allowed us to build up,' says Molly, creating a wall of millwork that conceals the washer/dryer and delivers a level of storage you wouldn't expect to find in such a compact city apartment.

She also managed to turn a collection of compromises into some of its most useful features. The bathroom was enlarged and reconfigured to make room for significantly more storage and a spacious walk-in shower, while the bedroom and closet were reshaped around what Barrett actually needed – including a king-size bed and space for an extensive wardrobe and shoe collection. There was even room for the big-ticket items: a 48-inch Italian range cooker, a generous kitchen island, central AC, and heated tiled floors. The aim, though, wasn't simply to squeeze more into less. Barrett wanted the apartment to feel 'open, warm and inviting' – 'a gathering space and creative haven' – and that sense of ease became just as important as the square footage itself. 'It was important that nothing felt too precious or serious. She envisioned dinner parties in the backyard, friends crowded around the kitchen island, and long evenings spent in front of a crackling fire in the original working fireplace,' Molly adds.

As for how she would describe the finished look? Molly is wary of overusing typical interior design style language. 'While "traditional with a twist" feels a bit overused and twee, I do think that’s what the overall style of the home is,' she says. '"Quirky Victorian" also works!'. This was the third time Molly and Barrett had worked together, after transforming the actress's New York studio apartment and her Mean Girls Broadway dressing room, and by now they have developed something approaching their own design shorthand. 'We've known each other for almost a decade, so our client-designer relationship morphed into more of a friendship over the years,' says Molly, who already knew her client's aesthetic inside and out.

That familiarity gave her permission to push things a little further. Barrett, she says, is 'so trusting of the design process and all of the middle-of-the-night ideas I come up with,' while her creativity meant Molly could 'toe the line between restraint and full tilt.' For example, the toile fabric, used in the bay window and the kitchen, came from Barrett casually mentioning a toile bench cushion she'd liked in a neighborhood coffee shop. 'From our history, I know she's into burl wood and chinoiserie, so they informed the bedroom design,' Molly adds, while a very particular shade of pink spotted in a European hotel bathroom eventually found its way into the closet.

The result is a home that feels less decorated for Barrett than from her. Family heirlooms, old photographs and Broadway playbills sit alongside the more unexpected details, including the living room's 'Wall of Weed Women' – portraits of Barrett's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, joined by a photograph of her dog, Lorelei. In the bathroom, framed playbills nod to the plays Barrett and her friends have performed in. 'The entire apartment is essentially a love letter to Barrett, curating all of the beautiful, quirky things she loves,' says Molly.

There is a thread of softness running through it all, too. Blush pinks appear throughout the apartment, creating cohesion, while chocolate brown, maroon, olive and royal blue add depth and keep the color scheme from becoming too sweet. In the kitchen and living room, creamy plaster walls provide a quieter backdrop for blue toile; elsewhere, Molly lets pattern take center stage. 'Neither of us shy away from pattern play,' she says. 'So we layered as much pattern as we could handle throughout the apartment.' It is a fitting approach for a home that was never intended to feel too serious.

'The living room feels like the heart of the home,' says Molly, and it's easy to see why: the restored architecture provides the drama, while a much more eclectic mix of furnishings and art keeps it feeling relaxed and lived-in. The bay window is mirrored by a new arch, with a built-in window seat adding softness beneath the soaring ceiling, while the antique Louis XV-style green onyx fireplace mantel brings a wonderfully theatrical note alongside a vintage mirror and crystal chandelier. 'Though tight on space, we were able to add a luxe chocolate brown velvet sofa, lounge chairs and bistro table for a true living/dining experience,' she explains. Pattern does plenty of the talking, too, from the blue toile carried through from the kitchen to the rich upholstered armchairs and pillows, while family portraits and memorabilia make the room feel unmistakably Barrett's. It is polished, certainly, but never precious.

With the structural work doing its job in the background, the kitchen is awash with small yet special details. 'The kitchen is the most stunning transformation I've ever pulled off,' Molly says. Its appeal lies in the balance of practicality and the decorative flourish Barrett hoped for. Inset cabinetry and unlacquered brass hardware give the room a timeless quality, while the combination of butcher block countertops and a marble-topped island keeps the materials feeling warm rather than overly polished. Zellige tiles bring irregular texture to the backsplash, echoed by the blue toile fabric tucked behind some of the cabinet doors – a tiny detail that feels unexpected yet oh-so charming. Above the blue range, meanwhile, the arched plaster hood is both an architectural focal point and storage solution, and clearly a labor of love. 'I can't overstate how many different trades (and brains) were involved in crafting the arched plaster range hood with built-in storage,' says Molly. 'Personally, it caused many sleepless nights and an existential crisis or two!'

The bedroom was always intended to be the apartment's jewel box: a cocooning retreat where pattern could be turned up. 'A pattern-drenched, yet calming space where Barrett felt completely removed from bustling city life,' was the brief, with the original brick partition between the bedroom and closet restored as a feature. Against it, Molly layered a soft, chinoiserie wallpaper, a sculptural upholstered headboard and a mix of blush, cream and warm terracotta tones, creating a room that feels rich without becoming overwhelming. The adjoining walk-in closet is every bit as fun, with floor-to-ceiling blush millwork designed to accommodate Barrett's 'extensive shoe, handbag and clothes collections.' It is practical, certainly, but with the display-like quality of a dressing room – a fitting detail for a Broadway performer – and a continuation of the home's balance between pretty and practical.

The bathroom was fully reconfigured to give it more room, creating a generous arched walk-in shower and considerably more storage, but it is the decorative details that make it memorable. An antique dresser has been transformed into the sink vanity, its deep wood and black marble top bringing an elegant, furniture-like quality to the room. A mix of zellige, subway and penny tiles adds texture and tone, while the deep burgundy velvet curtain gives it a decidedly theatrical twist. One of her favorite details is a small wall niche above the sink, which she points out can be just as useful as the more familiar shower variety: 'Shower niches get a lot of attention, but wall niches above a sink are also great for everyday products.'

The backyard might be the most dramatic before-and-after of all. What Molly and the team had to work with was, in her words, something out of Jumanji. What they created instead is now a secluded little escape that feels worlds away from the city beyond the brownstone. Bluestone pavers now create a generous terrace for outdoor dining and lounging, surrounded by layered planting that gives the garden its cocooning quality. The furniture keeps things relaxed and inviting, with a large dining table ready for the dinner parties Barrett had imagined and a more informal seating area for lingering afterwards. Even Lorelei, Barrett's dog, was part of the brief, with the backyard fenced in to make it properly dog-friendly.

For all its grandeur, playful pattern and clever details, what makes the apartment work is that it never feels as though it could belong to just anyone. 'Designing spaces that are the outward reflection of my clients’ personalities and tastes is always a priority,' says Molly. 'The biggest compliment any client can give me is to say, "this feels like me".' Looking around this wonderfully eccentric, warm and character-filled brownstone, it seems safe to say that this one does.

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