LOFT LIVING
THIS SMALL BUT AIRY BROOKLYN APARTMENT IS HOME TO CREATIVE COUPLE JESSICA AND SIMON, AND IS PRETTY MUCH THE URBAN- LIVING DREAM
On summer mornings, we open the windows and can hear the birds singing,” says Jessica Barensfeld of the apartment in Brooklyn she shares with husband, Simon Howell, son, Lakota, and cat, Lexington. “It almost feels like we are in the country not the middle of New York.” This sense of dislocation comes from the lofty position of their home, high above the busy streets of hipster hub Williamsburg. When they wake up in their bedroom eyrie or step out onto the terrace through a window, all they see is rooftops, chimneys and sky. Although the apartment is a peaceful place, coffee bars and vintage shops are on the doorstep, which suits this creative couple just fine.
Jessica, a jewellery designer, works from home, so it was important for her to create a space that wasn’t just congenial but practical, too. Their apartment is basically one big, airy room, which they have compartmentalised using clever carpentry (Simon) and plant placement (Jessica) to suit their way of living. Raised areas at both ends house bedrooms – their own and Lakota’s – and the space beneath each is used resourcefully. One is a small kitchen, and the other is Jessica’s workshop.
BUILDING THE DREAM
Simon, a professional photographer, is also a practical fellow. “He builds most of the things we want,” says Jessica. This includes bookcases, partition walls, their bed, the dining table and matching benches. Other pieces of furniture Jessica describes as ‘hand-me-downs’ from her father, or pieces that have been picked up in local vintage stores and flea markets in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Two elderly but comfortable gold sofas dominate the living area and, combined with a couple of folding chairs, create a convivial space to hang out with friends.
Friends have also created much of the artwork that lines the walls, and which Simon has framed and hung
in groups beneath the windows. Another artist friend sculpted Jessica’s feet in plaster – one of a number of idiosyncratic items in the apartment (others include cups with finger-shaped handles, animal skulls and bell jars filled with curios) and which contribute to what Jessica describes as their ‘hodge-podge’ style.
DESIGNING WITH PLANTS
Any available surface in the apartment houses a plant. Jessica loves them. “I look after the houseplants,” she says, “while Simon tends to the ones on the roof.” They’re lined up along the top of cabinets, trail in tendrils from small tables and cascade in front of windows. Jessica also uses them to define spaces: spiky foliage surrounds the dining area, a curtain of foliage falling from the staircase screens the hallway from the rest of the apartment, and more plants create a leafy partition between workshop, office and living space.
Since the couple moved into the apartment 11 years ago, Jessica’s jewellery business has really taken off, and her designs are now sold in Anthropologie. “I initially trained as an interior designer,” she says, “but I changed direction and became a jewellery designer. I think of jewellery as small, portable sculpture.” In tandem with their other commitments, the couple now run a woolly hat business called Lynn & Lawrence. “It all started when Jessica knitted a hat for me, and then some friends also wanted one,” says Simon. “To begin with, Jessica and my mum did the knitting, but it soon became a business and now a small team of women in Yorkshire [where Simon is from] knit the hats.”
As Jessica and Simon’s life has changed, the apartment has also evolved. The couple have clearly mastered the art of adapting the space to suit wherever their lives take them. One thing has remained constant, however – and that is their appreciation of their lofty home above the happening Williamsburg streets. “We love living here,” says Jessica, “and care about the apartment very much.”