SLOW BURN

WITH HELP FROM DESIGNER REMY RENZULLO, JESSICA SAILER TAKES THE PATIENT, EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO OUTFITTING A BROOKLYN TOWN HOUSE FOR HER FAMILY

- TEXT BY DAVID FOXLEY

IN THE PARLOR, A CIRCA 1840 FLORENTINE CHANDELIER HANGS ABOVE A MID-19THCENTURY CALAMANDER WOOD ANGLO-CEYLONESE CENTER TABLE. CUSTOM SOFA IN A CLARENCE HOUSE VELVET WITH CUSHIONS OF SCALAMANDRÉ'S TIGER VELVET; CIRCA 1950 JACQUES ADNET ARMCHAIR IN EDELMAN LEATHER; CIRCA 1940 COFFEE TABLES BY GILBERT POILLERAT; RUGS BY LA MANUFACTURE COGOLIN; WORKS ON PAPER BY ROBERT RYMAN. WALLS HERE AND THROUGHOUT IN BENJAMIN MOORE'S DECORATOR'S WHITE.

WHEN JESSICA SAILER and her husband fell for an 1870s Italianate building on a quiet block in Brooklyn Heights, they were willing to endure a number of attendant concessions.

Given considerable renovation delays, the couple and their three young children went through a series of small rental apartments and, for a period, lived exclusively on the home's top floor. There, meals were cooked on a hot plate in the laundry room while Sailer, a jewelry entrepreneur and former fashion editor, who had a broken ankle at the time, would descend four flights of stairs sitting down.

While the couple originally had a minimalist, Parisian vision in mind after they decided to work with Remy Renzullo—with his own passion for 18th-century houses and layered interiors that look like they've been lived-in for generations—there was a shared leap of faith regarding the project's ultimate direction. The London- and Connecticut-based designer usually avoids relying on visual references, yet in this instance Renzullo felt it might help identify common ground, so he began to pull archival imagery. Whittling away some 70 percent of his research, the trio discovered a shared appreciation for classic architecture and quiet, collected spaces, in the style of Bill Blass, Bruce Budd, Axel Vervoordt, and Rose Tarlow. “This couldn’t be a reflection of how I think a house should look,” Renzullo shares of their process. “It has to be about the client, and their personality has to come through.”