Philadelphia-native and graphic designer Sean Tice came to Brooklyn in 2007 to work as a Web Producer for CBS Interactive, where he met Kristy Hadeka, a then fashion student at Parsons The New School Design. Kristy grew up in Vermont just a mile from her family’s slate quarry, one that has been in operation since 1897. In the spring of 2009, the couple paid a visit to the quarry upstate and left with a handful of slate pieces for their home — to use as trivets for tea kettles and hot dishes and as coasters for beers. They eventually began gifting pieces to friends and the response was so overwhelmingly positive that the two struck out to produce a line of slate products. Complete with a company mascot, their English Labrador Retriever, Garp, Brooklyn Slate Company was born.
At the time of the company’s inception, Sean and Kristy were living in South Slope, but feeling a gravitational pull to Red Hook, especially given that it was walking distance to their workshop. “I was immediately enamored with the neighborhood,” Sean says, “I really enjoy the proximity to the water and this feeling that you’re ‘cut off’ from the rest of the city while still being very close.” After apartment-hunting for a while, they stumbled across this one-bedroom gem that also offered a full basement and backyard — perfect for Garp! They were immediately sold on the apartment’s old hardwood floors, tin ceilings, oversized windows, and opportunity for customization. But it was a challenge looking past the walls, which were all painted brown or yellow; one in particular was even covered in a huge decal of an apple tree! “It took us about three days to clean the walls and paint [them white]…” they laugh, “and I learned that one brown coat takes at least three white coats to completely hide it.”
While the property has a huge basement, the apartment itself has no closets. But ever the creative opportunists, Sean and Kristy saw this as a chance to customize the home to make it perfect for them. They rolled up their sleeves, and within a few days, they had built-in shelving everywhere — both in the kitchen in lieu of cabinets, and in the dining room area— and had custom-made a lot of their own furniture, from their floating media consoles to their birch ply dining table. Like the apartment’s dwellers enjoy finding new uses for existing items, Sean and Kristy’s home oozes with form, function and fun. –Sabrina
Photography by Brooklyn Slate Company and Valery Rizzo
via Design*Sponge http://ift.tt/1PYdFAB From Sabrina Smelko
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