Ready for Sweetening: Fort Greene Apartment

Here’s a space that needs some sweetening.

This one bedroom prewar apartment is on Clinton Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The building is located brilliantly, on a lovely residential block close to the subway station, shops and restaurants. The apartment is on the second floor and faces a quiet rear courtyard, with three large windows that let in lots of light.

The apartment has been unoccupied for many years and looks as if it hasn’t been remodeled in about forty years. It has its original wood floors, crown and base moldings, and window trim, although they’re in poor condition. The building has masonry walls and a hot water heating system with cast iron radiators. The original wood windows have been replaced with insulated aluminum windows.

The bathroom is roomy but has an awkward layout. The fixtures, wall tile, and floor tile all need to be replaced, and there’s a gaping hole in the ceiling.

The apartment has no real kitchen, just a freestanding stove and sink near the entry. The plastic laminate cabinets are in bad shape and there are no counters. The refrigerator is currently in the living room.

It would be easy to look at this apartment and turn away. The floors, walls and ceilings all need to be repaired and refinished. It has no closets or built in cabinets. The small side windows look out onto light wells.

But a closer look at the plan reveals that it’s actually quite wide, 14 feet, which allows for some flexibility in the layout. It would be possible to reconfigure the kitchen and bathroom so that they’re more accommodating and more functional. The windows at the rear of the apartment are quite large. They bring in a lot of light and overlook a quiet space. The entire layout could be opened up to bring more light from the back windows into the center of the apartment.

This apartment is in a great location and has a generous footprint. It would benefit a great deal from just a little bit of sweetening!