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Guided by intuition, a couple revive a fire-damaged 1899 home with hand-painted murals, a Dolly Parton bathroom, and a decor splurge bought after a winning trip to Atlantic City.
Ellie Deneroff and Alex Frank were in the middle of remodeling their brownstone in Brooklyn, New York, when inspiration struck as they were listening to the podcast Dolly Parton’s America. "We were like, ‘Let’s make a Dolly bathroom,’" says Ellie. "We just wanted the house to feel really fun and comfortable, and not too serious." The Dolly bathroom is now on the parlor floor, with glossy pink tile and two artworks honoring the queen of country.
The home had come a long way since they purchased it in 2021. Alex, a co-owner of a boutique PR firm, and Ellie, a graphic designer, had been renting in Brooklyn for five years when the pandemic hit. They left the city, first to stay with Ellie’s parents, and then to take a road trip across the country with their dog, Bodie. By the time they returned to New York at the end of 2020, many people had moved out of the city. They thought: "Maybe this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actually buy something of our own in New York as opposed to renting." Then, a house popped up in their price range.
The listing stipulated that anyone coming to tour had to bring a contractor with them. "Basically, it was gutted," says Ellie. "There had been a fire, and there was a lot of damage—the entire thing needed to be redone." Alex adds: "The couple that owned the house was in the middle of a divorce. They were trying to sell it quickly, but they had at least started the process of trying to renovate."
Before: Living Room
Before: Ellie Deneroff and Alex Frank bought this four-story 1899 brownstone in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in early 2021. The previous owners were mid-remodel at the time of the sale.
Courtesy of Ellie Deneroff and Alex Frank
After: Living Room
A sectional from Ashley Furniture surrounds a black, solid wood drum coffee table the couple found on Etsy.
Jeremy Cohen and Eli London
Their realtor recommended a contractor, and Ellie and Alex, who were staying with Ellie’s parents three hours away, went to go see the home. Every room was in a different stage of demolition or completion. On the garden floor alone, crumbling plaster was falling off the living room walls, while the kitchen had new cabinets, appliances, and an island waiting to be installed, floating in the middle of the room on a dolly.
"We walked in the house and I was like, this is perfect," says Ellie. "We had never imagined ourselves in a brownstone, and the house just felt so special, even though it was kind of falling apart. We were like, it’d be such a cool opportunity to restore this house and preserve some of these original details that are just so cool and beautiful."
Before: Kitchen
Before: "The kitchen was the most complete," says Ellie—although they swapped out the existing marble counters for more durable quartzite.
Courtesy of Ellie Deneroff and Alex Frank
See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: First-Time Homebuyers Prioritize Fun in a $514K Brooklyn Brownstone Rehab
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Read More
By: Melissa Dalton
Title: Before & After: First-Time Homebuyers Prioritize Fun in a $514K Brooklyn Brownstone Rehab
Sourced From: www.dwell.com/article/before-and-after-ellie-and-alex-brooklyn-brownstone-renovation-6fb1c572
Published Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2025 16:12:11 GMT
