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© Kirsten Francis Photography
Compelling interiors, like good storytelling, hinge on collaboration, between character and setting, instinct and intention. Broadway actress Barrett Wilbert Weed’s Brooklyn Heights home feels particularly alive, like a movie in which the setting is itself a character. When she bought the parlor-floor apartment in a circa 1900 brownstone, the previous owners had stripped away nearly all of its period detail, leaving it practically begging for restoration.
Weed was inclined to listen. “Houses definitely speak to you,” she says, adding: “In old homes, there’s always going to be a ghost.”
A vintage-inspired Ilve range and the toile fabric panels from Stout Textiles on the cabinets add a touch of navy to the white kitchen. Zellige tiles by Zia Tile line the backsplash, offset by unlacquered brass fixtures, including Rejuvenation hardware, House of Antique Hardware brackets, and a deVOL sink tap and pot filler. “We tried to stick to unlacquered brass for as many of the fixtures as possible, so that it would start to patina and look a little crumbly over time,” says Weed.© Kirsten Francis Photography
Raised in a centuries-old house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Barrett Wilbert Weed grew up surrounded by antiques and a “whole pack of ladies”—a tight circle of women she came to think of as aunts, who had, as she puts it, “a very strong sense of decor.” Visits to one aunt’s haunted Rhode Island Victorian only deepened her appreciation for the era and her respect for the spectral.
In Brooklyn, that sensibility found its footing. Weed imagines the home’s spirit as a 19th-century woman in a long dress—and not a particularly happy one. Midcentury renovations left the 1,100-square-foot apartment diminished: a claustrophobic drop ceiling, a lofted bed, and a nondescript brick fireplace in place of what was once a grand marble mantel. “If there is a ghost living in the apartment,” she says, “I’m going to venture to guess she’s been very upset about that design choice for a very long time, and would like her old fireplace back.”
In both the living room and kitchen, the walls were plastered a creamy white hue by Michelle Kole. A martini table topped with a skirt, custom-made by Carey Trudeau in Schumacher’s Barlow print, sits between two Arhaus armchairs. To the right, an Arhaus chest is topped with an antique lamp and a vintage Staffordshire dog figurine from Painted Swan.© Kirsten Francis Photography
Weed enlisted AD PRO Directory member Molly Torres Portnof of Date Interiors, who had designed both her previous Hell’s Kitchen apartment and her Mean Girls Broadway dressing room. Together, they set out to highlight the home’s standout features—the dreamy bay window, the backyard, the working fireplace—while gutting the rest and reimagining the interiors as a brighter, hyperfeminine take on what a Victorian-era home might have been. A Louis XV–style onyx mantel, delightfully paired with a pink marble hearth, now anchors the living room. Elaborate, period-appropriate moldings and medallions were reinstated on the 12-foot-tall ceilings, and upholstered furnishings mingle with antiques, contemporary finds, and family heirlooms. “I wanted her apartment to feel like it had been this way for generations, but that newer things were layered on over time,” the designer explains.
In the bathroom, a vintage vanity repurposed as a sink gives the room what Weed calls “a little dollhouse” quality. Pink-and-cream floral wallpaper from Stout Textiles carries through to Nemo Tile walls, Zia Tile trim, and a mosaic tile floor in a softly coordinated palette.© Kirsten Francis Photography
Just as Weed’s upbringing is stylistically reflected, so too is her career: You can take the self-proclaimed “Broadway girlie” out of Midtown, but a flair for the theatrical will always remain. A collection of framed Playbills hangs in the bathroom, and a promotional photo from her starring role in the Off Broadway run of Heathers provides a jolt of sky blue to the living room. Aside from those direct references, a quieter sense of grandeur prevails—perhaps drawn from the many hours Weed has spent in New York’s historic, gilded theaters. Decadent pattern-drenching defines the bedroom and bathroom, where an arched shower entry frames a burgundy velvet curtain. After the bathroom was complete, Weed and Portnof realized they had essentially created a proscenium—the kind of arched frame that separates the stage from the audience.
An arched opening frames a shower with House of Rohl fittings, where a velvet curtain from Stout Textiles—“ridiculous in the best way,” Portnof says—adds a note of drama. “I wanted the space to feel like Barrett, and all of the iterations of her, and all the different facets of her brain.”© Kirsten Francis Photography
And then there’s one more character in the cast. “I grew up with the Samantha American Girl doll,” says Weed. “And I do think, weirdly, I just built her an apartment.” The reference feels apt: The beloved doll, introduced in 1986 with a Victorian-era backstory, offers a through line between Weed’s own sensibility—playful, romantic—and that of her imagined resident ghost. “When you walk into this space, it feels like what a kid envisions adult life to be,” says Portnof.
But does it satisfy Weed’s phantom roommate? “I do feel a sense that whoever is here with me is pleased,” she concludes. “I lose stuff in the apartment all the time. Sometimes I’ll say, ‘Can you help me find this, please?’ And things have magically appeared in places where I definitely know I did not put them. She’s a happy ghost, for sure.”
The pattern-drenched bedroom is a jewel box, centered on a king-size Arhaus bed dressed in a Nickey Kehoe coverlet and shams, plus an ABC Carpet & Home quilt—and not much else. “Because it is so tiny, we were like, ‘Let’s just fill up the space,’” says Weed. Coordonné wallpaper and matching drapes, printed with painterly branches dotted with birds, envelop the room. “It’s such a serotonin boost to go to sleep in a little viney bird nest,” she adds. A vintage flamingo wall sconce from Etsy—one of the first pieces sourced for the apartment—hangs beside the French door to the backyard.© Kirsten Francis Photography
© Kirsten Francis Photography
The backyard, landscaped by Outside Space NYC, is set up for entertaining with Arhaus furniture and regularly hosts gatherings. “At least three or four of my friends have spare keys and tend to let themselves in when they know I’m home,” Weed says. “It’s the Sesame Street vibe that I think we all come to crave in New York.” One party even took on a Grey Gardens theme, perfectly in keeping with her vision. She plans to add “crumbly” antique mirrors, “Secret Garden–style,” to make the wisteria-draped yard feel more layered and lived-in.© Kirsten Francis Photography
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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