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\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography<\/p>\n
Compelling interiors, like good storytelling, hinge on collaboration, between character and setting, instinct and intention. Broadway actress Barrett Wilbert Weed\u2019s Brooklyn Heights<\/a> 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<\/a>, the previous owners had stripped away nearly all of its period detail, leaving it practically begging for restoration.<\/p>\n Weed was inclined to listen. \u201cHouses definitely speak to you,\u201d she says, adding: \u201cIn old homes, there\u2019s always going to be a ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n Raised in a centuries-old house in Cambridge, Massachusetts,<\/a> Barrett Wilbert Weed grew up surrounded by antiques and a \u201cwhole pack of ladies\u201d\u2014a tight circle of women she came to think of as aunts, who had, as she puts it, \u201ca very strong sense of decor.\u201d Visits to one aunt\u2019s haunted Rhode Island Victorian only deepened her appreciation for the era and her respect for the spectral.<\/p>\n In Brooklyn, that sensibility found its footing. Weed imagines the home\u2019s spirit as a 19th-century woman in a long dress\u2014and 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. \u201cIf there is a ghost living in the apartment,\u201d she says, \u201cI\u2019m going to venture to guess she\u2019s been very upset about that design choice for a very long time, and would like her old fireplace back.\u201d<\/p>\n Weed enlisted AD PRO Directory<\/a> member Molly Torres Portnof of Date Interiors<\/a>, who had designed both her previous Hell\u2019s Kitchen apartment and her Mean Girls Broadway dressing room. Together, they set out to highlight the home\u2019s standout features\u2014the dreamy bay window, the backyard, the working fireplace\u2014while gutting the rest and reimagining the interiors as a brighter, hyperfeminine take on what a Victorian-era home might have been. A Louis XV\u2013style 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. \u201cI wanted her apartment to feel like it had been this way for generations, but that newer things were layered on over time,\u201d the designer explains.<\/p>\n Just as Weed\u2019s upbringing is stylistically reflected, so too is her career: You can take the self-proclaimed \u201cBroadway girlie\u201d 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\u2014perhaps drawn from the many hours Weed has spent in New York\u2019s 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\u2014the kind of arched frame that separates the stage from the audience.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s one more character in the cast. \u201cI grew up with the Samantha American Girl doll,\u201d says Weed. \u201cAnd I do think, weirdly, I just built her an apartment.\u201d The reference feels apt: The beloved doll, introduced in 1986 with a Victorian-era backstory, offers a through line between Weed\u2019s own sensibility\u2014playful, romantic\u2014and that of her imagined resident ghost. \u201cWhen you walk into this space, it feels like what a kid envisions adult life to be,\u201d says Portnof.<\/p>\n But does it satisfy Weed\u2019s phantom roommate? \u201cI do feel a sense that whoever is here with me is pleased,\u201d she concludes. \u201cI lose stuff in the apartment all the time. Sometimes I’ll say, \u2018Can you help me find this, please?\u2019 And things have magically appeared in places where I definitely know I did not put them. She’s a happy ghost, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c08eea6109c36cfd250e96dd4aff29bc.jpeg\"\/)
A vintage-inspired Ilve range and the toile fabric panels from Stout Textiles<\/a> on the cabinets add a touch of navy to the white kitchen. Zellige tiles by Zia Tile<\/a> line the backsplash, offset by unlacquered brass fixtures, including Rejuvenation<\/a> hardware, House of Antique Hardware<\/a> brackets, and a deVOL<\/a> sink tap and pot filler. \u201cWe 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,\u201d says Weed.\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/52af3c6a3bba13b083c018e6b6da0f26.jpeg\"\/)
In both the living room and kitchen, the walls were plastered a creamy white hue by Michelle Kole<\/a>. A martini table topped with a skirt, custom-made by Carey Trudeau<\/a> in Schumacher<\/a>\u2019s Barlow print, sits between two Arhaus<\/a> armchairs. To the right, an Arhaus chest is topped with an antique lamp and a vintage Staffordshire dog figurine from Painted Swan<\/a>.\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7980b37d6d02836fce8e7888f209b0b7.jpeg\"\/)
In the bathroom, a vintage vanity repurposed as a sink gives the room what Weed calls \u201ca little dollhouse\u201d quality. Pink-and-cream floral wallpaper from Stout Textiles<\/a> carries through to Nemo Tile<\/a> walls, Zia Tile<\/a> trim, and a mosaic tile floor in a softly coordinated palette.\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/101ea896baa95ab24ca6915d6a88010b.jpeg\"\/)
An arched opening frames a shower with House of Rohl<\/a> fittings, where a velvet curtain from Stout Textiles<\/a>\u2014\u201cridiculous in the best way,\u201d Portnof says\u2014adds a note of drama. \u201cI wanted the space to feel like Barrett, and all of the iterations of her, and all the different facets of her brain.\u201d\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7e0a1fb08af37490c18f86752be42cf9.jpeg\"\/)
The pattern-drenched bedroom is a jewel box, centered on a king-size Arhaus<\/a> bed dressed in a Nickey Kehoe<\/a> coverlet and shams, plus an ABC Carpet & Home<\/a> quilt\u2014and not much else. \u201cBecause it is so tiny, we were like, \u2018Let\u2019s just fill up the space,\u2019\u201d says Weed. Coordonn\u00e9<\/a> wallpaper and matching drapes, printed with painterly branches dotted with birds, envelop the room. \u201cIt\u2019s such a serotonin boost to go to sleep in a little viney bird nest,\u201d she adds. A vintage flamingo wall sconce from Etsy<\/a>\u2014one of the first pieces sourced for the apartment\u2014hangs beside the French door to the backyard.\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b7dfa93f4af0985a692294decf71227b.jpeg\"\/)
\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c1dd932e40c7639f7ecb6b4c9ee67a02.jpeg\"\/)
The backyard, landscaped by Outside Space NYC<\/a>, is set up for entertaining with Arhaus<\/a> furniture and regularly hosts gatherings. \u201cAt least three or four of my friends have spare keys and tend to let themselves in when they know I’m home,\u201d Weed says. \u201cIt’s the Sesame Street vibe that I think we all come to crave in New York.\u201d One party even took on a Grey Gardens theme, perfectly in keeping with her vision. She plans to add \u201ccrumbly\u201d antique mirrors, \u201cSecret Garden\u2013style,\u201d to make the wisteria-draped yard feel more layered and lived-in.\u00a9 Kirsten Francis Photography<\/p>\n