Down to the studs
BARRY BORDELON & JORDAN SLOCUM • The Brownstone Boys
WORK • Tuesday Routine
BARRY BORDELON & JORDAN SLOCUM • co-founders & designers • The Brownstone Boys
Neighborhood you work in: Brooklyn, mostly Bed-Stuy, Park Slope, and Fort Greene (we’re always biking between brownstones)
Neighborhood you live in: Bed-Stuy
It’s Tuesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Tuesday mornings usually start at our dining table, which currently doubles as Brownstone Boys HQ (new office space loading 2026, amen!). There’s a big iced coffee from Milk & Pull, a stack of floorplans, and one of us fielding texts from contractors while the other tries to wrangle our project board on Materio.com.
Then we’re out the door, usually to a job site in Bed-Stuy, or a sourcing run through the city. Nothing beats starting the day inside a brownstone where 140 years of history are being uncovered, sometimes literally, as we strip original woodwork and reveal it from under layers of paint.
What’s on the agenda for today?
We’re deep in a few gut renovations right now, including a five-story brownstone with a literary past and a dreamy moody-lounge living room redesign we’re finishing for a client. We’re also sketching ideas for a new project in Prospect Lefferts Gardens launching next month.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Always. This week we’re keeping it local:
Saraghina for pizza (the Coppa e Carciofi pie is religion)
Corto for quick focaccia
Olmo for a cozy weeknight dinner
We’ll never say no to a weekend bagel run to Nagle’s Bagels
We still can’t get a reservation at Sailor :(
For date night: L’Antagoniste in Bed-Stuy, our forever favorite French spot.
How about a little leisure or culture this week?
We try to sneak in a little culture between site visits:
A stop into the Brooklyn Museum to see whatever exhibition is turning everyone’s head
Catching live jazz at Bar LunÀtico — truly one of the best nights out in Bed-Stuy
A stroll through Fort Greene Park when we need a break from drywall dust
If it’s Sunday, you’ll find us running in Prospect Park, shopping Atlantic Ave. for vintage hardware and inspiring design stores, or stopping by Old Iron Architecture in the parking lot of the Lowes by the Gowanus to see what we can find.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
Christopher Merchant Ceramics. We can’t get enough of his work. We recently bought a ceramic lamp and a large fruit bowl, and now we want three tables we can’t stop thinking about.
What NYC store or service do you love to recommend?
Michelle Varian for curated home goods with soul. She’s queen!
A session with a color consultant at Farrow & Ball. Hear us out: Paint can drastically change a space without costing a lot of money. A color consultant will come to your house, assess your style and the light in the home and pair colors you never thought of together. It drastically changed our home.
Our lives were also recently changed by hiring a professional organizer to come and organize our kitchen drawers & closets! We love you @homewitharla!
Olde Good Things in Midtown West. Architectural salvage heaven.
Where are you donating your time or money?
The Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger makes an incredible local impact. And The Ali Forney Center, supporting LGBTQ+ youth. Also, Akwaaba in Bed-Stuy. We recently met the owner and toured the historic mansion. Her bed and breakfast is such a special place, and we can’t recommend it enough.