The best homes are the ones that evolve slowly over time, the kind of spaces where one can point to any object and the owner will have an interesting story about where it was sourced or how it was made. Take Clément and Sara Pascal’s Bushwick apartment. The couple (he’s a photographer; she’s a psychologist) bought the 1,000-square-foot flat in Brooklyn ten years ago—and it took them about that long to get it to where it is now.
Much of the vintage midcentury furniture was found by patiently stalking eBay and Craigslist (including nearly all the iconic Nelson Bubble Lamps), and what they couldn’t track down, Clément made himself (such as the DIY lookalike BDDW Captain’s Mirror hanging in their living room). As for the plentiful storage built-ins, they’re also Clément’s handiwork: “Once I started, I couldn’t stop finding places where I could add storage,” he shares.
Their most recent upgrade: swapping out sliding closet doors in the bedroom for wood-paneled ones. Clément counts it as one his DIY highlights: “It was a very long time coming,” he notes (ten years, to be exact). Ironically, a month later, the couple sold the apartment, now finally in its finished state.
They’ll soon be moving into a new space in Fort Greene and applying the same slow-wins-the-race design philosophy. We asked them to stay in touch and let us know when it will be photo-ready. Clément’s response? “Might take another 10 years.”
Below, he walks us through their Bushwick apartment, the pair’s first labor of love.
Photography by Clément Pascal.
For more Brooklyn apartments we love, see:
- Modern Meets Organic in the Brooklyn Apartment of Delia Kenza’s ‘Bad Ass’ Client
- The Anti-White-Box Development: A World’s Apart Brooklyn Townhouse Reinvention
- A Rising-Star Architect Casts Her Own Brooklyn Townhouse in Pinks, Greens, and Grays
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