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The Old Bread Factory

By , Curbed and New York Magazine’s design editor  who covers the city’s most spectacular interiors.

This corner building on a quiet street in Carroll Gardens has witnessed lots of changes since going up as a bakery and bread factory in 1899. In 2016, design trio James Veal, Christine Stucker and Stephan Wiemer of Stewart-Schafer were hired by a young couple to make it into their home. They would live on the top two floors and rent out the bottom two floors, but not before a gut renovation revealed that the building was in need of a secondary internal steel structure to hold it up.

It’s not often that a renovation, even a gut, entails this dramatic a change. A grim staircase has been replaced by a clean floating-steel structure, seen above, and the open kitchen/dining area has been custom-designed by Stewart-Schafer. A chandelier from Workstead hangs overhead. The chairs are by Hans Wegner.

The front of the building, pre-renovation. Photo: Photo: Courtesy of Stewart-Schafer
In spite of the massive restructuring, the designers were able to keep the original brickwork intact. They added a three-story picture window, seen here, at the side of the house behind the trees, a new garage to replace the old one, and three outdoor spaces. Photo: Photo: Courtesy of Stewart-Schafer
The other end of the second floor has a living room with a custom-designed George Smith sectional sofa and a coffee table designed by Henning Norgaard. The chair is by Arne Norell. Photo: Marco Ricca
The master bath on the third floor has a decidedly spalike feel: The wall tiles are by Clé and the floor tiles are Great Britain Tile. The wood stool is from Design Within Reach, the shower fixture is from Brizo, and the planter is from Modernica. Photo: Marco Ricca
Stewart-Schafer designed the custom console with Kohler sinks. Brizo faucets and wall sconces by Aren. Photo: Marco Ricca
The pristine master bedroom on the third floor has a bed and side tables from West Elm and bed linens from Restoration Hardware. The chair is a Stewart-Schafer design. Photo: Marco Ricca
The outdoor patio on the roof offers that rarity in New York, an unobstructed view of the sky, plus the bonus of the beautiful architecture of the neighboring church. “We are so used to working on these ridiculously tight timelines and tight budgets,” Stucker says. “So when someone tells us that they have a half-million-dollar budget, we come in at half-a-million dollars.” And, you can bet, not a day late either. Photo: Marco Ricca

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An Airy, Modern Home in a 19th-Century Bread Factory