A Mid-Pandemic Move to a Onetime YMCA in Hudson

The Kitchen: Their new eat-in kitchen is now on the first floor between the living room and den, where marble counters and backsplash complement soft pink walls and Fornasetti plates. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

“It definitely took some convincing to get this place,” remembers Nicole Fisher of this 1882 brick rowhouse in Hudson, which she and her very reluctant husband, Lee, bought last year. “In the ’50s it was a YMCA,” and later, the ground floor had been turned into a retail space; the kitchen when they bought the building was on the third floor. “For someone like my husband, it was very hard to see past those kinds of things, but I knew it was going to be beautiful once we were able to strip down the excess.”

Many city people experimented with full-time country life during the pandemic, only to find it not quite for them. At first, Fisher, her husband, and son Sebastian retreated to their farmhouse in Chatham, NY. But Fisher felt the rural isolation and wanted more of a community, with restaurants and places to walk. This place, in Hudson, seemed like a step back toward, if not city, then town life.

Fisher started working with Lady Gaga’s stylist, Nicola Formichetti, while enrolled in a graduate program at Parsons. But she left fashion for interior design after redoing her parents’ house in New Rochelle. “It was very similar to this house,” she notes. “Beautiful bones, needed a fresh eye and a lot of work.” That project led to a job at One King’s Lane, where Fisher worked on celebrity makeovers with Lucy Liu and Bobbi Brown, which in turn led to doing work on  Brown’s hotel in Montclair, New Jersey, The George.

And this left Fisher prepared for the Hudson house, which “lost many interesting things that we found during construction,” she says of past renovations, which had hidden the working pocket doors, beautiful millwork, tin ceilings, and an original Thomas Crapper toilet.

And now that it’s done, her husband is a believer. “It was the Brooklyn lifestyle we always wanted,” Fisher says, “without the crowded streets and the inflated prices, all in my dream brownstone.”

Dining Room: Fisher sets the table she found at Regan & Smith Antiques. New globes were added to the original chandelier. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Den: The vintage-looking wall covering is from Gucci Home; the custom sectional is by Kim Salmela; and the rug is from Wayfair. The chandelier is original. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Living Room: The walls are covered with wallpaper from Lee Jofa. There is a daybed from CB2 and a sofa from Regina Andrew. The tin ceiling is original. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Powder Room: “Only the sink/faucet is original,” Fisher notes. “I swapped out the marble tile floor to look original and swapped out the toilet-paper holder for a vintage one I found.” Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Guest Bathroom: “That is an original Thomas Crapper toilet,” Fisher says of the pull-chain commode sitting on its original marble base. “We ripped everything out of that bathroom except for that toilet; I did not even want to attempt to mess with that plumbing, so that stayed exactly where it was.” Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Master Bedroom: The bed from CB2 sits within the bay window beneath an original chandelier. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Master Bathroom: Keeping it vintage modern, it has a mix of wallpaper from Cole & Son, black subway tile, a vanity from Signature Hardware, and fixtures from Rohl. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production

Sebastian’s bedroom: The two year old gets to live in a dinosaur forest with wallpaper from House of Hackney surrounding his bed from West Elm. Photo: Helena Palazzi/Yellowhouse Production