The stretch of historic homes along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade has long fueled curiosity among those passing below, their interiors largely concealed behind sandstone façades. So when Sabrina Gleizer and her husband, Jonathan Keehner, invited designer Raychel Wade of Raychel Wade Design into their prewar apartment eight years ago—initially to update a bathroom, then a kitchen, and eventually much more—it opened the door to a rarely seen world and a one of a kind opportunity for the New York–based designer.
“It’s like a storybook castle,” says the designer. “You arrive at the top floor and it opens into this incredible space you never see in New York.”
The couple’s home occupies the top two floors of a 19th-century Italianate town house once owned by Austin K. Sheldon, a hardware merchant and skilled musician who later became the president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. What was originally a combination of the billiard room and maids’ quarters now resolves into a richly detailed penthouse, with floor-to-ceiling wood paneling, intimate nooks, and layers of intact Gilded Age craftsmanship.
When the couple decided it was time to refresh the rest of the apartment, Gleizer seized the chance to play up the home’s distinct features without sanding down what made it special. “We wanted to embrace this unique historical charm while bringing the space into the modern era,” she says.
That approach centered on the great room, a lofty space where the couple gathers with family and entertains friends. Given its frequent use, the stakes, Wade says, were high. “It’s a big, giant square room with a big, giant fireplace and a bar and this little tower,” she recalls. The challenge, she explains, was figuring out how to make it “sing and still be practical.”
Reconfiguring the room meant embracing its quirks, including a small turret—nicknamed the tower—and a partially enclosed, full-service bar. “It’s really five distinct zones that all need to relate to one another,” Wade notes.
Wade carved out a “conversation corner” beside new glass doors opening onto the balcony, framing sweeping Manhattan views. “There’s no place better for an early cup of coffee or a sunset cocktail,” the couple says. Nearby, a fireplace with a new marble mantel creates another gathering point, while a compact dining nook accommodates meals and intimate dinner parties.
Throughout the renovation, Wade focused on complementing—not competing with—the apartment’s original details, enlisting Berg & Forster Architects to guide the restoration. “We were very sensitive to the bones of the place,” she says. “The history here is tangible, and I wanted to add a new layer rather than erase what was already there.”
That sensibility guided material choices, including the replacement of the floors with white oak herringbone parquet, a pattern typical of prewar interiors. A dark perimeter stripe subtly echoes the room’s hand-carved wood paneling, visually grounding the space. Rather than offset the paneling’s depth, Wade leaned fully into it, furnishing the fireplace area with a Lancaster sofa upholstered in deep blue-gray mohair and a Century ottoman in gray tweed. “I didn’t try to make anything lighter or brighter,” she says. “I just made it dark and sexy.”
Moments of color and playfulness appear elsewhere in the apartment. The circular entryway is lined with a checkered limestone floor and Kelly Ventura Meadow in Cedar wallpaper, its hand-painted botanicals setting a whimsical tone. Upstairs, the roof-level loggia—washed in pink and framed by arched glass doors—offers another dramatic perch for gathering, with panoramic views and space to host indoors and out.
Balancing modern comfort with the apartment’s inherent grandeur required Wade to think carefully about how the home would age—and be lived in. “It looks like a showpiece, but it’s actually durable and comfortable,” she says. “Let the brass darken and the marble wear.”
