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The Design Duo Behind Studio DB Restores a Brooklyn Heights Townhouse

The husband-and-wife team brought their taste and style to this family home

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Listing of the Day

Location: Brooklyn, New YorkPrice: $14.15 million

At a recent open house on a warm, breezy Monday night in Brooklyn Heights, Britt Zunino is leading a tour of the palatial townhouse she’s just completed with her husband, Damian, and their joint design firm, Studio DB. But she’s having trouble finishing her sentences, as the guests milling through the house can’t help but stop and gush as they pass by: "Stunning!" "Magnificent!" "Pitch perfect!" "Breathtaking at every level!"

And then the superlatives:

"Super special—super, super, super special!"

"I want you to redo my house, tout de suite!"

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It’s a success story 16 months of construction in the making. When Mr. and Mrs. Zunino bought the 1837 property, it had been configured as a two-family house that needed to be completely gutted. They converted it to its single-family origins, added steel beams to the frame, put in an elevator and relocated (and redesigned) a show-stopping spiral staircase that winds up three floors from the parlor entry. Gazing up from below at this work of art, you feel like you're in a Parisian apartment building—one that’s freshly painted and has more light.

"We started with the staircase, and that centered our vision," Mrs. Zunino said. "The openness of the floor plan all flows from there. With townhouse living, the floors can feel very separate and closed-off... so we tried to open up the feeling of the space between stories."

The staircase’s lines become a sort of motif throughout the house, where everything has been custom-designed by Studio DB: from the curve of one corner of the kitchen cabinets to the circular brass inlays in the marble floor of the entry foyer.

Listening to the remarks of guests who know the couple, it becomes clear that the home’s stunning style is pure Zunino. "They were able to execute their design vision in a pure way because they didn’t have a client to answer to," said listing agent Chris Sheller of the Corcoran Group. Though clearly, any of those present at the open house would have been happy to take on that role.

The Stats

Spanning six stories, the townhouse has six bedrooms, five full bathrooms and one partial bathroom, and totals 6,200 square feet.

Design Pedigree

This is one of two in-house development projects Britt and Damian Zunino have taken on with their company, Studio DB. They started the firm nine years ago and have completed about 100 projects of varying scales and of various types—commercial, residential, development—throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond. The weekend house they designed and built for their own family in Amenia, N.Y., was featured in the New York Times Real Estate section.

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Mr. Zunino, like his father before him, is a trained architect, while Mrs. Zunino leads the design team. She came to the field from the world of fashion and styling.

Amenities

Practicalities first: The house has parking—a rarity in Brooklyn, and even rarer in Brooklyn Heights. The Zuninos added a curb cut with a beautiful motorized carriage door. They also installed an elevator (so discreet it could be taken for a closet door).

Luxuries next: There are four outdoor spaces: the ground-floor garden, parlor-floor balcony, third-floor balcony with hot tub and roof deck.

There's a guest suite with a private bath and kitchenette; a screening room with an enormous storage closet (itself more like a room), a wine room and a study.

Neighborhood Notes

The house is located on one of the quaintest streets in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, which was landmarked nationally and by the City of New York in 1965. Walking through the waterfront neighborhood takes you right back to the 19th century: brownstones, brick and clapboard Federal-style townhouses, elegant pre-war apartment buildings and proper mansions intermingle on the tree-lined streets. Just one subway stop away from Lower Manhattan, the neighborhood also lays claim to the beautiful Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Agent: Chris Sheller, Corcoran Group

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