• Home Décor

    New York’s Coolest Cafe: 11 Design Lessons from Dae in Brooklyn

    If you were to peek through the Instagram messages between Julie and myself, you’d find that mostly, lately, we’ve been sending each other posts from @daenewyork: a bow-bedecked pillow, teeny tiny pats of butter in the shape of fish, a gleaming stainless steel counter. Dae is a cafe, design shop, and event space on Smith Street in Brooklyn, the work of Carol Song and Suea Cho, who first met working as buyers at Opening Ceremony. We talked to Carol by phone: “We want to create our whole lives,” she says. “We’ve always been obsessed with Korean cafes, and they’re always…

  • Home Renovation

    One Architect Shows Sustainable Home Renovation Is Possible in Brooklyn

    When Aaron and Anna Schiller began thinking about building a new home in Brooklyn where they could start a family, Mr. Schiller knew he could use his training as an architect to his advantage. It was 2017, and housing prices were already soaring. Mr. Schiller, 39, the founder of the architecture firm Schiller Projects, assumed the couple would buy something “that was relatively unattractive to the rest of the market,” so they could get a good deal. But he had another agenda. “I was seeking an opportunity to do something I couldn’t find a client to do at that point…

  • Home Renovation

    She Opened a Bookshop in Brooklyn, Then Moved In Above the Store

    For Simona Blat, the plan was to move to Europe and open a bookshop. It was early 2021, a global pandemic was still raging, and Williamsburg, her Brooklyn neighborhood of 12 years, felt like it was emptying out. Like a lot of New Yorkers during the pandemic, Ms. Blat was unemployed and seeking clarity on a hazy future. “I was going on these daily walks during the pandemic,” she said, “just to stay sane.” On one of the walks, she noticed a vintage clothing shop on Driggs Avenue had closed. The “For Rent” sign at the entrance somehow caught her…