Join us, if you will, as we observe a typical Sunday for Amy Globus in her family’s newly renovated Park Slope, Brooklyn, brownstone: Her two lovably rambunctious children wiggle in their seats at the vast kitchen island while her husband, who was once on MasterChef and speaks with a British accent, is pulling freshly baked bread from the oven. Before you collapse into a heap of envy, please know that it wasn’t always like this, of course. In the early years of their marriage, Amy and her husband, Gareth Miles, rented tiny apartments in nearly every neighborhood in the city before buying their first home: a two-bedroom in the building Ansonia Court. It was enough space for the couple, but after a few years and two additions to the family—Hunter, now seven years old, and Bowen, now five—things began to feel cramped. Bowen’s crib was in their kitchen. It was time to go.
Their brownstone, like much of what fills it, was a lucky find fatefully discovered thanks to Amy’s dedication—and constant StreetEasy refreshing. She approached the house hunt and the subsequent renovation the same way she approaches her work as the cofounder and creative director of Team, a strategic branding and design studio: earnestly, with total immersion.
“Amy is obsessive,” says Gareth, who himself works in creative consulting and is the cofounder of his company, the Rise Group. “And that is a big connection between her artwork, her design work for clients, and the house. The contractor said, ‘She's got to stop texting me at 3 a.m.’ When she's passionate about something, she goes incredibly deep into it.”
It seemed too good to be true: a four-story brownstone, two blocks away from Prospect Park and down the street from their daughter Hunter’s school, at a price they could actually afford. And to Gareth’s great delight, it’s in the walking zone for the Park Slope Food Coop, meaning an employee will walk you and your groceries home, then return the cart. If that’s not luxury, what is?
When Amy and Gareth first saw their future home—they were the first to tour it, of course—it was a radically different place. For starters, the kitchen was, inexplicably, on the top floor, and constructed primarily of bamboo. “It wasn’t even IKEA cheap,” says Amy. “It was like...if you pressed your own wood cheap.” The entire house was carpeted, and the staircase was crooked. In what is now their kitchen on the first floor, there was an enormous, ornate wooden fireplace. “It looked like you sacrificed children in it,” says Gareth. They tried to sell the vast and eerie fireplace after being told by their contractor that it was valuable, but nobody wanted to buy it. Other features of the original downstairs space: a green bedroom, a massage table, and an extremely illegal bathroom.
Early on B.B. (before brownstone), Gareth and Amy landed on a concept that guided their renovation and remains foundational to all the life choices they make, big and small. They were considering whether to move out of their apartment or to stay and, like many of their friends, get a second home to escape to on weekends. “We toyed with that,” says Gareth. “But we ended up with this phrase that we agreed on: 'everyday amazing.' We don't want to live for the weekends. We want every day to be great.” And so their home also became their getaway—so much so that when they do go on vacation, they dearly miss their house.
Once the structural changes were made, Amy took the reins. “Once we had the house and we put together our initial plan, there were Dropbox folders full of stimulus,” says Gareth. “How I helped was by staying out of it.” Gareth tried his very best not to think about how much money they were spending, while Amy took a deep dive into the world of interior design.
After years of being confined to smaller spaces, Amy and Gareth are relaxing into their dream home. It’s a place where their kids can—and do—run around, both inside and outside. It’s a place where they can host intimate dinners, like a recent “Power Women’s Dinner” at which Gareth cooked an elaborate meal for 12 powerful women; and also big, wild parties, like their housewarming party two months ago: 120 attendees, a live band, and casefuls of cocktails provided by Wandering Barman, who are clients of Amy’s.
They’ve created a home that’s as sparklingly pretty to look at as it is warm and welcoming to visit, which is a challenging balance to find. But after the balancing act they’ve performed for the last few years—working, building, traveling, raising a family—reaching this particular balance was a breeze.
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Amy’s Advice
What to know when you’re planning for a renovation, from a renovator extraordinaire.
The 3X rule: Expect everything to cost more than you expect. “I think I now know the formula. I think it's times three,” says Amy. “So if you budget $300,000, it's gonna be $900,000. If you budget $100,000, it's going to be $300,000.”
Seek out small businesses: Although the renovation was overall quite expensive, Amy scored a number of deals by finding obscure sources for everything from fireplaces to plants. In pursuit of the perfect fireplace, “I went to a junkyard on Ninth Street,” says Amy. “I was like, 'Where can I get a marble fireplace?'" TL,DR: She's told about a guy and scores a fabulous find in a basement. Similarly, Amy discovered the Dracaena arborea trees—or, as she affectionately calls them, “ugly trees,” in the back of a Chelsea flower shop called King’s. “They're weird and wonderful, and I got them for nothing,” she says.
If you can’t afford it, get creative: Amy found handmade hardware she absolutely loved, but the price tag just for door handles was in the $20,000 range. “I worked with a guy named Dave—he's awesome—at Focal Point Hardware,” she says. “I was like, 'Can you make these handles for me?' and he was like, 'Yeah.' And I designed my handles with him, and it was a fraction of the price.”
