Before & After: A Boerum Hill Loft Gets Un-Podded

Back in 2008, when Ainsley Ryan and Chris Showalter bought a fixer-upper loft in a former Ex-Lax factory in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood, they commissioned an architect to design something a little unusual — an OSB-clad ‘pod’ containing a master bedroom, a bathroom, and a little nook for their infant daughter. 

A few years later, the couple realized that the pod, while still unusual and fun, was no longer meeting their family’s needs, and made the decision to jettison it in favor of a more traditional layout. 

Enter Brooklyn-based contractor Allied Arborcraft, who the homeowners found through The Sweeten, an online resource that connects New York-area homeowners with architects, designers and contractors. Ainsley and Chris were looking for a contractor to complete an architect-designed overhaul of the space which would involve removing the pod and adding in its place two full-sized bedrooms. 

The new renovation has a much more traditional layout, but still retains a modern feel. Birch panels on the back wall help to warm up the space. Besides the new bedrooms, the renovation also incorporates a new laundry room and a small office space. The floor-to-ceiling bookcases, which you can see in the before photos, were saved and reconfigured to fit the new floor plan.  

The new layout takes advantage of the loft’s soaring ceilings — the new master bedroom has none of the cave-like feel of the original, and the new kid’s bedroom has a staircase that leads to a mezanine level overlooking the rest of the loft. Lucky kid. Since the second bedroom is an interior room, windows were added to draw light in from the rest of the loft. 

To read more about this project and see more photos, check out the project page on The Sweeten. (You can also find out more about the materials used in the renovation here.)

(Images: The Sweeten)