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- [00:01]
Barry Bordelon
There are original features in a house that we want to recreate a lot of times. Like, let's say it's like, you know, if you. If you picture a handrail like a banister that kind of winds up a stairway and curves around, a lot of times we have to recreate part of that, and we have trouble finding people that can do it. And I always think about, how is it that we can't find someone who can do this when someone did it in the 1800s?
- [00:29]
Jordan Slocum
What's going on, everybody? And welcome to Collector's Jeep Gene Radio. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call the Collector's Gene. If you have the time, please subscribe and leave a review. It truly helps. Thanks a bunch for listening and please enjoy today's guest on Collector's Gene Radio. Today I'm joined by the duo behind the Brownstone Boys, Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum. Known for their thoughtful restorations and their deep respect for architectural heritage, Barry and Jordan have built a design practice rooted in restoration, storytelling, and heart. What began with the renovation of their own Brooklyn brownstone sparked a passion for salvaging and preserving historic elements, everything from forgotten chandeliers to painted over hardware. Since then, they've become celebrated voices in the world of preservation and design, known for breathing new life into old spaces while honoring the soul of what came before. Along the way, they've built an impressive roster of clients that includes names like Kerry Washington, Athena Calderon, and Peloton's Anna Greenberg. And they've cultivated a devoted community through their blog, Instagram, and their book for the Love of Renovating. We explore their emotional connection to the pieces they collect, the thrill of discovery, and the belief that sometimes the most meaningful design begins with what's already there hidden right behind the walls, in the attic, and beneath the floorboards. So please enjoy. This is Barry and Jordan, AKA the Brownstone Boys for Collector's Gene Radio. Barry and Jordan, AKA the Brownstone Boys. Welcome to Collector's Dream Radio.
- [02:08]
Barry Bordelon
Hi. Thanks for having us. We're excited to be here.
- [02:11]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, it's. It's my pleasure. And, you know, so many people look up to what you guys do because you guys resurrect all these amazing homes and brownstones in New York, specifically Brooklyn. But I kind of want to start at the beginning because I'd love to know from each of you, you know, how did your passion for collecting and restoration and, you know, dealing with all these antique elements from historic home. How did this kind of all first take shape? I mean, was there like this defining moment that really sparked this journey for the both of you?
- [02:41]
That's a really interesting question. And the more I think about it and look back kind of on how I began becoming so curious about historic restoration, I really think it goes back to my childhood. I grew up in Las Vegas and there were just not a lot of old homes. So for me, I always remember watching TV shows and seeing older buildings, older things, and I was just always fascinated by it that I think that when I moved to New York, I just almost like window peeked inside all the apartments that I could. And I was just so curious of the history that lived inside these buildings.
- [03:15]
Barry Bordelon
And for me, I actually had a little bit of the opposite experience. I grew up in New Orleans, where there is a lot of history and a lot of really amazing architecture, and just always had that around me and almost took it for granted. And when I left New York and was deciding where I would go, I couldn't imagine not living in a place that had that type of history and the stories that old buildings tell. And so I found I moved to Boston, which also has a whole lot of history and gorgeous architecture, and then New York. So I've always kind of surrounded myself with it and it's always been just a part of my, you know, fabric of my life.
- [03:53]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, certainly. I think both your upbrings are actually pretty interesting in their own right. I mean, Las Vegas, you know, you're known for, you know, just the way, you know, Arizona is for these mid century homes in Los Angeles, you know, and, and you're more so known for the architecture itself and less of the things a lot of times inside of it. Right. It's, it's the design, it's the way that Neutra design, the angles of the home sort of thing. And then you do have something like New Orleans where, you know, a lot of the homes are, you know, pretty squared off from front and back. You know, there's interesting molding, but a lot of the history lives on the inside. And so they are two kind of completely different things. I think a lot of people know that your own Brooklyn brownstone renovation was this like, major undertaking for you guys. How did that shape your experience and your perspective on what restoration is, and how did that set the foundation for what you guys do today?
- [04:45]
Barry Bordelon
Well, I mean, that really is what was the factor that drove the rest of what we're doing now. And we decided to buy our house after only about Seven months of dating or so we jumped into buying a house, and not only any house, it was one that needed a pretty major renovation and restoration. And it's actually kind of interesting because we really got to know one another through that process, which is really fun.
- [05:11]
Jordan Slocum
Bold move.
- [05:12]
Interesting's a polite word I'm describing.
- [05:15]
Barry Bordelon
But we, you know, we bought this house, and we really were just so excited about getting something that had beautiful character and original charm, and we wanted to go through the process of restoring it. And after we bought the house, we closed, and we realized we don't. Even though we both had, like, design background in one way or another and architecture backgrounds, we didn't know how to restore an old house. And we. We didn't have a big budget to do it, and so we had to figure it out, and we had to find resources and find people that could help us, and that's what we did. And we decided very early on it was actually Jordan's idea and was an amazing idea. Although at the time, it just seemed like it, you know, was something that was not a big deal, is we decided that a lot of the. Really, the best advice that we were getting, the best resources we were finding was on other people's blogs that were going through the process or have gone through the process and were providing resources, answering questions, talking about issues and problems and successes that they had. And we decided that we were going to do the same thing and put all of our learnings out there and help other people who might be going through it as well. And so we created our Instagram account and our blog. Literally, day one, our first post was the very typical, you know, holding out the keys we just closed on our house, and now we're going to renovate it. Blog post. That was our first one. And then that we were really consistent throughout our entire renovation. And it was a way for us to just kind of have a little bit of a diary about our renovation. But also, we formed a community around our renovation, and we were able to answer questions, and we were able to put questions out to the community and get answers. So it became a nice little resource.
- [06:59]
Jordan Slocum
And I noticed pretty immediate that our community was resonating with all of the historic preservation articles that we were writing specifically around the wood stripping, because that was Barry's eyes. Very first DIY project that we tackled together was our stair banister. And there was a lot of learnings in that. But for us, the big learning was, wow, this historic preservation of restoring our stair banister is really leading the overall design of our space because it is so wood centric. And we started very much on the wood banister, but then we had the wood window trims and the wood shutters. So there was a lot of wood in the house. And because of that, it really was a key feature when it came to our overall aesthetic and design that we wanted to bring into the home.
- [07:45]
Amazing. Now you guys have salvaged and restored everything from doorknobs to chandeliers. I mean, I'd have to assume that you've kind of stumbled upon some pretty unexpected or unusual items in a historic home. Was there anything that stands out that was maybe more of a hidden gem, if you will, from. From one of your discoveries projects?
- [08:07]
I don't know if it's a hidden gem, but we have found a lot of guns ranging from like the early 1900s, which are fascinating. And then of course, I'm just so curious of like, why this gun was hidden inside the attic. Or we did a recent project in Carroll Gardens, which is known for an Italian, like, mobster neighborhood back in like the days, certainly. And we found a. Like a more modern gun. And that was a little bit eye opening. And of course, we brought it to the police and the precinct. So I'm really curious of why that was that we found that one in the cellar.
- [08:47]
Barry Bordelon
One of them that was really weird is. We found is kind of like in the. It wasn't really exactly an attic. It was like above the ceiling at the top floor, there was an old rocking chair and an old gun from like 100 years ago that wasn't even working anymore, which we thought was really kind of creepy and weird. We've also found an old shoe in the wall that was from, I guess from one of the workers. And it's. It looks like it was from the 1800s. Like, it was not a. It didn't look like a shoe. That are the way our shoes look like today.
- [09:19]
Jordan Slocum
So that was a wooden clog almost.
- [09:22]
Barry Bordelon
It had like a. That kind of look to it. It was interesting.
- [09:25]
Jordan Slocum
I'm always fascinated. They used to level floors with newspaper, you know, and there's many ages of newspaper that we found. But I always get lost reading those newspaper articles back from like 1910, 1913. And it's just so fascinating how at that time the news was so relevant and it kind of is coming full circle again. And that news is very prominent in today's world.
- [09:49]
Barry Bordelon
Yeah, that's always funny to. The newspaper articles are so relevant. And then I know our projects. We found an original Elizabeth Arden lipstick capsule That I guess was from like the 30s or something. That was pretty amazing. Amazing.
- [10:02]
Jordan Slocum
We didn't know much about that, but our client, she educated us well.
- [10:08]
The thing I. I'm curious about with that stuff is, I mean, obviously, if it's something modern, like a, you know, modern handgun, you want to turn that in, obviously, like you said to the. To the police, but something vintage, something that, you know, the police would really not care to deal with. I mean, there's collectibility in that. There's. There's value in that stuff. And I mean, how do you guys deal with, you know, it's next step in its. In its life when you find objects like that?
- [10:35]
Barry Bordelon
Well, we. I mean, we work for clients, so anything we find in the house belongs to them, and we just bring it to their attention. I know for the. The shoe that we found on the wall, they actually had a little. A little glass box created for it, and it sits on their fireplace mantle.
- [10:52]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah. But for the Elizabeth Arden, for example, we worked with a client because she was just so excited. So I had that framed with frame bridge and, you know, living its best life in their new house. But it is something that we always discuss with the clients. Nine out of ten times, they want to keep whatever treasure is found. The newspapers, we ask them if we can keep them. We have a nice collection now over the many of years that these brownstones were built. But it's just so fascinating for us now.
- [11:22]
When you salvage an object, whether it's a doorknob, a chandelier, a stained glass window, do you feel kind of like this sense of responsibility to honor its history? I mean, how do you guys balance the preservation of the past while making it a functional modern home?
- [11:40]
Barry Bordelon
We do try to restore and salvage as much as we can. And like Jordan said, it really is the jumping off point for the design for the entire house. So when we start a project, we look at what is still there. And 90% of our projects are in historic homes, and that's what we really love to do. So we look at what original woodwork is going to be salvaged, what original plaster and fireplaces, stained glass, sometimes tile that we can save. And that really is how we begin the design. I remember that there was a house that we did that had just this amazing, super ornate plaster ceiling, like crown and medallions and everything on the parlor floor. And that was like, top priority. Like, we were. We were willing to sacrifice other things because we have to do a lot of work in the house. We have to do electrical and plumbing and Sprinkler and H Vac. And so we have to get into the walls and the ceiling some kind of way. So, you know, we were willing to sacrifice other things to save that ceiling. And we did successfully were able to save it, which was great. But yeah, I mean, absolutely. We love that we have the opportunity to restore all of these homes. And a lot of times when we start working them, they are not in good shape. They're kind of falling apart. They're. If someone didn't step in and do something, they probably wouldn't be there much longer. And so for us, when we're able to walk away from a house and we're able to restore a lot of the original detail, we do feel like it's an accomplishment because we set that house up for its next hundred years of life. There is a balance. If the house can't have H Vac and modern electricity, then no one's going to want to live in it. And we want it to be a house. We want it to continue its life and its existence. And so we're not total purists about it. And we realize that we have to build in modern infrastructure. We're not trying to create a period piece. People also live differently now than they used to. So, for instance, the kitchen would never have been on the parlor floor of a brownstone originally. People didn't live that way. You know, the parlor floor was for entertaining guests. And it is that you. You wouldn't have seen the kitchen. Now it's. It's the opposite. People. The kitchen is where people entertain. They want it right next to the living room. It's just how we live now. So we. We often relocate the kitchen so that it can fit more into a modern lifestyle. But, you know, it's definitely a departure from the original floor plan and configuration of the house.
- [14:13]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it makes sense. Everybody has to keep up with the times, for sure. But I think the main argument for some of the stuff that people may have is when something like a brass object or a brass piece of hardware gets patina? That's kind of what makes something like brass really special. And I'd love to know from you guys, how do you decide when to fully restore an object or a piece of hardware to make it look brand new versus kind of leaving those imperfections intact? I mean, is that something that is ultimately up to you to, or is it up to the client?
- [14:49]
We work really closely with our clients on assessing as many of those original details as possible and what each story, because everything really Has a story and a process, and we walk them through what it would look like. So, for example, the hardware that you're referring to is how important is this to them? Do they want to go down to the raw hardwood and assess what that looks like and then adding some varnish to it or whatever, a new finish to this hardware or. For us, we do a lot of woodwork, a lot of wood restoration, and they use a lot of varnish over wood over the years, and to cover it up sometimes or to hide those imperfections, they just add a new layer of varnish on. But because of that, it might be damaging the wood. So we like to go down to that raw wood to assess what the condition is throughout the entire home and then work on brand new either varnish, lacquer, stain, and work with the client on getting that full new stain varnish finish throughout the entire house. So it's consistent.
- [15:57]
Barry Bordelon
Yeah, and it's definitely a balance. You know, there's a piece of hardware that. That's brass, that has patina on it, can be very beautiful. And a lot of times we won't touch that. We would. We would leave that brass with this beautiful patina on it. But if it's painted over, then we're gonna get the paint off and clean it up quite a bit. So it just depends. I mean, we approach every single thing independently. And I think a lot of the wood, like Jordan said, you know, it has patina on it, but if it's got 10 layers of varnish and there was an issue with the third layer that they just varnished on top of, and now it's super dark, it's got this heavy, heavy varnish on it, done poorly over the years, then yes, it is patina. But we're not just going to make the same mistake that 10 other people did before us by just putting another layer of varnish on it for the sake of saving the patina that's. That's under it. And again, we're not purist about it, and we. It is a balance. We want the house in every. All the details and the hardware and the fixtures and finishes and everything in it to be up to date with how someone wants to live in it now and not just save it for the sake of saving it.
- [17:11]
Jordan Slocum
I would assume that sometimes or a lot of times, a client just defers to you two on making those decisions. Has there been a pretty tough call here and there to preserve an object as is versus repurposing it maybe for something new?
- [17:26]
Barry Bordelon
Yes, definitely. I think probably More often than not, we're pushing our clients to save original details when they might want to not save it.
- [17:39]
Jordan Slocum
Which is so interesting because so many of our clients find us through social media, whether it be YouTube or our Instagram. And we are such purists on social media about saving old homes and anything we can. And our clients were like, we love this. But then we start talking about the design and the initial walkthrough of this historic brownstone they just bought, and they're like, oh, let's do this really beautiful modern staircase I saw, and rip out at all these original details. And we're like, why did you hire us?
- [18:11]
Barry Bordelon
And why did you hire us? But it's, you know, like, it's an area that we are thankful they did because sometimes there's things in the house that we can. We can basically work with them and help them understand that we can integrate the original features that we're saving with the design of the house, with the. With the modern features that we're going to build in. In other places.
- [18:33]
Jordan Slocum
Now, we talked about all the things that you guys have discovered behind the walls of the home, and that's kind of probably, I would assume, part of the thrill of the hun, you guys, when kind of digging through these. These historic homes. And New York is. Is classic for that. Every day there's a new home in New York popping up on the market. And you're like, I cannot believe this exists in New York. And I'm curious to know from you guys, if you were to renovate and restore homes in another city anywhere in the world, whether it's the US Or Europe, where do you feel that you would find equally, or maybe more compelling architecture and artifacts and hardware?
- [19:09]
Barry Bordelon
I mean, I think I would say ultimately Paris would have probably the most gorgeous ornate plaster and fireplaces and hardware finish, decorative finishes.
- [19:23]
Jordan Slocum
There's something really fascinating to me about, like, the English countryside in all those, you know, lodge houses. I think that would be really fascinating to kind of dig into that. That era. Even though Paris sounds lovely and sign me up.
- [19:40]
Yeah, no, wouldn't say no to either of those. I mean, again, two places that I'm constantly looking at, you know, the real estate that's for sale or what's been discovered. And, you know, you look at these English castles that come up for sale or in the middle of Ireland, you know, that have been abandoned, but the artwork is still hung up and they're like 10ft tall. Portrait paintings that are obviously original, you know, it just blows your mind. It's pretty. Pretty different from how things are in the US And I. I never really know the answer to this question, but I feel like in those places of the world, a lot of people are doing what. What you guys do in terms of wanting to preserve these original details, and it's just not something you see a lot of in the US So it's really nice to see that. That you two kind of take over that. That side of things. I would. I would imagine that when you're walking through these homes and you're renovating them and you're digging through all these details and you're finding a shoe in the wall, you probably start thinking about all the hands that touched these places before you. I mean, and some of these homes have that history. How much of that influences your work?
- [20:54]
Oh, every day we are influenced by those original details and the craftspeople that built them. And right now, we're dealing with nine different projects, and we have grown our internal team. We have a team of five now, but we also work with three contracting teams, and we also have a little bit of a renovation family under our belt that we bring to each and every project that really are the ones that taught Barry and I how to do all of this work in our own home. And we hold them very close to our hearts. We have morning tea and coffee with them, and we've had them over for family dinner. And they really mean so much to us. And the reason that is is there's not many people doing this work anymore. Stained glass repair, plaster work, wood stripping. And it's something that I have this fear that this is a dying art, and it's easier for a contractor just to come in and say, let's rip it all out and replace it with, you know, your basic moldings, that it's because it's easier them. But that's why I'm reminded each and every day that we're so fortunate to go into these job sites and see this beautiful craftsmanship that was created back in the 1800s that is still intact and still in place. Yeah, it needs some repair, but the bones are there, and anything we can do to keep these craftspeople that are doing this work still employed in from project to project and passionate about and spreading the word, and hopefully this gets more people to want to get their hands dirty and do the work themselves, themselves. That's something that I'm most passionate about and strongly believe that we just can't let this artwork die.
- [22:34]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, have you ever been able to kind of Trace the history of some of these homes and see who worked on them in the past. And are any of them still around where you can contact them and say, hey, how come you did things this way? Is there a reason?
- [22:49]
Barry Bordelon
We definitely look into the history of most of the homes that we work in. Fortunately, there's a lot of records kept in Brooklyn for it. There's a newspaper called the Brooklyn Eagle that's still in operation. That was an operation in the 1800s, so there's a lot of information that's there. There's also the Brooklyn center for Brooklyn History that we, we use a lot for researching. Unfortunately, most of the buildings we work on were built in the late 1800s, so definitely no one's around anymore that worked on them.
- [23:19]
Jordan Slocum
So developer of our home, we found an article that he was collapsed on horse and carriage on a cobblestone street in our neighborhood. We're like, this is just so wild that this is the developer of our home.
- [23:32]
Barry Bordelon
It is just crazy to just think about, you know, our, you know, our neighborhood is lined with Brooklyn brownstones and they're all beautiful and they've been there for a long time. But. But you know, it looks like we're in 2025 in our neighborhood. And it's just so incredible to imagine it. Those same buildings being there, those same stoops, but with gas lamps and cobblestone streets and horses and carriages running around.
- [23:56]
Jordan Slocum
Have you ever stumbled upon an object or even a piece of hardware in a house that you felt was maybe meant for a different project that we were working on? I mean, does that ever happen where you. You look at a piece of stained glass and you're like, you know what? This would be perfect for project B, but we're working on project A. I mean, I would assume that that has to happen.
- [24:17]
Oh yeah, it does. We worked on a carriage house. It was a modern day carriage house for our family. And before the family took over this lot, it was a junk house. But there was this piece of stained glass that was up in the back of the property and it was in a window and it just looked super mod, mid century. But I told the clients, I was like, do you guys want this piece of stained glass? And they were like, no, we don't really have a use for it, but I know you guys will do something great with it. And we designed an entire basement speakeasy around this piece of stained glass, and we put it in our speakeasy in our basement. But it really drove the design and it was such a beautiful piece but you. I know for a fact it was not original to the. That lot.
- [25:01]
Barry Bordelon
And we do have to, like, add in details sometimes in our projects. So the houses that we work in, it's not like they haven't been touched in since the 1890s. They've gone through many renovations over the 130 or 40 years of life that they've had. So there's a lot of things are taken out. So a lot of the original hardware is removed. Sometimes the whole. The fireplace mantles are stripped out of the house. Sometimes everything is stripped out. So it just depends on what is going on and what's happened. But we often do have to add back in to make everything match. So we. We add fireplace mantles in. We. And then we always get salvaged items that are from other houses. And it's just important for the integrity of the house to have a vintage fireplace mantle in it. Unfortunately, someone else removed the one that was supposed to go in this house. But the nice thing is, is a lot of the houses in Brooklyn were built by developers at the time, and they would build like four or five in a row or sometimes a whole street, a whole block. So you can look in the neighboring houses and you can see what would have been there. And it is relatively easy to find similar items. Sometimes the exact same items, even from salvage yards or, you know, sometimes even some of our other projects. We see the same finishes, the same brass hardware, the same balusters on the stairs that we can. We can kind of mix and match a little bit.
- [26:32]
Jordan Slocum
We do a lot of restoring pocket doors, and that's always a part that I'm fascinated with. Just because the pocket doors have always lived so many lives over the years, most of the time, when we get our hands on them, the pocket doors aren't functioning. But then either we're revealing these beautiful doors that are hidden behind closed wall when we open up the wall. And I always look at the hardware on the pocket doors because that's, for me, that I can tell a true sense of, like, how much original details are still in this house versus taken out over the years for other renovations.
- [27:03]
Where do you guys keep all this stuff when you find it? I mean, there has to be a warehouse or something where you have to store these things when you find something great. But it's not for the particular project that you're working on. I mean, how do you deal with that?
- [27:16]
So for the good couple years, we were keeping everything back at our house.
- [27:21]
Barry Bordelon
And in our basement. Yeah.
- [27:23]
Jordan Slocum
Was really turning into kind Of a hoarding house.
- [27:26]
Barry Bordelon
There's always at least a couple of fireplace mantles in our basement because we. Anytime we come across a marble fireplace mantle that someone says they're selling, people just reach out to us a lot.
- [27:37]
Jordan Slocum
You have to take it.
- [27:38]
Barry Bordelon
Exactly. We will always take it. Yeah, Yeah.
- [27:40]
Jordan Slocum
I don't want to get rid of it, and I don't want. So, like, it's become a little bit of a problem. And we're really like, working on logistics of a warehouse. What would be appropriate? Because there's just so many beautiful things that deserve to go into other beautiful things and so many people working on homes that would love this. So, yeah, it's a constant battle between.
- [28:00]
Barry and I, I would imagine. So. Have you ever formed a pretty deep emotional connection to, you know, a salvage piece and struggled to part with it because it had to go in a project that you were working on?
- [28:14]
Barry Bordelon
I mean, sometimes we form emotional connections to the house itself when we don't want. It's tough to turn it over to the client. But yeah, of course, I mean, our house is also like a constant work in progress. We're always working on it, we're always adding things to it. So we do have the opportunity sometimes, if we find something, to add it into our house. And we've done that before. But, you know, we also are pretty happy to find it a good home and to put it into one of our clients home as we're working on it and make sure it has a new. A new home and to also help keep the integrity of the original details of that house.
- [28:49]
Jordan Slocum
There was one mantle that I was very, very attached to, and it was one of our earlier projects. And also Carroll Gardens, a neighborhood I mentioned earlier, and the detail on the marble fireplace with the keystone, it was the most ornate thing I've ever seen. And I just, like, I didn't want to let go of that. And I think the clients actually bought the house because of this fireplace, but it was just so beautiful and such a moment every time we walked in and out of that house. So I still think about that fireplace often.
- [29:21]
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, right? They really don't make things the way they used to. And a lot of that is probably one obviously material and the artisans that made them. But two people's tastes have changed, and it takes really specific people to appreciate and understand the intricacies of a marble mantle and all the details and all the carvings and how ornate or not ornate it may be. And so for you guys as collectors, I Mean, you have to have stumbled upon things as simple as beautiful hinges and doorknobs and. And, you know, handles for a closet that. That clients want that I would just assume are things that you just can't always find at the store today or in a salvage yard today.
- [30:10]
Barry Bordelon
Yeah, it's true. I mean, we do. We are fortunate that we have a lot of really good resources to find things like that. There aren't many left in. In New York. There's only a couple of salvage yards. There's a place that we really like for hardware that always has some really nice options. But it's tough. I mean, I. I would. There probably used to be even. Even 20, 10 or 20 years ago, there was probably five times the amount of salvage yards there are now. And the stuff gets expensive, you know, since there's so many less places to get it. It's not like you get it for, like, super. Super cheap. Like, it's. They're charging a lot for this stuff, but it's a little bit harder to come by. But I think the good thing is, is we've moved on from the 80s and 90s, when I think people were just going in and, like, stripping everything out of all of the townhouses and brownstones and historic homes, because the thought was that it wasn't wanted anymore. And now I think it really is an area that brings a lot of value to a house. So the more original detail a house has now, it actually is value that it adds to the home. So I think that's a positive turn of events, and I hope that that continues.
- [31:24]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, and there is something interesting as well, is that we find a lot of hardware covered with layers and layers of paint. Also, hardwood floors cover with vinyl. Lord knows why, but in a way, it kind of has protected some of the original details. So there is a lot of that original detail that we obviously put back in the house, but we're seeing a lot of people bringing back. I think it's because it has just been so overly protected with these different design moments over the course of 20, 30 years, that in a long run, it kind of has protected all these original details.
- [32:03]
Yeah, certainly. I mean, again, not many people out there protecting them in general. So it's pretty. Pretty great to see that people are becoming more and more interested in keeping these things. If you guys could go back in time to one of your projects or even your own home and seeing one of these items being installed for the first time, and you could ask the architect or the developer why they're doing that. Or what made them choose that mantle or that door handle or that piece of brass hardware. Is there anything that comes to mind that you guys would just love to know a little bit more as to why it was chosen for a specific project?
- [32:42]
Barry Bordelon
Absolutely. I mean, it actually comes up quite often, not only just curiosity as to why something is chosen. We see little details in houses. Like sometimes they'll have little dragons carved into the woodwork, and it's like a theme in the house. Or there'll be lions in some of them. How do they make those decisions? And why do they choose that item for that house? But even more so, there are original features in a house that we want to recreate a lot of times. Like, let's say it's like, you know, if you picture a handrail, like a banister that kind of winds up a stairway and curves around, a lot of times we have to recreate part of that, and we have trouble finding people that can do it. And I always think about, how is it that we can't find someone who can do this when someone did it in the 1800s.
- [33:33]
Jordan Slocum
Right. I think about that all the time. It just doesn't make. Make sense to me.
- [33:36]
Barry Bordelon
Hand tools, like, they did it without power tools. And we now with all of the technology and power tools and shortcuts that can be taken, we can't reproduce that. Like, we. We've lost the skill to do it. It's just mind boggling.
- [33:50]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, it doesn't. Doesn't totally make sense to me. And I question that with a lot of things, not just homes. But it doesn't make sense how with all the tools and the technology and the fabrication warehouses and. And machinery that. That can't be done yet. The developer who built these brownstones passed away on his horse in the middle of the street. Right. Like, pretty wild. I want to talk about both of the collecting that you guys do personally. From the newspaper to the hardware and woodwork and stained glass and the mantles and all the things that you love. Do each of you have a favorite thing that you love to collect? That you're always on the hunt for that when you're in these salvage yards or you're in these antique stores and you're looking maybe for stuff for you guys, less of your projects?
- [34:37]
Barry Bordelon
Is.
- [34:37]
Jordan Slocum
Is there something specific?
- [34:39]
I am guilty of collecting vintage lights. So I have. I. I keep a lot of them in our basement. But for me, that's my go to. Whenever I'm in a vintage shop, antique store, I always go straight to my Eyes always go straight to the lights.
- [34:58]
Are we talking, like, chandeliers, sconces, table.
- [35:00]
Lamps, chandeliers, pendants, sconces? Just because I'm really drawn to, I think, as modern, as beautiful new furniture we can put in a place. There's something really special about a vintage chandelier in the light, in the space, certainly. And I try to always convince our clients, even though nine out of 10, they win, to go with a more vintage chandelier in place.
- [35:26]
Barry Bordelon
What's really cool about the vintage lighting, the ones that are originally in the brownstone, is most of the time, they're originally gas lights. And so they. They would have been originally gas, and they would have been rewired for electricity decades into their. Their life. So that's always really interesting that you can see the little valves and everything are still on them. So that's. I love that about the vintage lights that we have.
- [35:50]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, it's something that I see a lot of in. In places like New Orleans and. And Charleston and even Boston, too, is a lot of people still use the. The real fire lanterns outside, and it's pretty special.
- [36:03]
Barry Bordelon
Yeah. I think I would say for me, I am always on the lookout for fireplaces. I know. We kind of talked about that already. They're hard to find, and anytime we can get our hands on one, we. One. We will find a home for it. We usually have a. We're looking for a few more than we can find. So for me, that's what I'm, like, always on the lookout for. If anyone's out there and has any that they want to get rid of, please let us know. We'll take them off your hands. But, yeah, that's. That's the thing for me, that I'm always looking for.
- [36:34]
Jordan Slocum
I have a question about the fireplace thing, because obviously, it's easy to. If you find a great light in your home and you want to replace it. Right. That's. That's a fairly easy process to just put up a new chandelier, put up a new sconce, and, you know, reattach the wires. How about changing a mantle? If you found a mantle that you just felt was way better than the one that you had in your space currently, and you just had to have it, how hard would that be to pull the mantle out and replace it?
- [37:02]
Barry Bordelon
It's actually not that hard. And maybe I'm saying that because a lot of our projects are just big renovations and big restorations of the house. We're doing a lot of work already, but they're all, at least here in Brooklyn, relatively the same size within a couple of inches or so. So they're not hard. It's not hard to find one that fits. They're mostly interchangeable. I mean, there's definitely some exceptions to that, but for the most part, we can make them fit. But, yeah, it isn't a ton of work. I mean, they come apart in pieces. There's the top mantle part. Then there's the two sides of the facade. Usually it's in two. Two pieces. And then there's a little keystone that covers the joint between the two pieces. And then there are side pieces that fit between the front facade and the wall. And then there's the summer cover in the middle, the metal summer cover. So we're kind of used to, like, what all of the parts we know are needed for it. So when we can kind of tell when we find one if it has everything that it needs, like if it has all the parts and pieces. But it is definitely a little bit of a project. It's probably not something you can DIY yourself. We have our stone people are usually the ones that do it because they're putting. They're basically putting together pieces of stone, pieces of marble. So that's who would normally do that type of work. And then they can. You know, they're also used to how to clean marble and what types of products are used to, like, clean marble and try to get some of the stains out or if there's any discoloration. We also find a lot of times, you know, it is insane to think that someone would paint a marble fireplace.
- [38:44]
Jordan Slocum
Blows my mind of any of the.
- [38:46]
Barry Bordelon
Mistakes people make when renovating over the years. To paint a marble fireplace just. I don't understand any reasoning behind it, but it actually, we don't mind it as much because when we go to the salvage yard, a lot of times there's a couple of lonely painted marbles. Fireplaces that are.
- [39:07]
Jordan Slocum
Some paint stripping.
- [39:08]
Barry Bordelon
Yeah. No, people don't have the vision that you can just strip the paint off of it. You know, they're looking for the ones that are already beautiful and marble and gorgeous. But we know, you know, sometimes we'll scrape a little of that paint off, and we're like, this is a marble fireplace mantle, and we can, for a few hundred dollars, strip the paint off of it. So we've done that several times, and it looks really great. And so that's a little bit of a secret we have with finding them.
- [39:33]
Jordan Slocum
If one of you wanted to change out either a fireplace Or a piece of lighting in the. In the home. How big of a conversation is that with you two? Or do you kind of trust each other in the areas that you love to collect in?
- [39:46]
I think we're now trusting. After seven years, we're finally trusting each other and also relying on each other's strengths. I always refer to the color story in our home because when we first moved in and for the first two years, every single wall in our house was white or a shade of gray. Right? And it really bothered me because I'm such a color fanatic. And now, eight years later, our house is full of color, and you can't turn from one wall to the other without having another color. And Barry is genuinely happy with all this color in the house. So he trusted me, and he now sees it. And there's other things that Barry also has a strong point of view that at first I was like, no, I think it's this way. But now I lean in on letting him just kind of change it up and seeing where it goes.
- [40:33]
Barry Bordelon
Our house is also constantly changing, so it really is, like, as soon as we get finished with one thing, we move on to the next, and we start all over again. So I guess we're almost kind of used to it. Also, like, making a change in our house is not really that big of a deal, because we do.
- [40:48]
Jordan Slocum
That's the hardest part about designing for others, though, is that you're just constantly in inspired, are looking for inspiration, and it's hard not coming home at the end of the day and not wanting to change something else in your own personal space.
- [41:01]
Do you kind of feel like we're maybe in, like, a little bit of a golden age of preservation? Or do you still feel like we kind of have this uphill battle against modernization?
- [41:10]
Barry Bordelon
I think that things are better now than they were. I think that things have. I think people have an appreciation for preservation again. Yeah. With that said, there's still atrocities every single day. You know, there's a building that was built a block over from us on a beautiful street that is not landmarks, unfortunately. And the new buildings that have gone up are just horrible. Like, not even. Not. It's not even that they're modern. They're too modern. They're just really, really ugly. Like, at least make a really cool modern building that's beautiful, but that isn't what they did. They just put up whatever, like, the easiest, cheapest way to get a building up. So, yeah, atrocities every single day. But I do think that, for the most part, there is More of an appreciation today than there was 10 years ago.
- [42:03]
Jordan Slocum
Now, you guys have worked with some incredible clients, from Kerry Washington to Athena Calderon. How do you incorporate salvage and antique pieces into their spaces while reflecting their personal style? Because, you know, if we know them, we know that they love, you know, their design, and we love. And they love, you know, vintage items, and they love modern items. And, you know, someone like Athena, who's also creating her own collections for places like, you know, Crate and Barrel. How does that work?
- [42:30]
So with Athena specifically, we were really fortunate that we were hired specifically to do the wood restoration. So we're very excited to see what she's doing with her house in terms of interior design. But there is a lot of wood in her Tribeca loft. And for us, it's been like the honor of our lifetime working collaborators, not only with Athena, but her design team, because the wood really is drawing all of the inspiration for her interior design. So in a way, for us, it's kind of like we are not only doing what we're most passionate about, but it's a huge part of the overall design. And this what is going to be a beautiful space regardless. Just because it's Athena, she could do no wrong. But for us, all of our clients, it's really a collaboration, and it's always an educational component to it, where we do need to have an open discussion with our clients of the importance of vintage pieces mixed into modern spaces, because nine out of 10 times, our clients own a brownstone, a historic home, and we love modern furniture, but we also want to bring in some antiques, some vintage moments, to really tell a full curated story.
- [43:46]
Barry Bordelon
And I think it's just helping people understand that those two things can live together.
- [43:50]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah.
- [43:51]
Barry Bordelon
And making them feel comfortable with that. I think too many people get caught up into, like, a specific style or a theme. They feel like that the whole house has to be that style or theme, or every piece has to fit into that, but it's kind of impossible. Like, we're so used to working in historic homes that we're just really comfortable with putting two completely different styles next to one another and enjoying that juxtaposition and enjoying how the two things can work together in a space. So that's just something we're really comfortable with. And, you know, I think that's part of the process is just helping other people to be comfortable with it, too.
- [44:28]
Jordan Slocum
Absolutely. And I, too, am excited to see how Athena's home in Tribeca, it turns out, because that is just, like, an insane space. And, yes, the Amount of wood in that home is out of control.
- [44:41]
Barry Bordelon
The wood really is the star of the show. And so we're really, really happy that we're part of working on it.
- [44:47]
Jordan Slocum
Have you ever had a moment where a client didn't maybe initially see the value in the salvage piece, but after restoration, maybe it became like the centerpiece of the home, Whether it was a chandelier or a mantle or a. Or something as small as a piece of hardware.
- [45:01]
Barry Bordelon
I mean, I think that's happened. That happens a lot in a lot of projects where, you know, we have right now, it's funny, like, there's a project we're working on where we're really having to push and convince the client to save parts and pieces of the house. And one of. One of the things that we're doing there is stained glass restoration. There's some really beautiful stained glass. It is very dirty, and it's in very bad shape. It's right now the prior owner of the house covered it in some kind of Plexiglas. Plexiglas. Because it was just in horrible shape. I mean, it was. It's like falling apart. You can see through it. There's air coming through it. So they had to do something. I guess they couldn't fully restore it. So we know that once this stained glass is going to be restored, it's going to be beautiful, and it's going to be just a huge feature of the house, inside and out. But the client is leaning towards wanting to get rid of it because they feel like it's dark and the colors in it aren't very vibrant. But we know it's going to be beautiful, and it's going to let so much light in, and it's going to be something that they enjoy and everyone walking by their house is going to enjoy. And so we're pushing really hard on it.
- [46:15]
Jordan Slocum
Unfortunately, it's on a landmark street, so we have to keep the front stained glass, which is in our favor, and.
- [46:22]
Barry Bordelon
It'S going to be that. So, you know, like, this stained glass is going to be exactly what you just described.
- [46:30]
Jordan Slocum
I love it.
- [46:32]
I'm also really happy that kind of the open floor plan concept is slowly fading away. Because for me, with the way that walls used to be built in all of these different rooms for different reasons, means more beautiful trim work and more pocket doors and more intentional spaces. And I'm really happy that that is kind of the next phase of design. I think we're going to see a lot of, you know, these open floor plans starting to fade out, which is exciting for me.
- [47:05]
Yeah, certainly. I mean, to me, still, one of the coolest things and most impressive things about these homes in these brownstones are probably the parlor floors where people would entertain. And it usually features really ornate, you know, molding on the ceiling. And, you know, sometimes there's two pocket doors within the room. One was for, you know, where guests would hang out first and they'd go into the next room to have a little bit more of a reception, you know, of the evening. And I find that those moments are more often lost now because, as you said, people are doing these open floor plan concepts, and everything is supposed to just be one massive room, and you kind of lose that art of the hosting. Right?
- [47:43]
Yeah. And that was something. Even in our own home, we're adding walls just to. Going back to that layout. We did the open concept, and it. Yeah, it worked fine, but now it's allowing us to actually enjoy, like, a proper living space and a proper dining space. And there's just so much you could do with that beautiful trim work and bringing back things. And it's. I. I'm happy for it.
- [48:05]
Yeah. Certainly. If someone were to walk into your home a hundred years from now, what's something that you've either resurrected or salvaged or even collected that you would want them to discover that you feel is a culmination of what you guys do and what you love the most? Maybe it's, you know, the way that you restored the molding in the ceiling somewhere, or maybe it's a chandelier or a fireplace that you. That you brought in.
- [48:30]
Barry Bordelon
I mean, I think there's a list of things in our house. One would be definitely the woodwork. It is something a lot of people comment on when they come in our house. And when we bought the house, it was just covered in white paint. All of the wood, and all the entire house was covered in paint. Stripped all of the paint off of the wood. It was many, many, many layers of paint. Different colors, different colors over the decades, and it was. You couldn't see any of the detail. So there was lots of carvings and, like, the newel post and the door casing and stuff. And you couldn't even see the detail because it was just. There was so much paint filling it. And now we have this beautiful wood. It's all, you know, stripped and restored and refinished. You can see all the detail in it again. And it just really is very beautiful. And people comment on it a lot. So I think that's definitely one thing.
- [49:24]
Jordan Slocum
I also think walking down to our cellar, which you think of Brooklyn sellers as being very scary spaces. A lot of them are, don't get me wrong. But there's something really magical about our cellar. We completely DIY the whole thing, but we really turn it into this old time speakeasy with that stained glass I was mentioning earlier. And it's just everything we love. We brought in a lot of vintage pieces. We brought in old windows down there just to make it look like it has natural light. There's a lot of woodwork down there, and it's a space that I'm really proud of.
- [50:00]
I love it. Before we wrap it up with the collector's gene rundown, you two have written a book for the love of renovating. And if you could tell everyone how you feel, maybe collecting and salvaging play into the overall philosophy of the book, I would love that.
- [50:14]
Barry Bordelon
One thing that's really important to us is the concept of remaking spaces and renovating spaces and reusing spaces. And that is really at the heart of the book. And the book starts with looking for that fixer upper. You know, the first chapter is how to find the right house to renovate. Most of our clients that we work for just buy. Have just bought the house. So it's an old home that needs to be fixed up. And that might mean that it's from the 1800s. For someone else, it might mean that it's from the 1970s. I don't know. Like, there's different forms of being able to remake an older home and kind of, you know, be able to create and carve your space out of it. And so that really is what the book is all about. We do have. Because there's no way we could write a book that didn't include historic. Historic restoration. So there is a whole chapter devoted specifically to just historic restoration. Wood moldings, marble, stained glass, hardware. But we didn't want to pigeonhole the book. You know, it's. It's not just for people restoring a historic home that has all those historic features. It really is just someone who wants to reimagine, rethink, and recreate a home.
- [51:36]
Jordan Slocum
And one of the big. The things I'm proudest about the book is going back to why we started our blog. And that was we were having difficulty finding answers to a lot of our questions around budget and what we need to be spending on certain things. And we were very transparent about numbers in the book, which I think is exciting because a lot of these are beautiful books that I see are beautiful visuals, but I have no idea what I need to budget in order for me to achieve that beautiful visual. So we really broke it down by plumbing, electrical, and what you. What you should roughly be estimating for that.
- [52:16]
Barry Bordelon
And one of the things that we do with all of our clients, because this always comes into play, everyone has a budget that they need to stay within. And renovating a historic home can get very expensive. And a lot of times we have to value engineer and kind of find a way to create the look and the vision by having a few tricks to. To save budget as much as we can. And so each chapter has a little section called, I think we call it, like the budget breakdown or something like that. And basically it's like, okay, if all of your hopes and dreams for this space, let's say it's the bathrooms are not fitting into the budget, what are some ways that we can value engineer a little bit? And how can we find some savings in a bathroom so that you can still achieve the overall look and vision that you're going for, but cut a few corners in some places to save in some budget? And so I love that we did that because that's something we do in every one of our projects for every single one of our clients plans.
- [53:15]
Jordan Slocum
That's great. Everyone go grab a copy of that book for the love of renovating. Now let's wrap it up with the collector's gene rundown. You guys can answer these questions based on any of the things that you collect, Whether it is things for your own home or things for your projects, or whether it's something that you love, you know, doing restoration on. So the first one is, what's the one that got away?
- [53:35]
Barry Bordelon
I mean, we have a client that bought a house that they got a very good deal on. The house was a wreck. I mean, it. You really had to see the vision to. To see this house. And, you know, honestly, I don't even know if we fully saw the vision when we first walked in. And it ended up being probably one of our most cherished, beautiful projects that we look back on it and we're like, how did this house get from that point to this point? We call it the Gates house on our intermediate Instagram and our. Our website. But that is one that I'm like, wow, I wish we could have come in here and scoop this house up for the price. They got it.
- [54:13]
Jordan Slocum
Yeah, I love it. How about the on deck circle? So what's something that's next for you both in collecting? Maybe something that you're hunting after vintage furniture.
- [54:22]
I really have opened my eyes to the world of furniture. And there's so much beautiful vintage pieces out there.
- [54:29]
I'm with you there. It is such a rabbit hole. And I have filled my space with as much vintage that made sense for the space as possible.
- [54:39]
But it's very dangerous.
- [54:40]
Yes, I think that's something that people shy away from. Is. Is reupholstering too. And unless it's kind of like if, you know, you know, sort of thing or if you're okay with it, you know, because most people are like, oh, I love this sofa, but, you know, it's the wrong fabric or the leather's beat up and it's like, you can reupholster it. It doesn't affect the value.
- [54:59]
Yeah, no, absolutely. We had actually a basement find when we got our place. The only thing that was kept from the who knows when. But it's old because the developer that we bought the house from said that he found it in the basement was this chair. It was an antique piece of furniture, had this terrible orange velvet on it. But we just recently reupholstered it with a house of Hackney fabric and it. Talk about a new life. It's really gorgeous.
- [55:26]
I love it. How about the unobtainable? So this is something that's just too expensive in a museum, a private collection, whatever it may be. It's just complete unobtainium art in general.
- [55:38]
For me, it's just art. Like everything I see has a couple too many extra zeros at the end.
- [55:44]
Barry Bordelon
Yes, I agree with that.
- [55:45]
Jordan Slocum
I love it. The page one rewrite. So if money was no object and you could collect anything besides mantles and lighting and. And vintage furniture and art, what would it be?
- [55:56]
Barry Bordelon
I mean, for us, it's crazy. I think if we had either an unlimited amount of money or just a really big chunk of money that we don't have, I think we would probably buy. There's neighborhoods that we would love to buy townhouse in that we just know that we cannot afford. And we at this point in our lives don't have any path at all to get there. So something like the West Village or Brooklyn Heights, which is where we're sitting right now, that's where we do a lot of dreaming and, you know, having one of these homes and like, these are just really iconic, beautiful neighborhoods that we know that is a super stretch for us to afford.
- [56:38]
Jordan Slocum
How about the goat? Who do you guys look up to in the collecting world? Or who do you think is a great collector?
- [56:44]
This is Crazy. But Spike Lee Jones is a. A big inspiration for me because just lived in Brooklyn for so long and collected so many things, and he's so artistic and. Yeah, I would. I want to say him.
- [56:58]
Barry Bordelon
I would love to get a peek at what he has in his collection.
- [57:01]
Jordan Slocum
It would be wild. I don't even think I could put a finger on a quarter of it just because he's. He's so artistic that way. It's pretty wild.
- [57:09]
Yeah. I'm imagining that his collection is just wild.
- [57:11]
Barry Bordelon
I go with that one, too. That's a good one.
- [57:14]
Jordan Slocum
How about the hunt or the ownership? Which one do you enjoy more?
- [57:17]
For me, it's the hunt.
- [57:18]
Barry Bordelon
Yeah, the hunt you have to go with. Even though the hunt gets frustrating because, you know, like, we can't always find exactly what we are we're looking for. It is. It is a fun process, and sometimes you find some unexpected things along the way.
- [57:32]
Jordan Slocum
Certainly. And most importantly, do you guys feel that you were born with Collector's Gene?
- [57:38]
Barry Bordelon
I do.
- [57:39]
Jordan Slocum
I do. I love it, and I definitely have that collector.
- [57:45]
Barry Bordelon
I think it also is a little bit hereditary.
- [57:49]
Jordan Slocum
I'm not going to say it's not. There you have it. Barry and Jordan, Brownstone boys. Thank you so much for coming on Collector's Dream Radio today. I look forward to seeing all the amazing projects that you guys work on. And keep up the great work. And everyone go grab a copy of for the Love of renovating.
- [58:02]
Thanks so much. We had such a great time chatting.
- [58:05]
Barry Bordelon
Thank you.
- [58:08]
Jordan Slocum
All right, that does it for this episode. Thank you all for listening to Collector's Gene Radio.