When Erica Prince and her husband Shane Jezowski were looking to move to Brooklyn from Philadelphia three years ago, they faced a bit of sticker shock. At the time, their beloved Philly place boasted lots of space and a rooftop garden, and their search for a new apartment in Brooklyn yielded rentals Erica had trouble envisioning as a place for creation — as a multidisciplinary artist, Erica’s home must also serve as a studio to create her ceramics, drawings, installations and relational projects. Home needs to feel inspiring to her, and nothing in their search seemed to fit the bill.
Just when she was about to throw in the towel and commit to a lackluster apartment, Erica and Shane stumbled upon a place in Bushwick. “After months of hitting refresh on Craigslist almost hourly I happened to be the first person to respond to the ad for this apartment,” Erica says. “We drove up to look at it and we were dumbfounded. It was so much better than all the others; we thought there must be a catch. We put down a deposit within 20 minutes and the broker cancelled the eight other showings she had that night. We got so lucky.”
They moved in with their cat, Boofy Prince, and went to work making the 1930s classic railroad apartment feel like home, ensuring it was suitable for Erica‘s creations and Shane’s work, too, as an artist and project manager at a fabrication shop. For a while, the all-white walls worked wonders on the small, 550-square-foot space, but last winter, Erica felt an urge to change it up. “In an effort to thwart my seasonal depression and trick myself into thinking I was staring into a deep blue ocean I texted Shane, ‘Do you want to paint the kitchen blue tonight?’ and he just wrote back, ‘Sure.’ Without much deliberation I picked out a color and we stayed up late painting and making blue jokes. It was completely impulsive but it seemed to be the finishing touch that we needed to make the space feel like our own. It somehow makes things feel more exotic and romantic and less like a rental. The blue changes drastically throughout the day, from a deep, dark, comforting blue in the morning to a brighter, upbeat blue in the afternoon sun.”
This tonal shift is arguably the most striking facet of the apartment and serves as an apt parallel to both Erica’s work — whether it be her whimsical and ever-versatile ceramic works or her pop-up installation, The Transformational Makeover Salon — and her view on designing one’s surroundings. “We are all works in progress and so are our homes,” Erica shares. “There is no such thing as ‘done’ when it comes to self-actualization or interior design. I think people should embrace the fact that we are all evolving, changing beings — our spaces reflect that and change with us.” —Kelli
Photography by Stephanie Price / @spriceimages
Image above: The blue-painted kitchen and a sculptural piece by Erica sitting on the dining nook’s table. “My ceramics are intended to adapt to the personality and priorities of their owner in the moment. The freedom to celebrate the multi-faceted and ever-evolving self feels especially important in the current political climate.”
from Design*Sponge https://www.designsponge.com/2018/09/a-bright-evolving-apartment-for-life-growing-creative-works.html
from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/178280696634
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