For Melissa Lee, the founder of the Brooklyn-based interior design firm Bespoke Only, there is almost no separation between work and life. That reality is reflected in the design of her townhouse in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
Ms. Lee, 45, has always worked from home, even before the pandemic, but the location of her work space has shifted. In 2014, she and her husband, Keye Lu, 48, who works in finance, bought their two-family townhouse and moved into the top apartment, where she worked at the dining room table. When Bespoke Only grew busier and she hired four employees, she designed a makeshift home office in the attic.
A couple of years ago, as her workload grew and she became pregnant with her first child, now 1, she desired even more space, so she and her husband reclaimed the lower unit of their building to create a two-story office and library.
“I couldn’t just be in the attic,” Ms. Lee said, because it is so enmeshed with the main living space that she suspected her office would be continually interrupted by the exclamations of her newborn. “My staff wouldn’t want to be there,” she said.
Born and raised in Taipei, Ms. Lee studied psychology in college and worked as a set designer for fashion shows and private parties before moving on to interior design. As a result, she said she is inspired to design rooms that spark emotional responses. “It’s very much about how you feel rather than what you see,” she said.
