{Home Tour: Understated style in Brooklyn apartment}

Oh, Brooklyn why do you keep doing this to me? Seriously, this place is packed full of apartments that demonstrate how to execute that lived-in and effortlessly stylish look. Remember Zach's apartment last month? Well this one's just as good, but entirely different. Grab a coffee and settle in...

Exposed wood is a recurrent theme throughout Robert and Stefanie's apartment, which adds plenty of warmth and creates a relaxed style.

This must the the first time I've actually hankered after a bricked-up fireplace; normally I can't stand it when fireplaces are like this, but here I like the white exposed bricks. I think the deep varnish of the wooden floor helps to offset the white-based scheme - it's the floor that's become the room's statement feature, adding depth, texture and colour.

This notice board may be quite regimented, but it manages to simultaneously give off a sense of calm and order whilst also being relaxing to look at. This is hard to achieve, but keeping the colours muted and your use of pattern to a minimum will help to shape the look.

The mix of the ultra modern high-gloss sideboard with found pieces such as the tree stump, stops the apartment from feeling over-styled or 'forced'.

The small picture above the fireplace is quite unusual but after a bit of thought I think it fits in with the understated style that runs through the apartment. The battered black hearth in front of the fireplace helps create the lived-in and homely look.

Images: Leigh Davies for The New York Times

The colours are fairly muted throughout the apartment, but the flashes of yellow as an accent colour in the kitchen adds an element of surprise and breaks the scheme up. You can read about why the couple chose the pieces they did for the apartment in the interview with the NY Times.