Lofty Living in Williamsburg: At Home with Emily and Archie Coates
Coming from Virginia, Emily and Archie Coates were always bothered by the way people in New York rarely hang out at each other’s homes, so scoring such a spacious loft felt like a major stroke of luck. Emily, a freelance UX product designer, and Archie, co-founder of PlayLab, +POOL, and the architecture magazine CLOG, have hosted art salons, supper clubs, galas, and fundraisers in their north Brooklyn home. When they got this loft in an old tea factory in Williamsburg, they removed the walls on the upper floor, installed the kitchen (the previous tenant had ripped out all the fixtures), and filled it with art by their friends and people they admire, like Mike Perry, Andreas Schimanski, Steve Keene, and Hanna Whitehead. When friends like the street artist Steve ESPO Powers come over, they doodle on a chalk wall; some of the large paintings are Archie’s own work. Friends met through the supper club Emily and Archie hosted regularly for four years attended their wedding upstate, which was catered by neighborhood stalwart Marlow & Sons. These days, they spend most weekends renovating the farmhouse they bought in New Lebanon, which they document via Instagram handle @thefarmisok.
All photos by Seth Caplan.