The Sisters Who Share a Townhouse

Zoë Wendel at the dining table in her living room. Photo: Wendy Goodman

Back in 2015, Zoë Wendel’s lease was up on her apartment in South Williamsburg. She decided to move in with her older sister, Lilly, who had bought a three-story house in Prospect–Lefferts Gardens with her architect husband, Carter Read, that needed a lot of work. At the time, Wendel was the accessories design director at Opening Ceremony (she has since become vice-president of design at Loeffler Randall). She’d take on the challenge of overseeing the renovation and would live rent free in the process, which took a year and a half.

The house, which looks out on Prospect Park, hadn’t been touched in decades, and Lilly and Carter, who lived a few doors down, bought the building intending to eventually occupy the bottom two floors with their two young children and then rent the upstairs apartment to Wendel. Before they moved in, Wendel would oversee the work, which would include reflooring, painting, redoing the kitchens and bathrooms, installing new windows, and replacing pipes.

“I moved in and lived through all of the construction,” Wendel says. “I moved from floor to floor; I lived on every floor in the building, and I didn’t pay rent then.”

By the time the work was done, in 2017, she had moved into the top-floor apartment and started paying rent.

“I have lived through a lot of evolutions,” Wendel says of her time here, which for a while also involved living there with her then-husband. “I’ve been married, and I am now divorced.” The man she had married moved out in January of 2019. At first it was a hard decision for her to stay in the apartment they had shared. But once she looked at what was available, she decided to make the apartment completely her own, changing out everything in it.

“There were double cabinets here,” Wendel says of the area below the sink, where she put up crocheted fabric in her post-divorce renovation, “but I just stapled this up like a psycho. I just wanted to get rid of it. I saved a lot of images of places when I was redoing my kitchen.”

Today, the cozy floor-through features artwork by many of her family members and finds from LiveAuctioneers.

Wendel is one of four siblings, and she and her two sisters, who all work in fashion, went to RISD (“But we never overlapped,” she says). Their brother, Moses, is a chef. Their parents, Bruce and Doranna Wendel, are collectors and had a show called “Winning Moves: Painted Gameboards of North America” at the American Folk Art Museum back in the ’80s.

Wendel’s trove of treasure includes plastic striped jugs found in African markets in Paris — “I always travel with an empty bag” — and a display of sand-stuffed animals; she finds part of her cache of prized possessions during location shoots around the world. Classes at Greenwich House Pottery a few years ago took such a hold that she finally bought a kiln and convinced her sister and brother-in-law to allow her to put it in the basement of their building. Moving into her kitchen, which has been painted green, we pass a wall hung with green cleaning tools. “This I got at an Indian grocery store here in New York,” she says of a broom. “Whenever I see the green stuff, I get it.”

Right: The flowers for the dining table and mantle were done by Wendel’s friend Sophie Stone. Many pieces in the apartment were found on LiveAuctioneers, including the reclining sculpture on the mantle. Left: A detail of the table set with Cornwall Bridge Pottery that Wendel describes as “beloved earthenware plates from my grandmother.” Wendy Goodman.

Right: The flowers for the dining table and mantle were done by Wendel’s friend Sophie Stone. Many pieces in the apartment were found on LiveAuctionee... more Right: The flowers for the dining table and mantle were done by Wendel’s friend Sophie Stone. Many pieces in the apartment were found on LiveAuctioneers, including the reclining sculpture on the mantle. Left: A detail of the table set with Cornwall Bridge Pottery that Wendel describes as “beloved earthenware plates from my grandmother.” Wendy Goodman.

The French rattan server was found on LiveAuctioneers. The ribbon mat is by Sophie Stone. The blue-and-white Ming-dynasty porcelain-shard duck on the shelf above is a rare treasure found on LiveAuctioneers. Photo: Wendy Goodman

Close-up of the Ming-dynasty porcelain-shard duck. “I lost this piece, and it went for a lot,” Wendel says of the bidding process to get the duck, which was part of a larger collection of Ming-dynasty animals. “It was one of those things that in the end, I won the lottery. It was two weeks after the auction and then I literally got it for like a hundred bucks, the minimum-bid thing.” Photo: Zoë Wendel

The antique blue cupboard is another LiveAuctioneers find. “The painting above is by my great uncle Akiba Emanuel,” Wendel says, “and the African and Guatemalan plastic vessels were collected from travels to Paris.” The figurative lamp is by Marianna von Allesch for RIMA. Photo: Wendy Goodman

“The rattan couch has various pillows, including some made by my twin sister, Olivia Wendel. The drawing at the top right is by Alekos Fassianos.” Photo: Wendy Goodman

“The kitchen pegboard was inspired by Julia Child,” Wendel says. Photo: Wendy Goodman

The kitchen got the most attention in the work done in the apartment. Wendel replaced the cabinet doors under the sink with crocheted fabric. “I just stapled this up like a psycho,” she says. The bamboo drawer pulls were found on Etsy. Photo: Wendy Goodman

“I have collected green utilities from around the world,” Wendel says of the cleaning equipment, “and a Cafe Pasqual’s calendar that I refuse to throw away.” Photo: Wendy Goodman

The bedroom has a vintage quilt found on a recent trip to Wyoming. The Murano-glass chandelier was also a LiveAuctioneers find. Photo: Wendy Goodman

The red earthenware dog lamp was made by Wendel. Photo: Wendy Goodman

“The sand-animal collection is from various beach-town travels,” Wendel says. “I like to stick to the animal-print ones.” Photo: Wendy Goodman