Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum had only been dating for seven months when they started looking for a Brooklyn, New York, brownstone to buy together. Eight years later, they have parlayed their home renovation experience into a successful business.
In 2018, Slocum and Bordelon bought the 1890 brownstone for $1.5 million and spent the next eight months bringing it back to life.
Slocum and Bordelon met on a dating app in 2017.
Valentina Duarte
Bordelon, 46, and Slocum, 42, are the founders of Brownstone Boys, an interior design and restoration company they launched in 2020.
They’ve written books on renovation and design, appeared on HGTV, and helped dozens of aspiring DIYers accentuate the vintage charm of their homes.
Slocum and Bordelon currently employ four other designers and project managers at Brownstone Boys and have completed more than 32 complete renovations in New York City.
Looking for a house with “strong bones”
The two met on a dating app in early 2017. “For me, it was kind of love at first sight,” Slocum says. On their second date, they discovered they shared a passion for historic architecture, especially Brooklyn brownstones.
At the time, Mr. Bordelon was working in software sales and Mr. Slocum was working at an ice cream company, helping to design and develop new stores.
The couple decided “very early on” that they wanted to buy a home together and began looking at brownstones in the summer of 2017, Bordelon said.
Not everyone was excited about their plans. “My parents were shocked when I told them I was buying real estate with someone I had only known for a short time,” Slocum says. “I just remember my mom telling me I was crazy.”
Bordelon and Slocum purchased the brownstone in October 2018.
Provided by Jordan Slocum
Before buying a home together, the two had a “thorough and honest conversation about finances and what they needed to accomplish their goals,” Slocum said. Bordelon already had experience renovating and reselling apartments as a hobby, and Slocum was saving up to buy her own apartment.
Their goal was to find a home with “good bones” that could be “brought back to life and restored,” Bordelon said. “We wanted a beautiful tree-lined street. We wanted a stoop where you could sit out front and have a glass of wine or coffee.”
In October 2018, Bordelon and Slocum purchased a 2,400-square-foot brownstone in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood for about $1.5 million.
“We had to stretch our budget a lot” to buy the house, Slocum said. They pooled their savings to make a down payment of about $475,000 and took out a mortgage for the rest, Bordelon said.
Learn renovation techniques
Bordelon and Slocum said that when they began renovating the brownstone in late 2018, the main challenge was that the budget was “very limited.”
When a contractor quoted up to $1 million for the project, the couple realized they would have to do much of the renovation themselves.
The couple decided to do as much DIY renovation work as possible.
Provided by Jordan Slocum
Brownstones can be difficult to renovate because of their older construction and materials, Bordelon said. New York City’s brownstone rowhouses are named for their reddish-brown sandstone facades and were primarily built in the late 19th century. There are few artisans left who specialize in working with brownstone, making it difficult to “recreate the beautiful craftsmanship,” Slocum said.
The couple took pains to preserve historic details, including the home’s original wooden shutters. Early on, they hired a wood restorer to teach them how to strip and restore antique wood. This allowed them to “learn the craft” and work on the rest of the project themselves.
Bordelon said the brownstone had previously been used as a short-term rental property, and the layout had to be changed to turn it into a functional home. They converted a former bedroom into a custom kitchen and dining area, and a small, “useless” room into a spacious guest bathroom.
Bordelon and Slocum converted an empty bedroom and bathroom into a spacious kitchen.
Valentina Duarte
Slocum said the initial renovation cost was about $300,000, which the couple paid for from their own savings. To save money, they lived in a brownstone during most of the eight-month renovation project.
Today, Bordelon and Slocum occupy the second and third floors of a brownstone building that they have converted into a duplex with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. They converted the garden-level brownstone floor into a one-bed, one-bath apartment that they rent for $2,500 a month. This covers about half of the $5,000 monthly mortgage payment.
The major renovation is nearly complete, but for design enthusiasts like Bordelon and Slocum, “there’s always another project to do,” Slocum said. The couple recently renovated the living room and kitchen, adding details like crown molding, vintage lighting and a custom banquette for about $12,000.
The living room’s large windows are one of the couple’s favorite features.
Valentina Duarte
Living in their “forever home” is worth it, Slocum says. In October 2024, the couple married in a brownstone hill. “This house is truly our love story,” he continues.
Becoming a “brownstone boy”
While they were renovating the brownstone, Bordelon said Slocum had the “really great idea” to document their journey online, starting an Instagram page and blog called Brownstone Boys.
The blog was featured on Brooklyn’s leading real estate website Brownstoner and has developed a loyal online following of architecture enthusiasts and DIY enthusiasts.
“We were telling our whole story: all the finances involved, what was working, what wasn’t working, the problems we had and how we solved them,” Bordelon says. “It really became a community.”
In 2019, a few months before the renovations were completed, one of their Instagram followers reached out to Bordelon and Slocum asking for help on a similar renovation project.
Bordelon and Slocum agreed to help with project management and design, and other potential customers soon began reaching out.
After taking on their third client, Bordelon and Slocum quit their jobs to focus on Brownstone Boys full time. They officially filed for an LLC in January 2020. “Honestly, I’ve been so busy since then that I haven’t even had time to look back yet,” Bordelon said.
Running a business as a couple isn’t always easy, but Bordelon says each other’s support has been key to their success.
“In almost everything we do and every decision we make, we are two people,” he says. “Of course, there have been disagreements and difficult times to overcome, but I truly believe that has been a benefit and an asset throughout everything we have done.”
