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We’ve been following artist/designer/entrepreneur Kai Avent-deLeon’s strikes since 2019. Again then, we photographed her one-bedroom railroad house in Mattress-Stuy, Brooklyn. A yr later, we reconnected when she moved into a bigger duplex in the identical neighborhood, and we shot it for our latest ebook Remodelista: The Low-Affect Residence. Not lengthy after that, she discovered a weekend house removed from the town, in Sullivan County, New York—and as we speak, we’re sharing it with you.
Kai’s roots in Mattress-Stuy run deep (she was born there and each her grandmother and mom dwell within the neighborhood), however she longed for land to name her personal and more room—each literal and metaphorical—for her and her now four-year-old son to roam freely. She discovered it upstate when she stumbled upon a property (3 acres of largely woods) on which stood a run-down Sixties cellular house. It was excellent.
Kai shortly drew up a plan—double the dimensions of the unique 700-foot construction; concrete flooring; a easy, fundamental kitchen made up of workbench-style items; plenty of pottery and baskets; a smattering of antiques; impactful furnishings; and quiet moments of magnificence in every single place—and employed a contractor to precise her imaginative and prescient. Quickly sufficient, she was making weekend journeys to the bucolic property, feeling the stress of metropolis dwelling ease with each mile. “After I’m right here, I’m at peace,” she says. “My every day routine is rather more structured, however not in the best way you assume. I can get up and meditate and work out. And I do stuff round the home. I really feel far more relaxed right here versus within the metropolis, the place I’m making an attempt to get these issues in however am in additional response mode.”
She’s grateful for the open area and what that may do for one’s sense of wellbeing—a lot in order that she desires to share it with others. “This property feels meant to be greater than only a weekend house. I’ve all these associates who work in numerous practices that hook up with wellness. We simply got here collectively and begin doing these retreats—three final summer season, every with a theme,” explains Kai (like “Sensuality and Sensitivity: Connecting to Your Senses By way of the 4 Parts”).
“It began final yr after I was going by means of some private transitions. I discover that a part of my therapeutic comes from [being] surrounded by ladies going by means of comparable transitions.” Right this moment, as we communicate by cellphone, she’s getting ready for one more retreat right here, this time for a gaggle of 9-year-old ladies from her son’s college in Brooklyn. The theme: Rites of Passage, becoming for a property purchased with the categorical function of non-public development and exploration.
Beneath, Kai walks us by means of her particular place. (Observe her on Instagram @kaiaventdeleon for information of future retreats.)
Images by Caroline Tompkins.
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