Home Designed in 1889 for One of Last Mayors of Brooklyn
 

 
Writers Sean Wilsey and Daphne Beal spent two years renovating this freestanding, approximately 8,750-square foot home in Clinton Hill, built in 1889 for a Brooklyn mayor. Here, the kitchen and dining room.

Sometimes when writer Sean Wilsey pictures his home in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, he sees a book.

That's because the amount of time and energy that Mr. Wilsey and his wife, Daphne Beal, also a writer, invested in renovating the home might have been equivalent to churning out another tome.

"We really throw a lot of ourselves into everything we do," said Mr. Wilsey, speaking from the couple's second home in Marfa, Texas.
 
The front of the historic free-standing home on Clinton Avenue is pictured.

A bedroom with four-poster beds from the grandmother of co-owner Daphne Beal.

The free-standing home, which has an owner's triplex of about 8,000 square feet and a 750-square-foot garden apartment, was listed this month for $9.875 million with Kyle Talbott and Karen Talbott of Corcoran Group.

Mr. Wilsey and Ms. Beal, who previously lived in Nolita, started looking for a home in Brooklyn in 2005 after Mr. Wilsey finished his memoir, "Oh The Glory of It All." He came across the home on Clinton Avenue in 2009 while riding his bike through Brooklyn and they purchased it for $1.75 million.

The landmark house is part of the Clinton Hill Historic District, designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1981. It was designed in 1889 for Charles A. Schieren, one of the last mayors of Brooklyn before it became a part of New York City in 1898.

Despite suffering from some neglect, the home still had an abundance of historical detail, including original mantelpieces, stone work, tiles, a coffered ceiling and wood carvings, Mr. Wilsey said.
The couple spent several months removing debris from the home before embarking on a gut renovation, which they estimate cost at least $3.5 million.

They installed new air conditioning, wiring and almost 100 new windows for the home, and removed a three-story extension off the back of the house to open up the backyard and make way for a patio. Pine beams taken from the extension were remilled and used for some flooring and wood paneling. Terracotta fish scale tile approved by the landmarks commission was installed on the roof.

"We kept the soul of the house but we had to do everything," said Ms. Beal. "There's a full modernity transfusion that went in there," said Mr. Wilsey.
The renovation was overseen by Gary Jacobson of BlueBird Construction, who has a background in sculpture and drawing.

The couple moved into the home in February 2011 and it was completely finished that September. Ms. Beal worked with a friend, a designer, to furnish the home with pops of color, giving two four-poster beds from her grandmother a bright orange lacquer finish and making a coffee table in a sitting room bright green.
 
A bedroom in the home is pictured.
 
A view of the backyard.

"I grew up in an incredibly colorful farmhouse outside of Milwaukee," said Ms. Beal. "I have this strong feeling that colors should be a part of any home."

Pieces from the couple's travels to places like Bhutan and India feature in the home. The home also has a library with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, a projector screen for movies and plumbing in the basement for a pool that the couple decided not to build.

"Even though it's a grand house, I had a strong feeling it shouldn't be an imposing house and people should feel comfortable wherever they are," Ms. Beal said.

The owner's triplex has eight bedrooms, three full bathrooms, two half bathrooms and a library. A garden apartment has one bedroom and one bathroom.

The couple are selling their Brooklyn home after deciding to live in Marfa full-time with their 7-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son. They have been visitors to the Texas town, which has a well-established artist community, since the 1990s.

In July, Mr. Wilsey has a new book coming out titled "More Curious," which he describes as a "big, sprawling, American type of road-trip book." Ms. Beal is working on her second novel.

Over the past year the house has been rented out for $14,000 a month, while the garden unit fetched $3,500. Mr. Talbott, the broker, believes the main unit could fetch over $17,500 a month in the current market.

Ms. Beal said owning the home has been an incredible experience. "I don't feel like we own the house," she said. "We're a part of the house."