Just a few years after Percy Bright graduated college, he bought a house in Philadelphia. Not too long after, he met Tara Mangini, and the two went on a date to a flea market. There, they found an old embossing stamp that read “Jersey Ice Cream Company.” This collection of elements—an old house, a flea market, and a stamp—were the foundation of a modern-day design partnership that has gained notoriety over the internet and beyond. Tara and Percy of Jersey Ice Cream Co. create interior spaces that feel both historic and brand-new, and their unique partnership serves as a new standard for home renovation in the 21st century.
I met Percy and Tara in a quiet café on a rainy April 2018 afternoon in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I arrived a bit early, and I got a good look at my surroundings. The walls were a peaceful eggshell white, the tables and chairs were soft bentwood, and the space was filled with a pale grey light that filtered through large front windows and reflected off a giant antique mirror. One wall had shelves filled with handmade dinnerware and cookbooks for sale. The two had never been there, but Tara voiced my own thoughts when she arrived: “wow, this place looks like us.”
The duo behind Jersey Ice Cream Co. have been called the “nomadic designers” because they have a history of moving into their projects while working on them. This setup requires a particular type of client—usually one who is relatively hands-off and completely trusting of their vision and capabilities. Luckily, the finished products never seem leave their clients disappointed, so that trust is well-founded.
Just as their clients love the duo’s work, so does the internet. Their projects have been published and shared across design websites, blogs, social media, and even a few major publications, such as the New York Times and GQ. Their style, which Percy sardonically refers to as “shabby chic,” is somewhat distinctive, but ultimately personal and unique to the people and places for which the two design.[1] When asked to describe it, they both shrug and laugh. “It’s been eight years that we have been trying to answer that question,” Percy concludes.[2] Their primary inspiration, they say, is the place itself, which becomes a deciding factor in selecting projects to tackle. They prefer older houses with original details, and a quick peruse of the Before/After section of their website reveals that the couple have an uncanny ability to see past layers and decades of garish design decisions to a home’s true potential.
This partnership operates on a few levels. As Percy puts it, they are in a “personal relationship as well as a business relationship.”[3] The two began thinking about interiors and designing almost immediately once they started dating. At the time, however, they each had relatively little design experience. Percy had studied Greek and Latin at the University of Pennsylvania, heading for a Ph.D. right after completing his undergraduate studies. As he puts it, he “luckily” became burnt out before too long in the field, refocusing his energy on what he had learned in the graphic design elective class he had taken during his senior year. A few odd jobs and an internship later, he was laid off—seven days before closing on the aforementioned Philadelphia house. Tara, meanwhile, was waitressing after quitting an advertising job, all while regretting the photography degree she had pursued at the University of Delaware. When the two met, they were both somewhat lost, waiting for the right creative spark while simultaneously working on Percy’s new house.
The first sign that their collaboration might bear fruit came when the website Design Sponge published the before and after photographs from Percy’s house renovation in 2010. In the photographs, dark red walls were replaced with a light hand-stenciled pattern, cluttered and outdated furnishings were cleared in favor of quirky vintage finds like a row of old theater seats (figure 1) and a repurposed door headboard, and a bead-board wrapped bathroom was reimagined with ever-customizable chalkboard paint. The post attracted a lot of attention (after all, the website attracts two million daily visitors[4]), and the couple began receiving requests to take on other projects. This was a welcome development both creatively and financially. The two knew they wanted to collaborate and create something together, but their joint Etsy shop reselling thrifted antiques was only bringing in about $300 a month. The opportunity to take on home renovations for people other than themselves seemed too good to be true. What had begun as a side project had turned into a viable career for them both.
Although neither Percy nor Tara had any traditional building, architecture, or interior design education, they found that their respective skills in graphic design and photography have fostered the promotional side of their careers. Tara took the photographs of the original home renovation in Philadelphia that they submitted to Design Sponge and continues to photograph each project today. Furthermore, together they were able to design their own website to showcase their work in detail and to describe their services. Early in their career, they outlined what they considered their “dream job:” a client hands them a set of keys and gives them free rein to move in and do whatever they want with the space. To their surprise, their first real client took the bait, and essentially offered that exact situation. “That was the moment,” Tara said. “Even two days before, we thought, this isn’t really working. We aren’t making enough money, we didn’t have real jobs.”[5] This first client offered them a 19th-century farmhouse in upstate New York that she had recently purchased. She truly handed them the keys and they moved in for five months, filling the home with endless vintage finds, reclaimed wood walls, weathered wallpaper, and bold black colorblocking. The effect is remarkable—the farmhouse looks like it has always appeared that way, but with a hint of modern sensibility. This project, also featured on Design Sponge (and now available to rent on Airbnb), gave Percy and Tara the legitimacy to take on other projects.[6]
Their collaboration is absolutely essential to their work and their productivity. The importance of an effective partnership is most evident when they talk about the time they spend in remote locations, working on site without much else to do. Communication is the first priority in this situation—on their first project in the Hudson Valley, they barely took weekends and worked all day, every day, breaking only occasionally to go to Tara’s mother’s house to “eat food and watch tv for 24 hours” before heading back to work.[7] This closeness to the space, however, informs many of their design decisions. By immersing themselves so wholly in their work environment, their decisions become instinctual, led intangibly by what the house seems to say to them. This closeness to each other and to the house puts them on the same page and allows their decisions to be make jointly and almost effortlessly. On the rare occasion they do disagree, they are both startled, which usually gives way to another effortless resolution. The two could not imagine working apart. “It’s hard enough feeling like we’re in a vacuum. But at least there’s somebody else to be like ‘is this cool or is this weird?’” Tara said.[8] Even though their setup makes it hard to escape, it is a huge part of their relationship. The lines between work and life, though cliché, are blurred.
Practically, they seem aware of their strengths within the collaboration. While most decisions are made constantly and together, Percy’s skills lean toward carpentry and wallcovering, while Tara’s visual instincts help the spaces and details come together. That said, the two almost always work completely alone. A few big projects have forced them to hire extra helpers for technical tasks like plumbing, foundation, siding, and architectural renderings, but on the whole the two learn and adapt as the project progresses. This intense collaboration, with little interference from either other employees or even the clients themselves, allow the couple to have complete creative control and assure the projects run smoothly.
One of the hallmarks of their style is a particular type of plaster wallcovering that Percy picked up while working for a firm that did wall treatments for the women’s clothing store Anthropologie. The plaster treatment provides a rough, somewhat unfinished and worn look to the spaces they design, bringing a sense of warmth and timelessness that most renovations fail to achieve. The unfinished look is more technical than it appears, however. “Nobody knows how to do it,” Percy said. “People see our work and think they’ll be able to just DIY copy it… but it takes months and months if not a year to feel comfortable with it.”[9] Other wall treatments, like wallpaper and wood paneling, are signature features (figure 2). This focus on wall treatments seem to guide the rest of their design choices throughout each space. Perhaps this closeness to the walls—the literal structure of the space—provides the dialogue between designer and space upon which these two rely so heavily.
For this exact reason, Tara and Percy lean heavily toward older houses rather than new constructions, because newer houses often have “nothing to say.”[10] They worked on one new construction house that was done in a somewhat historicized way, and Tara says even then the whole time it felt as though they were “making up stories.” When they spend time in older houses, the visualization feels easy. “Look around!” Tara says, “it’s all here!” [11] Other sources of inspiration include other old houses and the signature vintage furniture they find anywhere they go. In particular, they feel pulled towards New England and the Mid-Atlantic, where they both grew up and where most of their projects so far have been located. Without overtly recognizing it, the two seem to feel connected to the architecture, the culture, and the history of the area. Although their designs feel outside of time, they feel deeply rooted in place (Figure 3). On the practical side, even the thought of transporting their equipment and materials to California is too daunting for the couple.
It is difficult to categorize where Jersey Ice Cream Co. falls within the design world. On the one hand, they are not “designers’ designers:” they do not keep up with trends, other designers, or theory. However, they are not part of the easily-consumable, DIY HGTV realm that occupies the mainstream world: their designs are too nuanced and individualized and too responsive to history and place. Their focus on materials, tradition, and intuition combine to place them in an indefinable territory.
The two are careful to say they are not architects. Although they often reconfigure rooms and change wall placements in their projects, the two balked at the thought of constructing a house from scratch. “Maybe if we found some old, Second Empire style building plans,” Percy speculated.[12] Other than that, they are perfectly content working with historic buildings and reinterpreting old spaces for a new century.
In a moment when the world seems smaller and more interconnected than ever, the physical character of Percy and Tara’s work reminds us how big the world really is. In a paradoxical way, since much of their success is owed to their online presence, the hand-crafted physicality of the couple’s work seems like a respite from the internet and social media. Perhaps this is exactly why people like it so much.
Notes
[1] Percy Bright in discussion with the author, April 2018.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Penelope Green, “The Home Designers Who Actually Move In,” The New York Times, October 1, 2016.
[5] Tara Mangini in discussion with the author, April 2018.
[6] See the Airbnb listing at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/8981743?wl_source=list&wl_id=191720348&role=wishlist_owner&adults=1&children=0&infants=0.
[7] Tara Mangini in discussion with the author, April 2018.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Percy Bright in discussion with the author, April 2018.
[10] Tara Mangini in discussion with the author, April 2018.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Percy Bright in discussion with the author, April 2018.