A Rockaways Beach House With a Sauna and Wabi-sabi vibes

The ground floor leads to a kitchen and a dining room that opens onto the courtyard with a glass-style glass window. The stairs lead to the rooms or to a sauna and a cold dive.
Photo: Kat interiors

When Joseph Giacona moved into a four -story Victorian in the Rockaways in 2017, the windows were on board, the plumbing worked barely and the place felt cat pee. It was intestinal work. But doing the work in winter was a nightmare: there was no heat and no insulation. Giacona therefore bought a sauna imported from Finland. “Immediately, it gave me a place to go out,” he said.

Which was the reason for the purchase of the house. Giacona had come to the Rockaways for years to surf with friends, and he started wondering why he did not live there. The prices were cheap after Hurricane Sandy, and he found himself driving around the scouting panels “for sale”. The 93rd Street beach house called because of its location – right next to the best surfing, in a street rolled up slightly above the flood zone. But everything else was a wreck. “It was a disaster,” he said.

The house dates from 1920, and it had an approximate history. The former owners had divided it into separate apartments and even directed a hair salon in the basement before the Giacona bought the place in 2017.
Photo: Kat interiors

Giacona was not an entrepreneur. He had spent his 20 years on tour as a drummer with various groups of blues and found himself practice natural medicine in Williamsburg, where he also started a meditation center. He wanted a house that had the same feeling of calm. “The house itself is almost like a large space of meditation,” he said.

It is also like a large spa. Next to the sauna, he added a cold dive. An outside gateway means that it can come from surfing directly to an outdoor shower in the back which is completely hidden from the neighbors. A Japanese bathtub has been added to the floor right next to an entertainment room, so that he can relax while watching a film on a shooting projector. And on the top floor, a garret with a quiet room and a meeting space, he added a rain shower that is not classified in glass. “I just wanted a large wet bathroom,” he said.

The large wet bathroom.
Photo: Kat interiors

20 minutes in the sauna (right) followed by a cold plunge (left) are the “hot and cold therapy” of the Giacona.
Photo: Kat interiors

He was inspired by Japanese Wabi-sabi – the tradition of raising broken or overcoming, as Broken pottery bondage with gold lines. A kitchen backrest has been reconstituted with bathing pool tiles; The concrete counter includes pieces of sea glass; bumpy floor riverstones the rain shower; And the old windows recovered were suspended together for a bedroom wall. The additional cedar of a project in the backyard found itself outside the sauna, where he exhibited it in the wave model and then added small wooden gulls. “It has become this crazy artistic project,” he said. Also AllUntil a front door of a speakeasy from the 1950s and the windows he motivated with stained glass. One shows the image of a Buddha, another was designed after Picasso “Côte d’Azur“And the shutters above the soaking bathtub include colorful glass shapes that are semi-autobiographical (a Buddha and a pig who refers to his father’s nickname for the house when it was a dismantling).” Each small detail is exaggerated, “said the broker Olivia Ionescu. “It’s handy – but well done.” Which corresponds to the atmosphere of the Rockaways. “They are not the Hamptons,” she said. “We are going to have reggae during the launch party.”

The front door is from Portugal. Its small window opens and closes like an operable window in a speakeasy.
Photo: Kat interiors

The door leads to an open living space. With visions of “a floor sofa almost like a Moroccan living room”, Giacona ended up making follies on a Roche Bobois section. “I was like Oh, I’m out of my range.
Photo: Kat interiors

The Buddha poster that the Giacona suspended in the living living room inspired the window he installed later – a personalized room by the craftsman of Vitrail Patrick Clark. From left to right: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

The Buddha poster that the Giacona suspended in the living room used inspired the window which he installed later – a room personalized by the craftsman in stained glass P … more
The Buddha poster that the Giacona suspended in the living living room inspired the window he installed later – a personalized room by the craftsman of Vitrail Patrick Clark. High: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

The Linked Open part leads directly to glass doors that open, in an accordion style, a rear bridge and a rear courtyard.
Photo: Kat interiors

In front of this lounge area is a kitchen, which the Giacona has completely refused. The tiles have been reconstituted from tiles sold for swimming pools. A concrete counter contains sea glass stains. From left to right: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

In front of this lounge area is a kitchen, which the Giacona has completely refused. The tiles have been reconstituted from tiles sold for swimming pools. A… more
In front of this lounge area is a kitchen, which the Giacona has completely refused. The tiles have been reconstituted from tiles sold for swimming pools. A concrete counter contains sea glass stains. High: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

Outside the kitchen, the rear deck obtained an upgrade with more personalized stained glass by Patrick Clark. Just out of the frame is an outdoor shower and a place to wash and store surfboards. From left to right: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

Outside the kitchen, the rear deck obtained an upgrade with more personalized stained glass by Patrick Clark. Just out of the frame is an outdoor shower and a place for wa … more
Outside the kitchen, the rear deck obtained an upgrade with more personalized stained glass by Patrick Clark. Just out of the frame is an outdoor shower and a place to wash and store surfboards. High: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

The bathroom on the back of the ground floor looks on the outdoor shower.
Photo: Kat interiors

The lateral passage leads directly so that anyone from the beach can rinse before entering inside. A landscaper dug the five -foot courtyard and put layers of absorbent materials to absorb rainwater quickly.
Photo: Kat interiors

The court. A landscape architect helped the Giacona to put native plants, including a bamboo from Rockaways and Chokeberry, which, according to him, is “rich in antioxidant”.
Photo: Kat interiors

The renovation kept only an old fireplace and the beams of the ceilings, which it left on display (right). From left to right: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

The renovation kept only an old fireplace and the beams of the ceilings, which it left on display (right). High: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Interiors … more
The renovation kept only an old fireplace and the beams of the ceilings, which it left on display (right). High: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

The second floor focuses on an entertainment area. A curved space on the back on the left has a bathtub.
Photo: Kat interiors

The sofa faces a broken projector screen.
Photo: Kat interiors

The bathtub has a perfect view of the screen by design. “My days sometimes mean 12 to 1 p.m. on my feet, and I was coming back and I was soaked in the bathtub and watch a film and let all the tension run from the body,” said Giacona.
Photo: Kat interiors

Personalized shutters above a Japanese bathtub are the favorite details of Ionescu in the house. “They are super-unique and truly magnificent,” she said. And they correspond to a renovation that she called “a love story for this house”.
Photo: Kat interiors

The old windows come from Zaborski Emporium in Kingston, where the Giacona arranged them “in a puzzle” which he set up “Little The Little” with the entrepreneurs.
Photo: Kat interiors

Behind the glass wall is a large bedroom. There is a terrace on this room and another at the back of this floor.
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On the third floor, Giacona took the walls to the studs. From left to right: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

On the third floor, Giacona took the walls to the studs. High: Photo: Joseph GiaconaPhoto: Kat interiors

A room on the top floor was the place where the giacona remained while eliminating the rest of the house. “You could hear the ocean when you lower your head.”
Photo: Kat interiors

He centered the bathroom on the top floor around an open rain shower.
Photo: Kat interiors

A living room with a ladder to the roof.
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Stairs to a basement. The Giacona raised the windows to prevent potential flood waters.
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A Finland cedar sauna was its first purchase. He then arranged additional cedar to form the shape of a wave.
Photo: Kat interiors

An soundproofed music room in the basement. “I can play the battery all night and the neighbors cannot hear it,” he said.
Photo: Kat interiors

Photo: Kat interiors