There is a lot to admire in Athena Calderone’s Manhattan apartment : a working fireplace, gallery-worthy artwork, and custom leaded glass doors. But the standout—at least among the AD staff—is the oak-paneled walls, which were artfully refinished by the Brownstone Boys . Sarah Medford, who wrote our April 2026 cover story on the certified aesthete’s new home base, describes them as “the color of chocolate syrup.” And just like a spoonful of liquid Hershey’s, there is something incredibly decadent about the architectural detail.

The use of timber in homes dates back thousands of years—we don’t need to remind anyone that it’s one of the oldest and most sustainable construction materials on Earth. Think of indigenous longhouses or cedar plank homes , both built primarily from wood. Even as drywall grew to be the most ubiquitous wall material, timber framing is still the standard construction method for most new-build homes.…