The Hazlewood home…
EVEN THE NAME sounds like a fairy tale. The Hazlewoods of Clifton Place. That’s where they used to live. Now the family’s third home in the neighbourhood since 1980 is on Washington Ave., and the two twenty-something daughters just opened a cafe/design shop/boutique that looks like the inside of a gingerbread house. Meet the Hazlewoods — Guyanese-born father Errol, mother Marion, and daughters Elizabeth, 26, and Emily, 23.
The entire family lives together, and works together. The daughters, who recently opened Urban Vintage on Grand Ave., grew up in Clinton Hill. Aside from attending different universities in Pennsylvania, they have lived their whole lives in the neighbourhood.
“The area grew with my sister and me,” said Emily, 23. “It has always been home, and offered what I needed.”
In a way, Clinton Hill is what pushed the sisters into home decorating in the first place. Because their father owned numerous brownstones and other buildings in the area, Emily and Elizabeth often helped him renovate.
Over time, they developed an eye for style, a skill they recently used to design the cafe and the $1.6 million brownstone on Washington Ave. their parents bought in 2008.
This is the third building in Clinton Hill that Errol, 58, has lived in since he moved to the area in 1980. 
Originally from Guyana, Errol came to this part of Brooklyn because he had various family members living in what are now the Clinton Hill Cooperative Apartments. He liked the neighbourhood enough that when he decided to get married, he bought his first building, a two-family brownstone, for $50,000 on Clifton Place.
“That house was my official entry into the neighbourhood,” he said, while showing off his newest acquisition.
The 1860 three-family brownstone that the whole family now lives in is in great condition. It’s in Clinton Hill’s historic district, and the building itself was designated a landmark in 1983.
Because of the rich history surrounding their home, Emily and Elizabeth wanted to keep the vintage vibe, but give it a twist of modernity (like the tablescape in photo). On the walls in the living room, the two-tone striped wallpaper accents the antique couches, a well-worn dressing mannequin, and the dark wood cabinet that Errol bought from a bazaar at Cadman Memorial Church in 1981.
One area where the sisters’ creative eye really shone is the kitchen. Part of a wall is covered with classic-styled printed tin ceiling tiles (actually plastic). The counters are made from crushed glass and concrete, and the exposed brick around the stove gives it a warm feeling.
Next to the kitchen, they took out a closet and turned the space into a secret bathroom, decked out with a mirror sculpture and two-tiered, turquoise-tiled sink.
Down below in the basement, Errol has his home theater, a soundproof room set up like a mini cinema. Finally, says the retired CBS producer, he has what he calls a “man cave.”
Urban Vintage, the coffee shop, restaurant and retail store selling home goods, opened in April, 2010 in the space occupied by a bodega, where the sisters bought candy growing up.
So successful is the antique bohemian décor, that locals already ask the sisters to design rooms in their homes.
On any given afternoon, hip-hop-singing locals in red Yankee caps can be seen talking football, while neighbourhood writers argue over Chilean history.
“Clinton Hill is the kind of New York neighbourhood where you want to know your neighbour,” says Elizabeth, an urban studies graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. “This part of Brooklyn is becoming the epicentre of creativity, design and innovation. Everyone should want to share that. That’s what this place is.”
Mother, Marion works behind the counter with a constant smile. She used to buy diapers for the girls in the old bodega on the same spot. Errol, when not in his man cave watching movies, buses tables every now and then.
The Baked Brie sandwich with homemade turkey is a top seller. So are the shower curtains with photos of the Brooklyn Bridge. The sisters created chandeliers out of chicken wire and ribbons.
“We think of what we want,” says Elizabeth. “We run everything by each other.”
And living at home?
“It’s funny, but we work really well as a family,” she says. “It’s been a dream come true for us all.”
Urban Vintage is at 294 Grand Ave., (718) 783-6045. (NYDailyNews.com)