YÚ Interiors
“I realized I was going to die from stress or something,” says Ludlow Beckett, reflecting on the moment he decided to leave his job as a VP at Chase Bank in 1997, after 20 years of working in finance. Upon negotiating a year’s pay in severance, he and his partner moved from Manhattan to Fort Greene, where Ludlow had lived off and on since the mid-’80s.
“I looked around and saw that something different was happening in Fort Greene,” says Ludlow, 65, who grew up in Jamaica and moved to Brooklyn at age 20. A cluster of trendy shops and restaurants, many of them Black-owned, had sprung up since he’d been gone. “I thought, ‘What if I opened a place here where you could buy a candle or books or other gifts, instead of having to go to Manhattan? I wanted to take a shot and use the other parts of my brain.”
Home design had become a newfound passion for Ludlow as he renovated and furnished his new apartment, scouring antique shops and poring over design books. “I went into it with this zeal, this drive, just from not doing what I’d been doing for decades in corporate America,” he says.
He brought that same drive to curating his shop, YÚ Interiors, which he opened in December of 1999. Twenty-one years later, Ludlow is still there selling furniture, soaps, kitchenware, books, lamps and many other beautiful, one-of-a-kind objects for your home.
“I stock stuff that I really love and want others to try.”
Walking into YÚ Interiors is a bit like stumbling upon a treasure chest. The open-space store is a trove of finds that are gorgeous, unique and well-made.
“I think of myself first as a customer, so I stock stuff that I really love and want others to try,” Ludlow says of the curation process for his colorful glassware, vases, lamps, pillows, and new and vintage furniture, along with smaller knick-knacks like candles, soaps, books on African-American art and other cool gifts tucked into every corner of the shop. “I love things that speak to quality and simplicity. And I love color, so I introduce people to things for their apartment that are interesting and even whimsical.”
With a range of price points, you’re certain to find something at YÚ Interiors that you’ll love too.
While Ludlow is passionate about his work, he says being a Black man who specializes in mid-century furniture and home accessories has been interesting. “I’ve sometimes felt caught between the expectation that I should be selling other things,” he says, adding that he’s even had customers ignore him at the store. “But then when they wanted to make a deal for a better price and I came over, you could see the surprise. I left corporate America to avoid a lot of stuff, but you actually don’t. You’re still dealing with some of the same things.”
As the inventory at YÚ Interiors sells and moves, Ludlow has to regularly adjust the space. “It’s always open and bright and colorful, but things are constantly changing in here,” he says.
After more than 20 years of living and working in Fort Greene, the neighborhood itself has changed a lot too.
“What I tend to miss are the artistic customers, people who are artists in a true way, who used to live in the neighborhood,” Ludlow says, reminiscing over the pre-gentrification days when Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems and other greats used to roll through YÚ Interiors and browse on the regular. “But some of them have stayed. People forget that there are a lot of African Americans who still own their property in Fort Greene. I live here and own my apartment, as do a lot of my friends. Sometimes I have to convince them to try a restaurant when there are no other Black people in there, but the way I see it is: We’re still here. So let’s partake in what’s here.”
15 Greene Ave, Brooklyn, 718-237-5878, yuinteriors.com
