Like many Brooklyn townhouse owners, Ben and Lauren Lindsey viewed the ground-floor apartment in their family home as an opportunity to bring in some extra rent. Following a gut renovation of the former mother-in-law suite (it needed all new water and electrical service), the pair reached out to local artists and furniture makers to help curate the space and turn it into a cozy Airbnb. Then “somehow, somewhere along the way, we had some people ask us if they could shoot there,” says Ben. Now the garden-level unit is a full-time photography location and content creation studio dubbed Localhaus. Brands from Madewell and Vince to Goop and Anthropologie have utilized it for campaigns.

While the neither of the Lindseys comes from an interiors background (he’s a hairstylist by trade; she’s the executive director of packaging for beauty brand Laura Mercier), they have an eye for what makes a good image. “When you think of a photo studio, your first thought is likely a plain box with white walls,” shares Ben. That’s fair, he points out. After all, you want the product to stand out and the room to fade into the background. “But where is the fun in that?” he adds. The idea behind the apartment was to create a tactile, textured environment—think: wax-finished oak cabinets and rustic zellige tile—that would elevate the items, be it shampoo bottles or T-shirts, that are being captured. “It’s ‘work hard, play harder’ under the same roof,” he says.