As the saying goes, it’s the journey, not the destination. But for Athena Calderone, the domestic goddess behind lifestyle site EyeSwoon, and husband Victor, music producer and techno DJ, their journey brought them to a superb destination: a 25-foot-wide Greek Revival townhouse in historic Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

Rewind to 1996 and The Limelight, New York’s legendary nightclub, housed in a Gothic-style deconsecrated church, where Victor first laid eyes on Athena, then a young bartender. A basement apartment in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, set the stage for the next phase of courtship, quarters so cozy they shared a twin Murphy bed. “That’s love,” Athena jokes. By 1998 the two were engaged and exploring Dumbo, then an undeveloped neighborhood with not so much as a grocery store.

“Each time we amplified our space, it also amplified my interest in design,” Athena says, admitting that one early apartment was so stark that when Madonna, who was collaborating with Victor at the time, visited, she asked, “Where is all your furniture?” With each new home, however, the spaces became more nuanced and layered. Eventually Athena enrolled at Parsons to study interior design, and in 2012 she launched a blog, EyeSwoon. “Cooking, decorating, and entertaining gave me a way to bring people together in my home,” she says.