thoughts on interior design

the journey towards designing a well worn Italian villa that landed in the middle of the city

My infatuation with old things extends beyond my wardrobe. Growing up, while other kids were spending their weekends doing organized sports (is this why I have no hand eye coordination?), my parents took my siblings and I to towns dotted along the Hudson River to go antiquing (and also to ethnic supermarkets but that’s a post for a different day). At the time, I hated it and I think they knew that, but these trips usually coincided with a lunch of pizza slices from one of the old school slice joints (I love an old school slice joint!!) and that was generally enough to get all 4 of us to begrudgingly go along with them.

My dad is notoriously cheap. You may say I am exaggerating but I’ll give you some examples. All our clothes were purchased 2-3 sizes too big so we could grow into them. I don’t think I wore a coat where you saw my hands until I started buying my own clothes. Going out for ice cream meant going to the supermarket or drug store and buying a box of ice cream bars from which we each got 1 (trying to get 4 kids to agree on 1 flavor of ice cream is a challenge and is probably why I am so compromising to this day). All of this is to say that we spent a lot of time antiquing because as a activity it was cheap for a family of 6. But now, as an adult, I’m capable of looking at it with a different lens. I think while yes it was a economical weekend adventure, it was also a chance for us to learn taste and quality and to see the potential in things.

I grew up in a small house with a big backyard. My sister and I shared a room and so did my brothers. All of the rooms were filled with old antique furniture. My mom is a painter and lot of the furniture my parents purchased, she ended up refinishing – sometimes staining other times painting. My mom saw anything and everything as a canvas. The house I grew up in was snug and chaotic and an explosion of color and old things. That environment has shaped my taste and my approach to spaces.

To give you some sense of the house I grew up in. All paintings are my Mom's. The fireplace was painted by her as well. The Christmas houses she also handmade.

I’ve been wanting to do a small series on interior design because it’s another area of interest for me. I also happen to be related to one designer and friends with several others - showcasing their style has been something I’ve been interested in sharing because they all have such unique but somewhat overlapping points of view. That series is coming but I thought I could be fun to kick it off with a series on my own apartment - a space that is an absolute jewel box (at least to me) and so emblematic of what I love.

Tyler and I bought our apartment several years ago and when we moved in it was with a hodge podge of vintage items we had collected and a handful of new things were were forced to buy when our previous apartment flooded during Hurricane Sandy (a traumatic experience!!). We did a small kitchen renovation before we moved in (basically new counters). I wanted to renovate the bathroom too but money and time prevented that.

We survived the pandemic in our place. Some may loose their mind living with their partner in such a small space but I love small spaces. Lofts are my worst nightmare. I want cozy. I want to feel surrounded by my things. I need to have my people nearby. But the pandemic made me realize the space could work better and that was how a bathroom renovation turned into an entire apartment renovation.

Villa Borsani in Milan. A home that moved me and was the inspiration behind so much of what I wanted.

The fortunate thing about my sister being an interior designer is she was able to turn my vision into a reality. I had a very specific idea in my mind - the feeling of a well worn Italian villa having landed in the middle of the city. I wanted layers and texture. I wanted a lot of vintage pieces and a slew of different materials (metal, stone, wood, ceramic). We started with a lot of pictures and from there Hayley turned it into something beyond my wildest imagination. You can read the article about it here - I am extremely proud of the work she did (I am Hayley’s number one cheerleader and if you are looking for a designer call her!). I am also extremely proud Tyler and I are still together after undergoing such a renovation. I learned a lot (!!) and have thoughts!

More Villa Borsani. Every room is connected but also has its own distinct personality.

Don’t spend money on nice furniture and then skimp out on accessories. I never thought much about switch plates until we replaced every single light switch, outlet, and plate. You know what makes an apartment look really special? Having everything match. Especially in a small space. I thought this was crazy but now I love how finished such a change makes the entire place look. We used the basic brown plastic switches and unlacquered brass plates. Worth every penny.

The unlacquered brass switch plates that are now all over our apartment. Trying to count how many different types of outlets you have in your house is an extremely difficult and annoying task and you will mess up at least twice. Vases are vintage from our travels - mini from a random town in England and big vase from Puglia, Italy (I have a track record of buying breakable things on vacation.)

Auction sites are your best friend. I love The Real Real but Live Auctioneers is where it is at when it comes to sourcing vintage and antique furniture. Auction sites like that require a bit of a learning curve (you pay a premium to the auction site beyond the price of the piece) but deals can be had and the inventory turns over constantly. Our bedroom nightstands are from there (mid-century Italian that I recently saw someone else selling for 4x what we bought ours for) and so is our coffee table (1940’s French marble! It has a crack in it and I love that). Be VERY AWARE of where the item is located before your bid. Can’t even begin to tell you how many things I had to walk away from because they were in the mid-west. Shipping furniture is expensive. With that being said…

Shipping furniture may be worth it if the pieces are very cheap to begin with. Our living room chairs came from a vintage store in Florida that I found on Chairish (they were upholstered in horrid fabric but we saw the potential). The chairs cost barely $300 which made shipping them more palatable - do a cost analysis in your head to figure out what makes sense. Those same chairs in NY would have probably been close to $1200 or more. Shipping came in around $400 and at 50% less then local, they became a deal.

The chairs that were cheap to buy but expensive to upholster but I love them so much. 1940’s Marble Coffee Table. Vintage lights. The couch we had purchased years ago and just added a seat cover. The antique lights on the fireplace mantle were bought years ago. I love them the second I saw them - they were also totally mismarked and I got them for a steal.

Re-upholstering is eye-popping expensive. You know how I like nice fabrics? Well nice fabrics on a chair cost A LOT OF MONEY. Like a lot a lot. Be prepared for this but also know its entirely worth it. The colors are better, they age nicely, they feel good to sit on. You will cry while doing it but be happy later on. I love my Loro Piana fabric chairs!!

Make paint samples as big as possible and test them out in every room. Light changes how a color looks and you cannot tell that on those teeny tiny little paint samples they give you. Buy a small container of paint, paint some paper and hang it up. I tested close to 10 paint colors before finally settling on one and it required me looking at the colors over the course of several days to feel confident it was the right one.

1800’s burl wood linen cabinet that I use as a dresser (shipping this from upstate was fun), custom Italian lights, mid-century Italian night stand, drawing I found on eBay and had framed in a frame I found in the trash (we love a high/low). Painting above the cabinet by my mom - she made it when she was in college

Don’t buy anything you are going to be too precious with. I think this could be said for every aspect of your life but at the end of the day this is a house. Live in it. The dog sits on almost all our furniture and I want that. We have things deep cleaned periodically and that’s it. I want people to come in and feel like they can plop down. That’s what a home is to me.

Art can come from anywhere. I have paintings my mom made, things I’ve found on eBay, Etsy, and 1st Dibs, photo’s I’ve taken and framed, and art I’ve found at antique shops. Trust your gut and buy what you love. Invest in a good frame, it makes all the difference.

Vintage Murano lights from Etsy in the bathroom. Tapestry from the early 1900's that I found in France. Paintings from a favorite vintage store in upstate NY. Table found on Chairish (from the 1700's!)

Your home is a living breathing thing. Treat it as such. The best spaces and the ones that inspire me the most are deeply layered. Layered comes from time and collecting. How our home looks today has evolved slightly from when these photos were taken because I’ve collected more things and also removed some things. Don’t expect when you renovate that you are done. Maybe you are with the building but time, travel, and discovering new things will make the space evolve. Enjoy the journey and the feeling of never being finished.

Custom drapes which make me weep because I love how dramatic they are. A desk Tyler built because the cost for a custom one was making me crazy. Hayley had the marble top made from a scrap at one of the stone yards and Tyler built the base. An old cow milking bench. Chairs we got for free (!) and reupholstered in leather.

At some point I’ll be over the PTSD of renovating our place (do not recommend undergoing a renovation while working on a make or break career project along with it being the summer your sister gets married) but if you can survive that you can probably survive anything. Some day I will buy the dream house upstate (and maybe Maine too) and we will do this all again.

Sharing a couple of vintage home things that HAVE MY HEART.

LAMPS - I hate overhead lighting with every fiber of my being. We use a lot of lamps. Everyone looks good in lamp lighting. It makes things moody!!

1930’s French Lamps (Ideal on a fireplace mantle!) / 1960’s Chrome and Paper lamp (perfect for a desk or in a kitchen) / Rare 1920’s Bauhaus Lamps (be still my heart - you had me at rare) / Art Deco Bakelite and Hand Decorated Shade (the combination of materials is brilliant here) / Pyramid Table Lamp (I kind of want to buy this for our place) / Barovier and Toso Art Deco Glass Lamp (it looks like an urchin!)

ART - Art is subjective but these are some pieces I like.

1980’s Hatian Bar Scene (as someone who love street photography this feels like the painting version of that) / Sirio Pellegrini 1969 Self Portrait (the colors are so good here) / The Runaway Horse (simple but a statement) / Mid-Century Italian Watermelon (so dramatic and realistic looking - great in a kitchen) / French Landscape Mid-Century (I love how abstract this is - the blues are so vibrant too) French Landscape Take 2 (We have a similar painting above our TV) / Post Impressionist Fish Painting (I love a fish painting) / Ronda Gorge Spain Cliffside (moody in my favorite way) / German School Miniature Marie De’ Medici (I LOVE A MINIATURE PAINTING - I may get this for myself)

DECORATIVE OBJECTS- The easiest way to add personality to a space. I collect ceramics anywhere and everywhere. My collection is vast and I love them all.

1880’s Puglian Vase (Very similar to the one I got from Puglia! These are so special) / Vintage Chinese Lacquer Box with Gilt (This is such a good catch-all for your entry - I have a similar one in our bedroom for Tyler’s “collections”) / Art Nouveau Earthenware Vase (The red handles and geometric design make this so special) / Art Deco Wood And Chrome Centerpiece Bowl (For your mail!!) / 1920s French Art Deco Porcelain Vase By Camille Tharaud (This vase is my ideal color story. Would look great on a shelf or mantle) / Silver Plated Bauhaus Art Deco Shell Bowl (The chicest fruit bowl of all time? I think making the mundane beautiful is the way to go) / Mid Century Etrusca Vase (I love how hand made it looks) / Art Nouveau Vases, Disco Metal, Figurative Motifs, 1930 (Another perfect addition to a fireplace mantel) / Arabia flower ceramic vase (I saw a very similar vase for 4 figures on 1st dibs - with shipping this is under $100)

Hopefully this was a fun departure from clothing?! I think about antiques and vintage in every aspect of my life and wanted to show another way I incorporate it. I hope you liked it. We will be back to regularly scheduled programming next week. xx

All images via Pinterest or taken by William Jess Laird. I may earn a small commission from the links shared.