Tour a Cozy Ridgefield Home with Plenty of Pattern and Color

Interior designer Damna Ferrara complemented the front hall wallpaper with a vintage bench reupholstered in the ochre colorway of Clarke & Clarke’s Dragonflies fabric.

A comfy rust-colored velvet chair and matching ottoman beckon the family to sink in beside the living room fireplace. The gold frames on the mirror, fireplace screen, and artwork add a touch of glam.

Bold artwork from Natural Curiosities dialogues with the Roman shade in a Brunschwig & Fils fabric, while Kravet sofas express the plaid theme.

In the dining room, the Nimbus resin bubble chandelier from Oly is the star.

Cobalt-blue glossy lamp shades by Currey & Company flank a large abstract in the dining room.

Roman shades featuring an embroidered fabric from Thibaut tie the room’s aubergine walls with its cream-colored carpeting and furniture.

A sleek chair from Highland House provides a perch in the primary bedroom.

Stephen D’louhy’s hand-painted mural sets a mod mood for a teenage daughter, while a velvet headboard, shag rug, and mushroom lamp keep it groovy.

Dana Ferraro was searching for continuity for her Ridgefield clients’ new home. On a hunch, the principal of Molly Patton Design asked whether plaid might be a unifying factor for blending contemporary furnishings into a setting with traditional custom-crafted details. And bingo, a design was born. Not only did the young family embrace the idea, but plaids were just one move in a series of daring decisions that elevate a twenty-year-old colonial into a personal space where every element pulls its weight.

The bold details actually start the moment you walk through the red lacquered front door, which serves as prep for some colorful moments deeper in the design. Getting into the grid, so to speak, also happens in the foyer where Ferraro selected Phillip Jeffries’ raised-relief Rivets grasscloth wallpaper to set the stage for the plaids to come. The riveted wall speaks to a mustard-upholstered entryway bench and leads into a living room with comfy plaid sofas accented by midcentury modern side tables and lamps. “It’s all about the layers,”

Ferraro says, summarizing a design philosophy strong on creating 360-degree vantage points. But one element was conspicuously left out of that room. To unify a family with four children ranging in ages from seven to sixteen, Ferraro skipped the television to turn the living room into a social space.

Across the center hall, the dining room needed to do double duty. Beyond hosting sit-down meals for family and friends,it serves as a backdrop for Zoom calls. Rather than erasing the room’s traditional paneling and blue/green Venetian plaster walls inherited from a previous owner, Ferraro celebrated the details. Drapes enhance the wall color, while a triptych of modern plaid art provides pattern. Lightening the mood in what Ferraro calls the dining room’s “primary color moment,” shiny cobalt-blue lampshades and tall three-armed sconces speak to the whimsical cloud-cluster chandelier. Nothing in this house takes itself too seriously.

Ferraro’s specialty are bedrooms, and she interviewed individual family members to capture the synthesis of their ideal personal space. The primary bedroom is painted midnight aubergine, while cream-colored carpeting and a matching ceiling and furniture keep the room from feeling too dark. “And the diagonal channel-tufted headboard adds modernity,” Ferraro notes.

For a teen daughter with a fondness for 1970s mod, Ferraro went groovy with a hand-painted rainbow mural floating above a rust-colored velvet headboard, pom-pom-edged pillows, and a daisy bedspread. A teenage son is keen on camping and all things Adirondack. Ferraro coupled a striped wool Pendleton bedspread with a leather pillow, whimsical wall trophies, faux sheepskin stools, and windowpane carpet. With the room’s hunter-green walls and blackout Roman shades, he can blissfully burrow into his domain until noon. But then, the whole house is custom crafted to bridge disparate desires and hunker down in style.

Project Team
Interior design: Molly Patton Design
Builder: Heritage Homes