Cecilia Casagrande Transforms a Newton Victorian

Saltwoods created the streamlined walnut table, and the Allied Maker pendant hanging above it exhibits a verdigris finish.

In the formal dining room, a chandelier featuring glass-and-bronze flowers cascades over a family heirloom table. The homeowner’s collection of china—one set is purple—sparked the room’s color scheme.

Casagrande painted the entry’s heirloom chest Farrow & Ball’s Beverly green to complement the soccer-ball collage hanging in the stairwell.

Casagrande found the family room’s ceiling to be obtrusive, so she covered it in a pearlescent patchwork grasscloth from Mark Alexander.

The Jennifer Shorto fabric on the TV room’s roman shades kicked off the color palette in here. Casagrande had the owners’ Partners in Design sectional reupholstered in a knobby wool blend from Rubelli.

Casagrande replaced the kitchen’s white-and-silver color scheme with shades of blue, green, and gold. She added pops of fuchsia (see the island stools) for good measure.

In the living room of this suburban Victorian, the walls are painted Farrow & Ball London Clay while the mantel is the brand’s Charleston Gray, and the ceiling is Skimming Stone. Interior designer Cecilia Casagrande and the homeowner discovered the vintage rug on a buying trip to NYC.

In the primary bath, Casagrande launched the renovation with a Schumacher wallpaper.

The primary bedroom’s O. Henry House bed wears a plush Pierre Frey Genoa velvet depicting gondoliers on Venice’s Grand Canal.

“I told them, ‘Let’s do something funky and unexpected in the shower,’ ” says Casagrande; witness the row of tiles hand-painted with twenty-four-karat gold.

A Home is Updated for a New Chapter of Family Life

Two and a half years. Room by room. Cut-velvet pillow by cut-velvet pillow. Cecilia Casagrande and her friend-turned-client left no corner overlooked in a stately 1894 Victorian where the woman and her husband had lived with their four children for ten years. Now, with three kids off on their own and the fourth in high school, the homeowner looked around her residence in Newton, Massachusetts, and realized it no longer reflected her personality, nor did it reflect how the downsized family was using the space.

She mentioned this to Casagrande during a high school graduation party, and just like that, they were off to the races.

Layering and Color  Transform Living Spaces

“It started with the living room,” says Casagrande. She presented her clients with groups of coordinating fabrics, and “their eyes just lit up when they realized what the room could be.” Textiles turned out to be a terrific launching point: the husband’s family were the founders of a designer fabric group.

First came the room’s metal-framed side chair. Casagrande complemented it with a lush orange velvet sofa and a smaller green velvet settee that she tucked in the window bay. All the furnishings in the room are, in fact, upholstered in velvet, even the cushions on that initial chair. “It’s such a luxurious fabric,” explains Casagrande. The designer also retiled the original fireplace in a mercurial-like turquoise.

The room went from receiving occasional use to being the most-frequented spot in the house, so it was only natural that Casagrande and the homeowner keep going. One by one, they tackled the family room and TV room, the latter now clad in a metallic and cork wallcovering, its Roman shades flaunting a vibrant orange and turquoise floral pattern that quickly became the husband’s favorite.

The formal dining room’s original paneling was painted a deep purple, while Casagrande wrapped the walls and ceiling in a floral House of Hackney paper. She trimmed the room’s existing celadon drapery to correspond with the purple in the wallcovering. Trim actually became a major theme in the renovation.

“Once I showed her the glory of trims, we couldn’t stop,” says Casagrande, laughing. Curl up with a throw pillow, close a shade, or step into the primary bath’s zellige-tiled shower, and you’ll catch a glimpse of trim in the form of handcrafted rope, cut leather, and, in the case of the shower, even Viola marble.

A kitchen Painted in Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue

Originally, the homeowner thought she could live with some minor redecorating in the kitchen, but she quickly changed her mind after Casagrande replaced the lighting and added a bench to the table. “She said, ‘Okay, now we have to do the kitchen!’ ”says Casagrande. ZK Painting took two weeks transforming white cabinetry with Farrow & Ball’s Oval Room Blue, while Schiefer & Co built a walnut and brass hood that balances out the oversize island.

The entire project wrapped up in the third-floor primary suite. The bedroom conveys a masculine/feminine tension with its leather-accented furniture and lighting juxtaposed with blush-colored bedding, wallcovering, and window shades.

By that point in the almost-three-year process, admits both Casagrande and the homeowner, they were sad to see it all come to a close. “It was such a joy to go one room at a time and to do things so thoroughly,” says Casagrande, wistfully. “I never wanted it to end.”

The homeowner agrees. “Cecilia made every detail look like it was meant to be there—it was almost like magic,” she says.

“And,” she adds slyly, “there’s still one room we haven’t done….”

Project Team
Interior design and builder: Casagrande Studio

Styled by Kaylei McGaw / Anchor Artists