Dream Project: Italian Tudor

When I first started dreaming up design boards for the kinds of projects we wanted to do, I realized that so many of the homes I was imagining were not here in Minnesota, and one of my goals for the forseeable future is to travel for work less. While we will continue to take on projects across the country, I am really focused on more local work. As I shifted that lens, I was reminded of the wonderful variety of architecture here in the Twin Cities. Case in point: I had begun this design scheme with an Italian palazzo in mind, but realized the spirit of it could translate to this beautiful 1927 brick home on Lake Harriet.

This home has beautiful bones, and the architecture would be incredible to work with! Like so many houses we get to work on, it just needs a little personality! The kitchen and bathrooms could use sensitive upgrades, but really it wants a curated mix of special finds to bring it to life.

While the house is grand in size, it isn’t fancy. The dark beams and some of the rougher materials (stone and brick) keep it a bit more rustic, though the architecture has a proportion and elegance that is lovely. I love the idea of bringing in a mix of pieces that have some ornate details but that aren’t too serious, like the Italian wrought iron console enlivened by the hits or read and teal. European antiques feel right, but as always we would take a broad approach, with pieces hailing from various countries and eras. Getting it right would be so much about proportion, and pieces like the 4-poster bed and pine wardrobe have great scale to eat up some of the air space in those loft rooms. I can see plaster finishes, tumbled mosaics, and marbled wallpaper, like the end pages of an antique book or the journal I bought at a flea market in Florence as a teenager.

What do you think: can you see the vision?