Several years ago, jewelry designer Madina Visconti di Modrone was walking around Milan’s Cinque Vie neighborhood with her mother when they glimpsed a courtyard past an unassuming façade. “I would love to live in a palazzo like this one,” Visconti di Modrone recalls remarking. At mom’s urging, she asked the doorman if there were any units for sale in the building, a converted 17th-century convent. He grabbed a set of keys and took them for a look. “The apartment was completely destroyed,” she continues. “But I saw these super-high ceilings, the big windows—the rooms. And I could imagine it all in my head.”
The “it” of which she speaks is a diamond in the rough polished to perfection. “I wanted to really express myself,” Visconti di Modrone explains of the property, her first home purchase after years of renting. "So I really played. I had fun with it." Floors were restored using reclaimed boards, and a vacant hearth replaced with an antique fireplace. The elegantly timeworn walls, however, were left exactly as they were. "I wanted to preserve the feeling of the place," says Visconti di Modrone, who considered changing the original doors-she wasn't crazy about the bright blue glass-but eventually fell in love with them. And when she learned that she couldn't fit a soaking tub in the petite bathroom, she installed one in her bedroom, a decorating pivot fit for a 1920s starlet. "It's perfect. I take a bath every night."
Denne historien er fra April 2024-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
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Denne historien er fra April 2024-utgaven av Architectural Digest US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Coats of Polish
Alexa Hampton updates a Manhattan nail salon into an office fit for design royalty
Rays of Light
On the coast of the Yellow Sea, a new cultural venue by two of China's most exciting creative minds looks to the sun
Prints Charming
Heritage textile house Watts 1874 mines England's historic Eastnor Castle for patterns
Be Our Guest
Rockwell Group helps usher a bold new era for W Hotels
Mix and Mingle
At home in Manhattan, Markham Roberts layers treasures of wide-ranging appeal into one ineffable blend
VIVA GLAM
Evoking Art Deco glory, the Studio Sofield-designed NYC residence of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos is a home for the ages
HOME TRUTHS
Settling down after a life on the road, legendary feminist Gloria Steinem finds contentment and a new mission in her Manhattan brownstone, with help from designer Jane Hallworth
PRACTICAL MAGIC
A grand, historic house in the heart of Paris gets a visionary makeover by designer Hugo Toro
stepping forward
To update The Frick Collection, Annabelle Selldorf is honoring the past while meeting the moment
A FINE VINTAGE
Designer Beata Heuman shows a more serious side with a considered redesign of a historic London town house