Page 90 - Architectural Digest - USA (February 2020)
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THE ITALIANATE VILLA’S EXTERIOR.
in a variety of building types, including classic Palladian villas. the originality and eclecticism of their approach, as well as
But I was particularly drawn to the simple, elemental forms their respect for the original Mark Hampton design.”
of the pre-Renaissance farmhouses and estates we visited. We Working in tandem, Pamela Shamshiri, then a principal at
spent our days looking at architectural details and measuring Commune, and Roman Alonso, a cofounder of the firm, devised
rooms to determine why they felt so right. Even in the grandest a plan to imbue the residence with a rejuvenated spirit, keyed
homes, the scale felt perfectly human,” he says. to the unique personalities of their clients, while maintaining
After returning to Northern California, the homeowner and the home’s patrician mien and Old World charm. “It really felt
his collaborators—including Ed Clay, a fine-furniture maker like the house of a bachelor. It needed a center, a heart,” Alonso
and craftsman—set about the task of designing a house equal explains, referring to the design team’s initial focus on the
in grace and nobility to those of its Italian forebears. Later in voluminous great room. “We tried to temper the scale of the
the four-year process of constructing the home, the legendary room and give it a much more comfortable, intimate feeling
decorator Mark Hampton entered the picture. “Mark came for the family,” Shamshiri continues. That effort included the
in when we were starting to get into finishes and architectural installation of a waxed wainscot in an earthy shade of tobacco
details. His expertise and knowledge of history are written as well as the integration of cozy upholstered seating and
across every room,” the husband observes. contemporary designs that tweak the aesthetic rectitude of the
existing antiques. Alonso and Shamshiri also goosed the color
FAST-FORWARD roughly two decades, to 2010. The husband, scheme with tall yellow curtains and a luminous ombré of blue
divorced a decade earlier, had just remarried. “We were starting and lavender on the lofty ceiling. A single, massive Hechizoo
a new chapter in our lives, and we wanted to refresh the house carpet unifies the room’s dining and seating areas.
to express our joint vision,” his wife recalls. “I’d been following The remainder of this first design phase focused on the
the work of Commune for some time, and I was eager to work home’s upper-floor bedrooms, including the eminently serene
with them.” Her husband was less certain. “The Commune style master suite, with its polyglot mix of 1940s Italian glass lamps,
was quite a departure for me. I honestly wasn’t certain they an antique Venetian bed (one of the husband’s family heir-
were the right people,” he confesses. “But I was impressed by looms), a Gustavian console, and a monumental Serge Roche
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