Connecticut Home: Inside a Creatively Reimagined Country Escape

Contributions by friends and colleagues underscore the feeling that the renovation is truly a family affair. Designer Minjae Kim, who once worked in Giancarlo’s studio, is represented by wood benches he fashioned for the couple’s two children, one inscribed “PV” for daughter Paloma and the other “RV” for their son, Roman. The work of designers Aaron Aujla and Benjamin Bloomstein of Green River Project, fellow members of the AD100, appears throughout the house, notably in the signature raffia-festooned club chairs that enliven the living room, and the dining room table incised with an outline of the Green River in upstate New York, which meanders through Bloomstein’s family property. (“The kids use it as a track for marbles,” Jane offers.) The dining room walls are adorned with medallions by ceramist Matt Merkel Hess, representing local flora and fauna, including moths, leaves, horses, birds, acorns, and even ticks, the scourge of Connecticut.

Of course, Jane’s incisive eye and deft touch are unmistakable in the house’s sophisticated color palette, the chic yet unpretentious fabrics and finishes, and the array of antiques and vintage treasures, many collected from local shops and auction houses as well as sources in New York and abroad. Her own childhood desk and dollhouse add a decidedly personal, nostalgic flourish to Paloma’s fetching bedroom. “The look is very traditional, East Coast country-club vernacular—stripes and splashes of hunter green—but all filtered through our lens,” Jane says, describing the aesthetic sensibility that permeates the home. “The process was a true collaboration in every sense, and a chance for Jane to really flex her design muscle,” Giancarlo adds, tipping his hat to his estimable wife. “It was also a unique opportunity to create a home that blends our worlds together.”