Putting the Pieces Together

Monica Cardanini likens her interior design projects to “a puzzle, with pieces that need to be put together,” she says. “It’s a big interpretation of everything—the architecture, the setting, the family, the lifestyle. It’s figuring out how to create cohesion, whether I’m starting with what’s already there or from scratch.” A recent undertaking for a young family in Woodside entailed a little of both: Cardanini was initially brought on board to decorate the main house that the clients were nearly done renovating, but the scope later expanded to the barn.

The couple had previously worked with another designer on the main house, where they sought to retain certain aspects and enlisted Cardanini primarily for furnishings and window treatments. “I could totally appreciate what was done before me,” she says. “My job was to make things visually flow. To see what was already selected gave me a lot of insight into both of them.”

Take the office: Cardanini used the colors in the existing wallpaper—depicting a lush landscape with rolling hills and a tranquil waterway as well as a stone bridge and manor—as a jumping-off point for her furniture and textile choices. Of course, the clients’ individual preferences factored in, too. “The husband is very traditional and the wife is quite playful,” Cardanini explains. Hence, the inlaid Moroccan side table beside the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman upholstered in leather—a material favored by the husband.

Cardanini’s talent for combining styles is further on display in the primary bedroom, where a Patricia Edwards custom bed upholstered in a Rose Tarlow fabric harmonizes with a vintage Paul McCobb cabinet. And in the powder room, she introduced Cole & Son’s Procuratie con Vista wallpaper, which “marries the classical, with the columns and arches [of a Venetian façade], and whimsical, with the monkeys on it,” she says. 

Patterns were also key in Cardanini’s layered approach to the great room. To complement the white cabinetry and built-ins, plus the blue island, she chose Jennifer Shorto’s Stork in blue for the island light fixture and sconce shades. Meanwhile, the kitchen window shade is Penny Morrison’s Vasari and the family room window treatments are Kravet’s Capparis.

Cardanini’s understanding of the clients’ aesthetics ultimately carried over from the main house into another aspect of the property: She was wholly responsible for the interior design of the barn that the couple converted into a meeting and entertaining venue. Once again, Cardanini drew on a variety of influences to conjure interesting spaces.

In the conference room, the table’s custom stone architectural bases are softened by the curved silhouette of the chairs. Similarly, a round chandelier not only echoes the shape of a window but counters the angles of the vaulted ceiling. Elsewhere, in a nod to the bucolic grounds, the bathroom is lined with the Hunting Toile by Timorous Beasties—“a classic scene done in a really fresh way,” Cardanini notes. 

Which sounds like an apt description of the project as a whole. Consider this puzzle successfully solved. 

Photography: David Duncan Livingston