Rome with a view

The apartment has come to the current owners virtually unaltered since it was built, immediately after the unification of Italy, approximately in 1880, with its Palladian floors and its interior doors in burr.
The structure was traditional, and it felt absurd to try to change it.
The distribution was conventional, six rooms connected by a corridor with only one bathroom. For each environment, a function.
Despite the fact that, with the renovation, the apartment now provides for a total of three bathrooms, the original setting and distribution have been not only respected, even emphasized.
A living room, a studio, a kitchen, three bedrooms - each of them with its own bathroom - and a small terrace. For each room a function, and every function a color.
Taking a cue from the Palladian floors that have a mixture of various different marbles, the rooms have each been painted in different colors so as to underscore the independence of each one, further enhanced by the choice of furnishings.
The only exception is the studio; having regard of its position in the overall distribution, connecting as it does the living room and the kitchen, here the walls have been covered with a wallpaper of my own design, referencing some eighteenth-century engravings.
Inspired by the beautiful view of St. Peter's Dome from the studio's window, I decided to relate this real presence to other Roman monuments, all of which were the subject of many eighteenth century painters' works, both Italian and foreign, visiting in their "grand tours".
The monuments depicted in the engravings and that were "super-sized" in the wallpaper prints, are various ruins in the Forum and the fountain in the Piazza del Quirinale, with the obelisk and the two colossal Dioscuri statues.
Despite the fact that the preexistences in the building did not have any particular value, I decided to respect the soul, so I avoided mimetic interventions: what is new is shown as such. An example is the Palladian floor of the corridor and the bathrooms, which, because of the new installations, had to be replaced: the way this type of floor combines different stones remains but the scale turns giant.
Some wardrobes are then covered with hand-painted silk wallpaper.
The choice of furniture is eclectic, seventies brutalist pieces live with other contemporary ones, reflecting the personality of the owners, who were looking for a “decorated” home, not rigorous, never afraid to dare with colors.
In my way of developing and interpreting the decor of a home, which is a crucial element to the success of a project, the home's overall context always plays an important role, both in relation to any pre-existing conditions, as well of course to its location.