Studio Giancarlo Valle

In designing his northwest Connecticut family getaway, the founder and creative director of New York–based Studio Giancarlo Valle took cues from the 1860s structure. “The story came from within,” he says. “The house had a very lived-in feeling, and we wanted to keep that spirit but add some extra drama.” After restoring the pine paneling in the family room, Valle created a stately and witty scallop-edged sofa in what he calls “Renzo Mongiardino red” velvet to serve as a focal point. The designer, who has lived in North, Central and South America and earned a masters of architecture from Princeton University, then added statement wood furniture: an antique farm table used as a console, Mexican butaque chairs, Green River Project’s 2019 club chair with raffia upholstery and a Gianfranco Frattini coffee table adorned with a Gaetano Pesce dish. To echo the room’s original plaster ceiling, Valle chose one of his rug designs for Nordic Knots, with a pattern that complements the line work in a Picasso dove lithograph hanging over the fireplace. The finishing touch illuminates Valle’s playful yet sensible taste: “I love the Ingo Maurer paper lamps,” he says. “They provide a very warm glow in the winter.”