Interior designer Maria Vittoria Paggini’s home in Milan is a kaleidoscope of dynamic colours and daring designs that is simply divine
DINING ROOM
The main entertaining space is one of the few rooms with pale walls, allowing the daring colours of the furniture to do the talking.
The download
Interior designer Maria Vittoria Paggini uses this as a bolthole for her working life, a place to stay when she’s in Milan during the week. As well as running her own practice, she has collaborated with brands such as Filippo Salerni and Oltrarno Design.
A recently renovated historic home in the centre of Milan. It has a generous entrance area, leading off that is a living room, dining room and additional dining/office space. A hallway leads to the main bedroom, two bathrooms and the kitchen.
Insidethis Milanese abode there is a vivid sparkle of a perpetual motion, spontaneous and joyful, reminiscent of a dance. Music floats around the home constantly, as buoyant and as important to the overall feel as the colour scheme itself. And yes, that colour scheme. Primary colours against white walls, or jewel tones shimmering in front of rich, deep greens, the kaleidoscopic brilliance straight from the mind of the owner, Maria Vittoria Paggini.
Originally from Tuscany, after seeing the family goldsmith company in Arezzo close, Maria took her first steps in what had always been just a passion: design. Completely self-taught, she was soon working on spaces in Milan. ‘After a few years working within my province, I wanted to raise the bar and throw myself on more stimulating and challenging projects,’ she explains. ‘I started working on stylistic exercises for myself, creating renders of environments that I posted on social media. Then came my first private commission in Milan, and here is where I work the most today.’
With a life split between Milan and Arezzo, where Maria’s two kids reside, the need for a Milanese pied-à-terre was unquestioned, and yet the space – called Ornella Casa Nomade – doesn’t look like a family nest at all, but a multidisciplinary project in which different souls coexist. It is a creative hub, it is a movie set, it is a place to live culinary experiences, but also a domestic art gallery. A crossroads of possible encounters.
At the design level, the house was to be renovated without changing the original floor plan – to keep expenses contained and achieve the most in the shortest time – achallenge for the designer to find radical stylistic solutions. How? ‘Transforming the limit into opportunity,’ explains Maria. ‘I worked with colours, furniture and materials, focusing on decoration and textiles.
