Though most tourists come to the Veneto region of Northern Italy to see the classic architecture of the great 16th-century architect Andrea Palladio, there are older treasures hidden among the neoclassic Palladian villas.
In 1997, Texas-born decorator Ralph Jones, along with Scott Brown, discovered a medieval stone fortress dating to Roman times, a neglected castle overgrown in lush ivy. The castle is truly something out of a fairy tale, with its towers, battlements, parapets, and wall-enclosed gardens. The old building, which in many ways is a fragment with echoes of previous dwellings, sits in a small valley.
Like the castle, the interior is a testament to Jones' precise eye and his ability to reference many epochs with his uninhibited mélange of furnishings and special finishes. A repeated pattern of large faux-stone circles on black-lacquered walls references the 18th-century stonework of the distant past and the 1930s modernism of the more recent past. Jones also took the terrazzo pattern from the floor and used it for a painted 12-inch-high floorboard. "The entry was not very interesting because it's narrow and long," he says. "So I had to create some interest."
Bookcases surround the main living room. Jones left the terrazzo floors uncovered to reflect light, and he kept the leather furniture and accessories in the same color palette. The chairs are 18th-century Piemontese and are grouped around a 1940s onyx-topped table and a 1940s Barovier chandelier to echo the entry's circles. "The décor for the room had to be practical since it houses our books, which are precious to us," Jones says. A new neoclassic enameled tile wood-burning stove was also added. "That relatively small stove warms both rooms," he says.
