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As the head of design at Milan-based fashion brand Dsquared2, Federica Viero approaches interiors in the same way she does fashion: with lots of eye-popping shades. “I have always loved interesting color combinations,” says Viero “I could not live in a totally white home.”
When she bought her two-bedroom, two-bath Milan apartment in 2017, she started dreaming up the decor like any smart creative—with a palette and mood boards. Thankfully the 100-year-old space helped provide inspiration, namely the original marble checkerboard floor tiles that held a hint of saffron, which she used as her jumping-off point. In other words, she designed her home from the ground up.
“I just had to find the right color combination for the walls, and all the rest followed,” she says. In the living room, Rhubarb by Paint and Paper Library mingles with a lighter version of the shade she created by adding a dash of white. In the kitchen, Sea Nor Sky licks the entire space.
But in the main bedroom and bathroom, she swapped paint for two different, but equally prismatic mediums: wallpaper and tile. A junglescape from Ananbô surrounds the room where she sleeps, and in a powder room, La Riggiola vintage tile creates a secret garden feel.
Besides the “very ’80s” kitchen and bathrooms, the former of which got a makeover thanks to Plain English cupboards and a faux taxidermy wall, Viero didn’t alter too much else about the space. “I tried to keep as much of the original as I could,” she says.
So when it came to furniture, Viero knew she couldn’t fill the space with completely new items. “I collect a lot of vintage pieces because they give me the sensation of something I know,” she explains, “something that has already been here before, protecting and embracing my soul.” In the living room, that meant ’50s-era bookshelves and vintage leather chairs she scored from Doe & Hope.
In the adjoining dining room, she’s filled a cabinet with her impressive collection of earthenware Staffordshire dogs, which she started buying when she noticed them in books and interiors magazines, where they would sit on top of fireplaces in the English countryside. (Her real pup, a French bulldog named Hildegard, usually takes up residence at her side.)
Together, her vintage finds and rainbow-hued walls create a romantic and history-filled scene, but ultimately she wants guests to feel as at home as she does: “I hope when people come over, they feel warmth.”