Virginia Design Project
RAJI RADHAKRISHNAN
The Brief: To showcase vintage
furnishings and modern art by
creating a neo-classical background
A
lthough purchased 13 years ago, the home has constantly
been improved to suit the family’s needs but, in the latest
incarnation, the designer remodeled the main level from an
open floor plan to a more enclosed set of private spaces. In
the process, creating a classic backdrop with neo-classical
details including an enfilade that leads the eye from the entry to the very back
of the house.
New walls were raised, wide entry ways were shortened creating fourteeninch thick walls and framing the views from room to room with custom
mouldings. At this stage the home started to feel like an apartment in the fifth
arrondissement. And as the decoration plans began, adding large scale murals
layered yet another level and set the mood firmly for a classic European feel.
But the surprise comes in so many levels as the designer started placing
collectible modern furnishings around the house and the cherry on the cake
goes to the mid-century modern art collection deftly juxtaposed against the
classical murals and mouldings creating the perfect diaoluge between 18th
century Europe and the world in the 20th and 21st century.
Raji Radhakrishnan
www.rajirm.com
ANTICLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: A vintage French sofa in its original red velvet fabric from
the 1940s brings the much needed character along with the parchment covered 1970s coffee
table the scale of which perfectly anchors the space. An Al Held lithograph with it’s colourful
circles is placed over a console table made out of an 18th Century French balcony but the gold
“tooth” stool the designer found at an antiques dealer is the piece de resistance. The kitchen
was a case of subtraction rather than addition, removing upper cabinets and then painting the
background blue became a delightful change like a china cabinet in the middle of the kitchen.
64
Bridge for Design Winter
December
20152015