“It seemed like something out of a fairy tale,” said New York designer Carl D’Aquino, summing up his clients’ reaction to the Jacobean-revival home they found in the gated enclave of Tuxedo Park, N.Y. The Manhattan couple sought a weekend escape that would capably accommodate their five children, extended family and guests. They discovered it 40 miles north of Gotham, in an 11,000-square-foot manse built in 1910, amid postcard-ready vistas of Tuxedo Lake and the nearby Ramapo mountains. The home is one of 300 mansions of varying architectural styles—from Greek Revival to Italianate—whose original owners unironically referred to them as cottages. Though the homeowners loved the house for its size and the light, it posed a challenge: how to make its palatial rooms, with their interior columns and archways, feel less pretentious and more welcoming to a young, unceremonious family.
“Tuxedo Park is very formal and grand,” said Mr. D’Aquino, who with his partner Francine Monaco was entrusted with restoring and decorating the home. Indeed, the black-tie attire we now call a tuxedo reportedly got its name when it was popularized by the village’s social set—including J.P. Morgan and Emily Post—after one of the group visited the Prince of Wales in 1886. The future Edward VII favored the short-jacketed alternative to tails “for dinner in the country.” Overcoming the home’s dapper ghosts was among Mr. D’Aquino’s goals, he said: “We needed to make it more comfortable, because this family wasn’t going to live in that manner. This house needed to relax.”
To offset the strong, somewhat foreboding architecture, the designers chose a paint palette of pale colors. Further softness came from well-stuffed and inviting custom upholstered furnishings as well as personal touches. The couple has a penchant for pieces from Asia (where the family spent years), such as the Chinese cinnabar-lacquered barrel stools in the living room. And the children’s hands are seen everywhere, from a gallery of their paintings to palm-print fireplace tiles. “They are so proud and delighted,” said Mr. D’Aquino of the contributing kids.
The Peanut Gallery
When the clients, a couple with five kids, asked New York design firm D’Aquino Monaco to transform the fusty, rosewood-paneled library of their Jacobean-revival house in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., into a family room, the designers were initially stumped. But the parents had saved hundreds of their children’s art works. “We saw this box of beautiful, naive paintings and said, ‘That’s it, we’re done,’” said Carl Aquino. Uniformly framed in gold wood, the art informed the colors of the custom seating and hexagonal-spiral wool rug. The circa-1900 bronze chandeliers and a 13-foot, button-tufted Edwardian couch upholstered in a flame-stitch fabric are a nod to the period of the house. “We had enough playfulness with the children’s art, the rug, modern fabrics and oversize pieces.”
Palms Away
When imagining a children’s playroom, you don’t usually think exposed fieldstone and Tudor-arched windows. So the designers lightened the heavy mood in what Mr. D’Aquino thinks was originally a sleeping porch by incorporating tiles imprinted with the kids’ hands into the fireplace mantel. A cement-topped round table from Perry Luxe surrounded by portable Kartell plastic stools caters to the children. Other pieces, such as a possibly original metal ceiling lantern and the wingback chair, reference the home’s vintage, but upholstery remains unadorned and the lantern, as well as the wall sconces, were punched up with a cobalt-blue lacquer to keep the overall feeling contemporary.
Over-the-Top Rainbow
The 700-square-foot living room boasted 12-foot-ceilings, crown moldings and verde marble columns and pilasters that house folklore says were salvaged from a Manhattan bank. D’Aquino Monaco applied the pastel palette they were using throughout the house in a random repeat of vertical stripes to cover walls, wainscoting, dentil moldings and door trim, successfully playing down the room’s patrician hauteur. Double-tiered Murano glass chandeliers by Venini concede to the period (and scale) of the house, as do the classic seating shapes and the Lee Jofa crewelwork sofa fabric.
Estate Planning
The fieldstone-clad house, with limestone window and door surrounds and large slate gables, sits atop a heavily forested hill on 16 acres that overlook Tuxedo and We-Wah Lakes. “These homes were built for formal entertaining, with grand rooms and classical layouts,” said Mr. D’Aquino. He and his design partner responded to the rooms’ vastness by creating oversize furnishings that, though largely traditional, come off modern by virtue of unpatterned, casual upholstery. Similarly, throughout the house, simple, white linen Roman shades update windows that historically might have been shrouded in brocades layered with tassels, trims and tiebacks.
Parental Concession
The homeowners asked that the 13 bedrooms be casual and inviting. Blue, ivory and white dominate the restful color palette of the linens, and fluffy down comforters, rather than tailored spreads, clothe the beds. White linen shades maximize sunlight and minimize fussiness. Strong believers in the coziness of cushioning (note the tufted bench and armchair), the designers created upholstered headboards for each boudoir. But none of the other rooms’ headboards sport fabric quite as ornate as this master suite’s silk velvet, which is patterned with a goldtone vine. Apparently parenthood has its privileges.