A Living Room Reborn

When we first stepped inside Palazzo Sapori, we understood we weren’t simply renovating a historic apartment — we were inheriting a story. The living and dining room, the emotional heart of the residence, carried echoes of elegance, faded grandeur, and the steady hand of time.

Our mission was not to redesign, but to reveal — to bring forward the beauty that already existed, restore what had been lost, and introduce comfort and warmth without disturbing the soul of the space.

Furniture: Preserving Soul, Honoring Craft

When you restore rather than replace, you listen — and the room tells you what it wants to become.

The Original Sideboard

Among the treasures left by the prior owners was a magnificent sideboard believed to have been crafted by prisoners during the period when Castello Orsini served as a prison. Originally part of a towering 10-foot hutch, it now stands restored to quiet dignity by our falegname, who brought its details back to life while preserving the gravity of its age.

The scale and presence of this piece shaped every furniture decision in the room. It grounded us — a reminder that history should lead, and we are simply its caretakers.

Dining Table & Fireplace Surround

To honor the sideboard’s quiet authority, we commissioned a custom oak dining table and fireplace surround, built by local craftsmen. The stain and pigment were blended to complement the original wood, and a subtle distressing was applied so the pieces would feel born of the same era rather than newly inserted — companions to history, not interruptions.

We wanted the table to carry a sense of rustic elegance — classic and graceful, yet strong enough to welcome real living. It’s beautiful, but not precious; a surface that embraces the occasional plate scratch, the elbow of a guest leaning in to laugh, the weight of shared meals and long conversations. A table you don’t tiptoe around — one that invites you to stay awhile.

The fireplace mantle holds a small secret tribute: a gentle nod to Palazzo Sapori, worked subtly into the woodwork. It’s a quiet gesture, one that rewards the observant and celebrates the dialogue between the home’s past and its renewed life — the kind of detail you may not notice at first, but once discovered, feels inevitable.

Chesterfield Chairs: Time as an Artist

The green Chesterfield chairs were discovered in a small antique shop near Montefiascone — dusty, upholstered in well-worn orange leather of modest quality, yet unmistakably noble in form. Beneath their tired finish, we saw the potential for true club chairs, the kind you might find in a distinguished London library or the lounge of a grand Italian villa — chairs meant for thoughtful conversation, a dram of whisky in hand, and a certain elegance of posture.

During restoration and reupholstery, we asked our falegname to allow time to remain a co-designer. Rather than erasing history, we chose to preserve the natural patina — soft fading along the crown, subtle discoloration where hands had rested for decades.

That gentle wear tells a story: not of age, but of presence.

There is a particular romance in honoring use — the places touched by life become part of the room’s poetry, reminding us that beauty is not always in perfection, but in the evidence of moments lived.

Dining Chairs & a Touch of Red

The dining chairs are original to the apartment, now reupholstered to match the green Chesterfields, creating quiet continuity across eras.

When we acquired Palazzo Sapori, crimson damask fabric covered the wall panels — dignified once, but faded and oppressive in large blocks. As a subtle tribute to that history, we added one deep red Chesterfield sofa, transforming what was once overwhelming into an elegant accent.

A Mid-Century Whisper

In a room steeped in centuries-old murals and timber beams, one piece quietly nods to a more recent era of Italian design — a sculptural tea cart attributed to Cesare Lacca, one of the most influential figures of Italy’s mid-century modern movement.

Lacca was celebrated not only for his refined lines and elegant brass and wood compositions, but for his philosophy:
furniture should be functional poetry — light, graceful, and always in service of conviviality.

His bar and tea trolleys became icons of the period, symbols of an age when entertaining at home felt glamorous, effortless, and deeply social. The cart in our living room embodies that spirit — a gentle bridge between Renaissance ornament and modern Italian sophistication.

Although originally intended as a tea cart, we’ve repurposed it for a ritual far more fitting of Palazzo Sapori: a Negroni cart.

Complete with Fabbri amarena cherries, bamboo cocktail picks, and all the essentials for Italy’s most iconic aperitivo, it stands ready for that magical evening hour when the light fades, music plays softly, and the room invites you to savor a slow drink in good company.

In a home that honors history, it feels right that one piece celebrates not only the distant past — but the Italy of the golden mid-century, when craft, elegance, and social ritual were elevated to an art.

Murals, Motifs & Memory

Painting a Sense of Place

The wall paintings follow the Grotesque ornamentation style, a Renaissance technique inspired by ancient Roman frescoes — whimsical, architectural, and rich with botanical detail. Our restoration artist revived the original work and expanded it, weaving Soriano’s landmarks seamlessly into the architecture itself. Above the fireplace, Castello Orsini rises in romantic silhouette, anchoring the room to the hilltop fortress that watches over the town. Above the sideboard, a delicate scene of Palazzo Chigi-Albani appears, its view faithfully taken from a postcard nearly 75 years old — a perspective that no longer exists today, now softened and obscured by time and trees. The entry wall honors the Church of St. Eutizio in the La Rocca district, a spiritual guardian of the village. And along the wall facing Via Santa Maria, the crests of Soriano’s four contrade — Papacqua, La Rocca, San Giorgio, and Trinitas — stand proudly in quiet heraldry.

Though Palazzo Sapori sits within the San Giorgio district, the home’s scale and presence felt destined to represent all of Soriano, not just one corner of it — a house with a welcome broad enough for the whole village.

Acanthus Motifs

Acanthus leaves, symbols of longevity and tranquility in Italian design, sweep gracefully around the room — a gentle nod to classical and Renaissance heritage.

Lambris

The first meter of wall features painted lambris, an old-world technique mimicking marble inlays. We restored it lightly, keeping every brushstroke intact — another place where restraint was the right choice.

The Doors That Disappear

In historic Italian homes, doors often announce themselves boldly — dark wood, heavy finish, commanding presence. When we first acquired Palazzo Sapori, every door in the entry corridor, hallway, and leading to the bedrooms was painted a deep, heavy brown. Though authentic to a certain era, they broke the rhythm of the space, visually interrupting the ornate wall paintings and delicate ornamentation.

The eye jumped from panel to panel, door to door, unable to rest in the flow of the frescos and murals.

Our restoration artist offered a poetic solution: What if the doors could recede instead of demand attention?

Inspired by the softly worn textures and aged elegance of the room, she stripped away the oppressive brown and hand-painted each door to echo the room’s weathered, layered palette. Pale wash tones, feathered brushwork, and hints of exposed wood mimic the patina of centuries — creating a subtle illusion:

the doors dissolve into the architecture, becoming part of the frescoed walls rather than breaking them.

Today, many guests don’t realize they're looking at doors at all. They feel like painted panels, a whisper of form rather than a fixture, allowing the artwork to breathe and the room to feel uninterrupted — a continuous canvas of texture, history, and artistry.

It is one of our favorite transformations:
a reminder that sometimes, luxury is not in adding, but in disappearing.

Floors, Walls & Finishes

Original Tile Floors

We carefully lifted each original tile to install new plumbing, HVAC, and electrical systems, then set them back by hand and polished them to their original luster. Few things speak more loudly about love for a place than the willingness to pick up every stone and lay it down again.

Light & Atmosphere: Inviting Warmth Back In

When we first purchased Palazzo Sapori, the living room had a single small chandelier — dim, central, and moody in a way that felt unintentionally dramatic, almost as if the room belonged in a classical ghost story.

Light is emotion, and the space needed to feel alive.

We introduced:

• Two hand-blown glass chandeliers — one above the living area, one above the dining table — to soften the heavy beams and lift the ceiling visually

• Gallery spotlights to illuminate the historic paintings above each doorway

• Four lighting zones with dimmers, allowing guests to shape the room like a stage — from intimate candlelight dinners to sunlit morning espresso

Illumination transforms the room from shadowed to shimmering, from somber to soulful.

Analog Living in a Digital World

One thing you will not find in the living room: a television.

Palazzo Sapori encourages guests to rediscover the pleasures of analog life — conversation around a long dining table, board games, laughter, aperitivi, and music played on vinyl, where the act of changing a record becomes part of the ritual.

Of course, each bedroom includes a 50-inch television for comfortable evenings. But in the communal space, the invitation is simple:

Eat. Drink. Play. Laugh. Love. Be present.

A home, not a screen.

A Living Room with Memory and Momentum

Restoring this space was not about freezing it in time but about allowing it to breathe again — full of texture, history, and quiet joy.

Every brushstroke, every plank of wood, every tile underfoot carries a story. And now, as guests settle into velvet chairs beneath gilded murals, new stories begin.