Since founding her eponymous studio in Milan back in 2013, Cristina Celestino has become synonymous with the city. For previous design weeks, she has memorably transformed some of its iconic spaces and hidden gems – from wrapping a tram in colour and pattern in collaboration with Rubelli to reinventing Caffè Concerto and Tennis Club Milano Bonacossa.
This year, she turned her talents to creating the stand for Ethimo at Salone del Mobile (a space inspired by her ‘Seeds’ collection for the brand), as well as designing a convivial dining table for Carpanese’s new ‘Composing’ collection. Milan is the beating heart of her practice, but the designer had started to crave a retreat from the urban environment; a home that would bring her closer to nature – ‘somewhere with a garden and an open view of the landscape’.
‘I’m originally from the Friuli region, from a small town, and I grew up in the countryside, surrounded by vegetable patches and gardens in bloom. For years, I didn’t feel a strong need to reconnect with nature on a regular basis but, more recently, I’ve felt that urge growing,’ she explains.
‘Weekend trips or vacations were no longer enough to fulfil it.’ She found a house overlooking Lake Maggiore and the Borromean Islands that sit at the centre of its blue waters.
Designed by architect Mario Cracchi in the 1950s, it was ripe for renovation and blessed with a 1,000-square-metre garden that has become a living testament to Cristina’s signature soft colour palette. ‘It’s a true garden of delights,’ she says. ‘Not for growing vegetables or fruit trees, but dedicated to flowering plants: azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, camellias. This spring, I focused on irises and gladiolus bulbs – flowers my grandmother used to grow.’
Taking a year to complete, the designer’s work on the interior has been, she says, ‘a careful exercise in balance’. She maintained many original details, including the boiserie in the living room, the bed in the guest bedroom (a piece by the architect) and the windows, while keeping the layout of the home’s upper storey largely untouched.
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This top floor is where the main living areas reside, offering elevated views of the garden and across the lake (just a 10-minute stroll away). Here, Cristina has blended the historical parts of the home with contemporary designs. Notable are the ‘Wave’ sofas by Giovanni Offredi for Saporiti and the ivory-lacquered ‘Sheraton’ sideboard from Acerbis, which mingle with the designer’s own works – an ‘Ace’ coffee table, designed for her aforementioned takeover of Tennis Club Bonacossa, a rug created for Fendi Casa and, in the main bedroom, the ‘Rilievi’ rug, created as a prototype for CC-Tapis. All are pieces that she describes as part of her ‘personal design vocabulary’.
The kitchen and bathrooms have been fully updated and, downstairs, adjoining a veranda that opens out to the garden, is a separate apartment perfect for guests; Cristina, her husband Matteo and daughter Bianca have many visitors, similarly driven to escape hectic day-to-day life in Milan.
Uniting it all is a colour palette that feels as fresh as the breeze off the lake. A large part of this atmosphere stems from the finishes on the walls and floors. They include a light-blue textured plaster in the living room and a glossy marmorino finish on the ceiling. It’s an extension of the original architect’s approach – Cracchi chose the home’s Montorfano white granite and Serizzo-stone floors – as well as a nod to the quarries to be found amid the nearby valleys of Val d’Ossola, Val Formazza and Val Vigezzo.
‘The new finishes were all crafted by a local artisan using lime and powdered stone. It was one of the most challenging and delicate parts of the renovation, but also one of the most rewarding,’ says Cristina, who notes that the quarry that provided the stone for the building of Milan’s Duomo is located just one hour from the house. Linking this property to the surrounding countryside in a very tangible way, they are part of the designer’s material-driven approach to rationalism.
Cristina’s favourite moments in the house include, she says, ‘having breakfast while watching the sun rise between the islands, or observing summer storms as they roll in’. It’s a precious time for communing with nature, and is exactly what this home was intended for. ‘The sky over the lake changes so quickly and, in winter, the snowy peaks in front of us stayed white all the way into spring this year,’ she adds, clearly captivated by her new surroundings.
The designer has found her slice of peace, but the busy hum of Milan still calls, with many projects in the works for the year ahead. There will be a focus on interiors, with a hotel in Venice (the city where she once studied, at the IUAV School of Architecture) and a resort in Sicily planned – opportunities for Cristina to offer others an experience of her calm, serene style. cristinacelestino.com
