Updating a Nineteenth Century-Type Condominium in Rome

Maurizio Cascella beloved his rental condo in Rome a lot that he stayed there for almost 20 years. When he and his companion, Lorena Munoz, had their first daughter, Olivia, now 3, he approached his landlord about shopping for the place.

A lot to his dismay, they did not strike a deal. “I began on the lookout for a brand new residence with the hopes of discovering one thing related, radiating stile Umbertino,” Mr. Cascella, 46, wrote in an e-mail, referring to the Nineteenth-century Italian architectural type identified for its expressive grandeur.

After a protracted search, he discovered “a compromise that happy me,” he stated — a Nineteenth-century condo close to the Roma Termini practice station that had loads of character, with ornate plaster molding and parquet flooring.

“The factor that struck me concerning the new place was the sturdy resemblance to the outdated home,” he famous.

The compromise? It wasn’t move-in prepared.

When he noticed it, the 1,380-square-foot house was getting used because the workplace of a legislation agency. It had a single lavatory and was cut up into 5 smallish rooms alongside a darkish hall. Luckily, Mr. Cascella, an electronic-music D.J., had met an architect by means of the music competition circuit who might assist him remodel it. So after shopping for the condo in June 2020 for 480,000 euros (about $515,000), he tasked Emanuela Petrucci with turning it right into a enjoyable, hardworking residence for a younger household, with out shedding the weather that attracted him within the first place.

Ms. Petrucci appreciated these Nineteenth-century particulars and was intent on preserving them, however she additionally noticed a chance to inject some new life into the condo. “We fell in love with the standard Umbertino components, however the distribution of the house wanted work,” she stated.

To reconfigure the ground plan, she retained the primary two rooms — for the first bed room and a kids’s bed room — however demolished the partitions between the opposite three to create one massive house for the lounge, eating room and kitchen.

That association didn’t require such a protracted hall, so she was ready to make use of the leftover hallway house to construct two bogs — one close to the bedrooms and the opposite accessible from the lounge.

Then the outdated lavatory may very well be eliminated to create space for a small visitor room, for use largely by Mr. Cascella’s mom. “As a result of we’re Italian, our moms at all times come to our homes, and we at all times want a spot for them to remain,” Mr. Petrucci stated with fun.

The unique parquet flooring and plaster ceilings had been left intact, revealing how the residing and eating room had been as soon as divided, and {custom} cabinetry constructed by Daniele Morelli was put in to maximise performance.

The partitions within the residing and eating room had been wrapped with custom-made, powder-blue shelving to carry Mr. Cascella’s document assortment and stereo tools, and an built-in folding door was added to hide the doorway to the visitor room.

Between the eating space and the kitchen, Ms. Petrucci put in a glass wall that lands immediately on prime of the island. Outfitted with a retractable panel above the island and delicate doorways on both aspect, it permits the kitchen to stay open more often than not, although it may be closed off to comprise cooking smells.

Within the major and kids’s bedrooms, Ms. Petrucci added walk-in closets separated from the sleeping areas by arched doorways impressed by the arches of the Roma Termini station. And simply contained in the condo’s entrance door, an inverted arch serves as a scoop of a bench.

“It’s a spot to take sneakers off, however it additionally feels a bit like a membership,” she stated.

Reasonably than throw away the Brazilian blue marble that lined the outdated lavatory, Ms. Petrucci saved it to construct a espresso desk for the lounge and wall-mounted evening stands for the first bed room.

To finish the house, she helped Mr. Cascella choose furnishings and artwork, together with a concrete eating desk from Forma&Cemento; lighting fixtures from Piccola Bottega; and pink ceramic figures by Emiliano Maggi and work by Marco Emmanuele, from Operativa Arte Contemporanea.

“He’s actually an artwork lover,” Ms. Petrucci stated of Mr. Cascella. “So we determined to place these enormous work and little sculptures round the lounge.”

Due to Covid-related delays, the renovation took greater than two years to finish, at a value of about 170,000 euros (or $182,000). Mr. Cascella and Ms. Munoz moved into the condo in October 2022, after welcoming their second daughter, Clarissa, whereas development was underway.

“It was a protracted, difficult carpentry job,” Mr. Cascella stated, however the wait was price it. “My daughters appear delighted each time they enter and expertise it.”

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