‘Hidden treasures’

Design duo raids attics to create homes that tell a story.

By: Aleen Crispino
   Home makeover programs abound on TV. Like beauty and clothing makeover shows, they always begin with a literal dressing-down of the hapless homeowner, whose previous decorating choices, with a consistency that defies probability, have all been horribly and hilariously wrong. Cue the trumpets and enter the home designer, self-appointed arbiter of good taste and, above all, master of the ego-leveling, sarcastic putdown.
   Home and apartment dwellers not in the market for rejection might find it a great relief, therefore, to talk to MaryJane Rossi and Veronica Pirone. Partners in Vignettes Room ReDesign, they begin their two-hour room makeover service by investigating their client’s basement or storage closet, not to berate them for their clutter but to identify hidden treasures and highlight them.
   "Every home tells a story," said Ms. Rossi. She explained the origin of the name of the business she started with Ms. Pirone in 2000. "A ‘vignette’ is a tableau in design terms; in literary terms, it is a little story. Your home should tell your story," said Ms. Rossi, who lives with her husband, Hugo Rossi, a Princeton High School language teacher, and two teenaged sons in Princeton Township. Her own eclectic and tastefully decorated home is filled with such small tableaux or vignettes, each artfully arranged.
   A collection of rabbits peeks out from behind stone-covered ivy planters on a kitchen windowsill. A grouping of pewter plates of various patterns decorates a shelf in the dining room. Several small framed photographs are hung in the wall space inside a larger empty frame.
   Family pictures and children’s drawings are important items in a Vignettes design plan and in the Rossis’ home. On the wall next to a print of Botticelli’s "Primavera" is a family portrait painted by one of their sons at age 6.
   "It’s professionally matted and framed," said Ms. Rossi, "which not only enhances the beauty of the room but boosts the child’s self esteem."
   Ms. Pirone, design partner and self-described "spiritual guru" of the pair, summarized the Vignettes philosophy of honoring the familiar and finding beauty close to home.
   "Celebrate life every day," she said. "Use the good china — what are you waiting for?"
   Ms. Pirone, who lives in Hopewell with her husband and their son and daughter, sees the home as a "sanctuary for the spirit and soul."
   "I also believe in creating personal space for oneself," she said, adding that family members need their own individual "place of meditation." It can be as simple as a small table used as a writing desk with a vase of cut flowers, she said.
   Ms. Pirone described the two-hour room makeover process, in which the partners both consult with the client and implement changes. They start by going on a treasure hunt through attics, basements and storage closets, all the while asking questions.
   "What stimulates you with a positive feeling of happiness?" said Ms. Pirone, is one question the pair will ask. "I don’t necessarily go with what’s in the magazines or what the current color is."
   In going through this exploratory process, Ms. Rossi and Ms. Pirone often learn as much about the client’s psychological state as they do about the home.
   "A lot of clients we’ve been involved with, there’s been a death in the family," said Ms. Pirone. "The decluttering process becomes one of self-analysis — what do you love, not what the other person loved," she said. "There is a lot of emotional stuff going on" and it is easier "when there’s someone who can help you," she added. "It’s a very emotional and a very physical job," Ms. Pirone said.
   "Most of our clients are middle-aged women going through some kind of life transition," said Ms. Rossi. She described several typical room makeovers: helping a woman sort through furniture belonging to her mother, who died 25 years ago; turning a child’s bedroom into a guest room for a mother whose sons had grown, and updating the college student décor of "records and crates" for a mature woman.
   With other clients, the task has been one of "blending" rather than downsizing, she explained, such as helping newly married couples to combine their possessions and to compromise on new color and decorating choices, or parents to integrate space for children’s toys into their design plan.
   Even before starting Vignettes, Ms. Rossi developed her decorating style of using ordinary objects in unexpected ways after moving into her Princeton Township home in 1998. The house, built in 1989 by Mr. Rossi and his father, had spacious rooms and blank white walls that offered up an irresistible challenge.
   "How do you fill a large home and make it cozy?" she asked rhetorically.
   She began noticing discarded but still usable furniture by the curb on town clean-up days and at yard and rummage sales.
   "At 5 a.m. I was driving through Rocky Hill to take my son to a sporting event and saw the whole street full of chairs," she said. It took three trips in her Subaru Outback to transport all 12 chairs discarded by an inn to her home. They include several solid oak chairs, of Windsor, ladder back and carved wood design, and three Queen Anne footed maple chairs with embroidered seats. With a little cleaning and refurbishing, they now grace her dining room and add interest to the living room.
   Ms. Rossi refers to herself as "the queen of glean." Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines "glean" as "to pick up or gather together the scattered remainder of grain or other produce dropped or left lying by reapers or other regular gatherers."
   Aided by her husband, a skilled woodworker, and by her own eye for concealed beauty, she has made use of other treasures gleaned from others, such as the dentil molding, once part of a mantel. that now, painted a robin’s egg blue, serves as a wall-length shelf. A discarded porch railing combined with old sculpted bedposts and painted white makes an attractive room divider.
   When Ms. Rossi and Ms. Pirone first met, they had both recently moved and were raising young children. Ms. Rossi has two degrees in English literature with a specialty in Renaissance and modern drama and a background in set design. Ms. Pirone has a degree in paralegal studies — both she and Ms. Rossi have since taken courses in interior redesign at the New School University.
   "Since I was a child I would take rooms apart and redo them," said Ms. Pirone. "I love to make things beautiful."
   With Ms. Rossi, transforming the ordinary into the beautiful is a family and cultural tradition.
   "It’s … in my genes," she said. "My dad would take the dog for a walk and come back with lumber." Her father, a mechanic in a wire factory, also found time to paint finely detailed watercolors.
   Five years ago, Ms. Rossi and Ms. Pirone decided to pool their talents and the result was Vignettes Room ReDesign.
   "We had just started Vignettes right before 9/11 — about a year before," Ms. Rossi said. "Home became more of a sanctuary. People were cocooning. People were spending a lot more time at home and came to appreciate more the every day."
   "Home should be a retreat from the hard-working day," added Ms. Pirone.
For more information about the services provided by Vignettes Room ReDesign, which include two-hour room makeovers, interior design consulting, home organizing, holiday and party decorating and real estate staging, call (609) 818-0890 or (609) 924-7025, or e-mail [email protected].