Tom and Angie Wicka | Lake of the Isles

In the living room, the palette is simple, the textures complex. The sofa, settee, and three chairs are upholstered in at least three different fabrics each, while mirrored tables, a crystal chan- delier, and glass accents bring more light into the space. The foil-wallpapered ceiling makes you feel like you’re sitting inside a jewelry box.

It’s hard to improve on the stunning architecture of a 1917 Mediterranean-style Lake of the Isles home, but Tom and Angie Wicka, with their eclectic yet highly refined design style, managed to do just that. When the couple and their children, Nash and Coco, moved in three years ago, most of the walls were white and much of the woodwork was dark. The blank palette was attractive to the couple—and ideal for showcasing their collection of art. The open center structure and two-floor layout made it conducive to giving their son, who suffers from Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, a progressive, degenerative muscle disorder, space to move comfortably around the home. In the two-story, open atrium, the Wickas were able to install an elevator, should it ever be needed. “We want to make sure that Nash never feels like we had to change our lives for him, so we always try to stay a few steps ahead. Inevitably, this could mean moving again in the future,” says Tom. While the first eight months were spent making structural and electrical changes to the home, the months that followed allowed Angie to fill the home with beautiful furnishings and interesting art. Angie had closed her store, Casabella Designs, about four years earlier, and, she says, “with the store closing, this was kind of my last hurrah. I wanted to do with this home what clients would never let me do.” The result is a warm and welcoming space filled with interesting textures, vibrant colors, and magnificent art conducive to both entertaining and children at play.

Bold textiles and colors are given a singular story line with mostly white trim and woodwork.

Starting Over

The couple’s collection of art and a few other personal belongings were the only things that made the move to their new house. “The people who bought our old residence on the other side of Lake of the Isles bought everything, from the furniture down to the bedding,” says Angie. The art, which ranges from flea market finds to a Terrence Payne painting, plays off the eclectic, high-low nature of the rest of Angie’s design—antique pieces from Euro–Nest mingle with $99 chairs from Great Estate Home and Garden. And to make it all their own, Angie had many pieces custom-upholstered by Cindy Green and Mary Jo VanThomme. The aforementioned chairs were done in a medley of bright fabrics and embroidered with prose from the e.e. cummings poem “May I Feel Said He.”

While Angie originally wanted to do the entire home in shades of white, she relegated the pal- ette to the master bedroom. Cream, taupe, and pearly white are repeated throughout the space in different textiles and finishes.

White Space

The master bedroom, which used to be, as Angie puts it, “very Kenneth Cole—blacks and gray—very contemporary,” is now a study in the use of white. “Originally, I wanted to do the entire home in varying shades and textures of white, but my mother said, ‘Oh, Angie, that will be just beautiful, but you know, no one will ever feel comfortable enough to even sit on your sofa if it’s all white.’ And that was the last thing that I wanted.” So white was reserved for the master bedroom. White, ecru, and cream were used on every surface in textures of linen, cotton, marble, and high-pile carpeting. A twelve-photo montage of stunning black-and-white photography of their son and daughter lines an entire wall of the bedroom, adding depth to the crisp palette.

The bright colors of the kitchen are repeated with more intensity in the Wicka children's playroom.

Carnival of Colors

Hardly a swatch of fabric, color of paint, or wallpaper pattern is repeated in the house. “Angie is fearless in putting together different design aesthetics,” says Tom. “I had to have a lot of trust, because it didn’t always make sense to me.” In the kitchen, Angie’s use of five different wallpapers and bright cerulean blue paint keep it whimsical and fun, while the clean white moldings, cabinetry, and woodwork keep it from looking like a little girl’s dollhouse.