Orono Dining Space

Designer: Joy Cacicia, IFDA
Firm: RCC Interiors, Minneapolis, 612-375-7800

One side effect of a big move—whether from a starter home to a grander family residence or from a family residence to an empty nester’s city condo—is that furnishings rarely seamlessly translate from one space to the next. Incorrect scale, fabric, and disparate lightness and darkness can make favorite pieces in the old home all wrong in the new. When a Hopkins couple wanted to buy a bigger home, they challenged their designer, Joy Cacicia, to find a home that would be much larger in size, but that could utilize all of their current furnishings, artwork, and interior accents.

The Orono home Cacicia found was, at 8,000 square feet, more than double the size of their previous residence. Hidden behind a gated entry and long driveway, with a lofty entry hall and an open floor plan, the new home is much grander than the last. For Cacicia, the drastic change in scale was a welcome challenge, and she used the home’s strong interior structure as a starting point for her design. The dining space off the kitchen illustrates the color scheme and eclectic design of the entire home. A calm base palette of crisp white, yellow ivory, and chocolate browns allowed Cacicia freedom in mixing design eras, textures, and scale while simultaneously showcasing the homeowners’ collection of art and glass pieces.

Cacicia brought in a Tibetan rug to anchor the homeowners’ soft contemporary Cy Mann dining set in white leather and chrome and to create a connection to the more classic architectural elements of walnut wood flooring and floor-to-ceiling plantation shutters. Silver framed fruit paintings play off the chrome of the dining set and, when positioned above a Lucite occasional table, become a stark combination of disparate design elements.

In addition to wanting a home that would showcase their eclectic taste, the homeowners also wanted a space that was comfortable, livable, and conducive to entertaining. For Cacicia, that meant making sure everything had a place and that the end design was functional and visually compelling. “The trick,” Cacica says, “is to make the eye go from one visual to the next, all on different planes, so that every time you look at the room, you see something different.”

To the homeowners’ delight, nearly everything from their Hopkins residence made the move. Through good design, the individual items are being redefined in new and stimulating ways.