ART & DESIGN

Double Entendre

by W Magazine

arss_peregalli_search.jpg

Whether they are working on an ancient palazzo or a newly built villa, Milan-based designers Roberto Peregalli and Laura Sartori Rimini bring centuries of charm to their interiors.

1

Photographer: Simon Watson

Decorator Roberto Peregalli and architect Laura Sartori Rimini are renowned for their ability to work in seemingly every historical style, conjuring grand spaces that look centuries old, even when they’re not. Here, a Napoleon III—style salon in a northern Italian palazzo.

2

Photographer: Simon Watson

Peregalli just finished his second home, in Tangier, which he built inside the shells of several ruined houses within the Medina. “It’s what a European in the 19th century would imagine an old Moroccan house would look like,” he says. Here, a bedroom with 19th-century English chinoiserie wallpaper.

3

Photographer: Simon Watson

Peregalli lined the covered courtyard of his Tangier home with 18th-century tiles. He says the interiors were also inspired by the drawings of Delacroix.

4

Photographer: Simon Watson

Another Tangier house designed by Peregalli, with an ancient fountain in the courtyard.

5

Photographer: Simon Watson

Both Peregalli and Rimini honed their skills working for the legendary decorator Renzo Mongiardino, who created theatrical interiors for the Agnellis, Rothschilds and Hearsts. Here, a Turkish sitting room Peregalli and Rimini designed for a house in London.

6

Photographer: Simon Watson

Rimini and Peregalli in their Milan office (a converted apartment) which they’ve occupied since 1993. Although Rimini is happily married to an attorney with whom she has two children, it would be easy to mistake Peregalli and Rimini as a longtime married couple. “She’s very strict!” says Peregalli, somewhat accusingly of his business partner.

7

Photographer: Simon Watson

A dining room showcasing a collection of antique plates in northern Italy.

8

Photographer: Simon Watson

Peregalli covered the ceiling of his Milan dining room with a trompe l’oeil tent but retained the walls’ water stains for their charm.

9

Photographer: Simon Watson

A neo-Gothic oak staircase in a London town house.