Interiors Magazine Feature
When a couple living in the suburbs west of Boston decided to build a house on Cape Cod, the wife expressed a wish that might have taken some people aback: “I want something that is not Cape Cod,” says homeowner Laura Barletta. “I either want to go crazy-modern, like Malibu, or I want to do old-world.” One look at the three-story stone house’s ivy-covered facade, sprinkled with wrought iron Juliet balconies, and it’s easy to see that European won out over California coastal.
“I’ve always loved French architecture,” says Barletta, also the designer, whose keen eye for style developed without a formal education in th e eld. “Buy what you like and it will all work, my mother-in-law once told me,” she says, and the advice has proved propitious many times over. She hunts for heirlooms and other treasures at places as varied as Boston Consignment in Beverly, New York City’s Mecox Gardens and the vast Scott Antique Markets in Atlanta. From Europe come two vintage replace surrounds that you might nd in a baronial hunting lodge, among myriad other eclectic nds. She confesses to having a fondness for anything with carved cherubs.
“Every step of the way, Laura knew the aesthetic she wanted and how to achieve it,” says Lineal Design + Build architect Ben LaMora, who had worked with the homeowner before. “My job was to do the nuts and bolts and to collaborate with the craftsmen, all of whom had very rare skill sets. Every inch of the house, inside and out, is a signicant architectural space.”