The builders were initially nonplussed by a brief that demanded techniques that would suggest an imperfect human touch. On an early site visit, Consuelo was appalled to discover that the loggia’s columns “were perfect” and that the vast, pale roof terraces had all been paved in shiny new bathroom tiles in the practical local vernacular. “In the beginning they really didn’t like our ideas at all—that we wanted things to be deliberately mal hecho’ , as they called it. Then I think they thought the effect was rather nice, and finally they started bringing their other clients to see it.”
The furnishings reflect the family’s world travels, from which they invariably return laden with inspirations. “I love to shop!” laughs Consuelo, who found the geometric-patterned wool carpets piled in the sitting room, for instance, in the remote Moroccan villages of Zagora and Merzouga; those on the terraces were brought back from Turkey, and the brightly colored straw mats in the kitchen and bathrooms from Zanzibar. The new French doors that were, frankly, too brand spanking were limed to age them, while ancient Moroccan ones studded with enormous nail heads were used indoors. The passion obviously runs in the family; daughter Carolina, 22, studying the business side of fashion, brought a wooden kayak back from Bali, and son Giovanni, seventeen, whiles away lazy summer afternoons playing Bantumi, a backgammon-like game with seed-pod counters, which he discovered on Zanzibar. For Consuelo, there’s no better way to spend a summer day than trawling the local hippie markets for handmade jewelry and accessories in hopes that she’ll discover one more treasure. “I always find something that becomes a starting point for an idea,” she says with her wry smile, always dreaming of Marni.