Style is all about making a home that ‘looks re
Antea Brugnoni Alliata and her husband Marco Kinloch Herbertson, founders behind home decor brand Roi du Lac, appreciate things “look real but not.”
Stepping into their home in Rome, one is transported to a dream-like space respectful of history while in dialogue with modernity.
Half Sicilian and half Milanese Alliata and half Scottish half Italian Herbertson wanted to find a house in the historic center of Rome in order to get acquainted with Rome’s traditions and habits.
“We immediately fell in love with our house — which is a very simple apartment under the roofs of one of Rome’s most ancient palazzi — the Palazzo Istoriato,” Alliata said.
The light, coming from the windows on both sides of each room, gives one the feeling of being on the top of a mountain, overlooking the walls and balconies and the overlaying of architecture from Medieval Rome.
The Palazzo Istoriato was built by the famous architect Baldassarre Peruzzi between 1532 and 1536 and is part of a network of palazzi owned — at the time and until today — by the Massimo family.
The facade of the palazzo is entirely frescoed and was decorated in 1523 by Daniele da Volterra. In the rooms on the ground floor that now host Roi du Lac’s offices, in 1467 Arnold Pnnartz and Conrad Schweynheim created the first print house in Rome.
The couple love intense colors and fanciful patterns. They have decorated the house, painting the walls with colors created by themselves and laying their own wallpapers and fabrics from the Roi du Lac collection.
“I was brought up between our family’s estate house in Sicily, Villa Valguarnera and the Moroccan city of Fès where I extended my knowledge of the Muslim world and the Arab language,” said Alliata.
That unique upbringing has allowed her to work for several years in the Middle East in the filed of business development for well-known European cultural institutions and museums (such as the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Spoleto Festival or the Paris Museum of Salvador Dalì).
Her husband, Herbertson, created his first brand Kinloch in 2011 for the production of scarves and accessories based on his hand-made watercolor prints.
After selling Kinloch to a Milanese entrepreneur, in 2016, they founded Roi du Lac together.
The distinctive element of the brand, once again, is to be found in its prints.
“Except for the distinct patterns and prints everywhere in the apartment, we love to buy furniture and paintings during our travels,” Alliata said.
“Most of them are connected with our love for Orientalism and the interest for the Western interpretation of the Eastern culture.
“Wherever we live — and whatever the dimension of the apartment — whether in our house in Munich, where Marco and I spent our university years, our stately home in Sicily or our apartment in Rome, the feeling of our home remains unchanged.
“It has a very specific and welldefined mood — international and traditional with a twist.”
The couple loves to combine unexpected colors, brave colors with antiques or a mix of the contemporary artworks that their friends have created for them with the tapestries they design.
“It’s certainly a formal house, organized in a way to be comfortable but at the same time able to host over 200 people for parties and happenings,” she said.
The house is animated by one single vibe, that is Herbertson’s vision of interior decoration.
“Of course, as we are passionate about wallpapers, each room tells a different story. We go from the entry corridor which is decorated with Chinoiserie wallpapers and pagoda lights from the Deco period to the living room, that is a wide, relaxing space with a clear blue color on the wall,” she said.
There, on the left, one enters the dining room with Ottoman-inspired bicolor wallpaper to the bedroom in which the walls are decorated with a classic Japanese motif.
“We have a few pieces at home dear to our hearts,” she said.
“The wax sculptures are by Giuseppe Ducrot for Roi du Lac. Giuseppe works o and motifs in his way and the wax c ated for us always have two wall tape lot the designs typ son carpets: For th them as carpets,” A
Other highligh ceramics the coup and abroad, repre or classical elemen production in Bass
“In general, we t pensive pieces, bu more of a graphic terpretation of tha moment or style,”
Alliata said the home welcoming i