DESIGN DOYENNE
INTERIORS WHIZ MICHAEL DEL PIERO SHARES HER MUST-HAVE HOME DÉCOR PIECES FOR SPRING ’17.
Interiors whiz Michael Del Piero shares her must-have home décor pieces for spring ’17.
“I don’t like a lot of color,” states interior designer Michael Del Piero—and so it goes for the Chicago native’s new West Town headquarters, whose unassuming all-black exterior surrenders to two airy levels of white-walled industrial chic. But the contents of her first-floor shop are splashier, with rare pieces ranging from understated objets d’art to grand antiques. Here, the namesake of Michael Del Piero Good Design dissects her recent favorite finds.
Del Piero herself designed a lithe, two-tiered iron chandelier ($5,250), inspired by a similar piece she spotted in a Belgian barn years ago. “I loved it and I never got it out of my head,” recalls the 58-yearold Near North resident, “so when I got back, I thought, I want to reproduce that.”
Del Piero generally deals in muted earth tones, but a sculptural, 20th-century French ceramic ($2,600) signed by its makers, Andrée and Michel Hirlet, was “so textural and interesting” that she brought it home from the renowned Paul Bert Serpette antiques market in Paris.
Discovered in disrepair at a market in the south of France, a 17th-century French armchair ($2,800) has since been reupholstered with modern Manuel Canovas fabric. “There was barely any fabric left [on it originally],” Del Piero says, quipping, “Basically, I was buying wood.”
Although a 19th-century leather- and brass-accented jewelry box ($700)—procured from a film prop provider in Germany—has interior storage, Del Piero emphasizes its ornamental appeal. “We’re not [literal] here—at all,” she laughs. 428 N. Wolcott Ave., 773772-3000; michaeldel piero.com