New Jersey home designed for all ages

INTERACTIVE GALLERY See the house

From Elsa Klensch
CNN Style Correspondent

(CNN) -- It was a 17-room house, with two-story-high ceilings in the main rooms and everything painted stark white. It was not what the owners wanted.

Instead, said the owners, they wanted their newly built, New Jersey home decorated in the style of 18th-century America, with blue as the dominating color.

And one other thing: It had to be a suitable gathering spot for a family with eight children and 13 grandchildren

For interior designer Carl D'Aquino, the job posed some unusual challenges -- and rewards. In the end, D'Aquino said, he was pleased with the final product as he had been in his 22 years in the business.

D'Acquino's clients wanted their newly built, 17-room house decorated in the style of 18th-century America

"It was very interesting. Our clients insisted that every room in the house have child-height furniture," he said. "Almost every setting in this room, in this house, has a children's chair, a child's chair, a child's stool."

D'Aquino solved the problem of the high ceiling in the entrance hall by building a gallery as a second story, with two symmetrical staircases leading to it. He had murals painted on them to please the children.

To make the library cozier, D'Aquino built another gallery, placing bookshelves around the room and choosing a rug in tones of soft blue, gold and corals. Then he added a child's chair.

The master bathroom is equipped with a whirlpool, a standard bathtub and shower stalls

D'Aquino decorated the dining room to be a festive spot, using as a reference the Mount Vernon home of America's first president, George Washington. The dining room table opens up to 20 feet (6 meters) and seats 24 people, beneath an 18th-century, French chandelier.

The kitchen is the best-loved room in the house, where the equipment is modern but the mood is not, with a color scheme of natural wood and counters accessible to kids.

Even the master bathroom is designed with a family in mind. It has a large whirlpool, a more average-size tub and shower stalls.

"I have never been asked to put two tubs in the bathroom before," he said, "and it's very amusing."

Historic Manhattan townhouse comes to life
February 2, 1996

See related sites about STYLE

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.