True colours in Lake Como

It is a rare feat to feel genuinely welcomed into someone’s home over the phone, let alone by two people you’ve never met. Yet the Covid-19 lockdown made a planned trip to the home of Italian furniture designer Dalila Formentini and her Irish artist husband Sean Shanahan in Lecco, near Lake Como in northern Italy, an illegal passage.

So instead, we found ourselves on a WhatsApp call earlier this summer. Fortunately their conversation is as vibrant as the colour palette that defines the former silk factory they call home. “We started it and just did it – there has never been a second of doubt,” says Sean. From the pop-pink floors and wallpaper he handpainted in the hall to the jungle-green chimney breast and the unapologetically all-white summer dining room, their home evokes a sense of joy.

Dalila’s charming Italian tones and Sean’s considerate (if tongue-in-cheek) translations are regularly interrupted by the pair breaking off to roar with laughter or by giggling admissions that they’ve found themselves a little too fond of vodka martinis while in isolation.

Dalila’s coated-iron tables can be found in every corner of this statement yet serene escape. She started designing the tables because she couldn’t find what she wanted: something formal and informal that works as well outside as inside. “The principal impetus is to make things, live with them and see if they work,” she says.

The tables are offset by Sean’s own commanding block-colour paintings, which hang in every room – the first time the celebrated artist has ever lived with his own work. “Dalila insisted we put the paintings in the house and as a consequence of that our home is a constant negotiation between us.”

There is nothing affected about this space. Sean says that he “wouldn’t be seen dead” living in a designer house where it feels as if the “air has been designed”. On the contrary, in this five-bedroom house, 20 miles north of Milan, there is what they describe as an easiness.

“It’s not absurdly large – the rooms aren’t massive, so we can live in an intimate way,” says Sean. “We’re not trying to demonstrate anything here; we’re just trying to live. We know it’s an odd thing, but we were surprised that it was communicable to other people.”

The house is the former home of a wealthy textile boss called Signor Mondini, who was famed for his philandering ways and lived here in “varying states of undress,” says Sean. Mondini industrialised the “once-posh” villa at the turn of the 19th century and ran his silk factory on the other side of what is now the couple’s courtyard. Architecturally, the building stands apart from other houses in the area, mostly traditional villas built by rich Italians who moved into the area in the 18th century, attracted by its beauty and close proximity to the Lombardy capital.

Before the couple became its custodians in 2012, the villa had been abandoned for five years. Having lived in both central Milan and the countryside previously, the couple “took the behemoth on” and, apart from the roof, “did everything” before moving in. Officially the restoration-cum-revamp took them about a year, “but we’re always doing something”, laughs Sean. “Just when you think it’s safe to stop, Dalila has an idea and we start all over again.” He says later, “I’m just her assistant, I promise you,” to more laughter. “She is the one with taste. I’ve always thought that, as an artist, I can’t afford to have taste, so whatever is tasteful here is hers.”

Their combined aesthetic is a diverse mix of flea-market finds, treasured family heirlooms, designer purchases and things that they just like. A pair of bright orange Gae Aulenti bedside lamps brings a warm glow to one of the bedrooms; chairs by Luigi Caccia Dominioni sit proudly in the dining room and, elsewhere, a vintage 1930s cabinet that houses the couple’s collection of Japanese dishes stands beside a green swivel chair from Ikea.

“My life and style are a mishmash,” says Dalila. “It’s actually a question of throwing things out,” says Sean, “but some things have gained such affection and Dalila is very sensitive to all this stuff.” A case in point is an 18th-century tea set depicting rich Milanese women. “Adoro!” purrs Dalila. “Fortunately, ceramics cost a lot less than jewellery, which is handy,” jokes Sean.

The only thing that is off limits is black. “We don’t always get it right with colour, but then we laugh about it,” says Sean. “Luckily we have a very forgiving painter.” The main thing, they agree, “was to do something that was just ours. There’s nothing worse than being predictable or obvious. It happens very naturally. The colours call out to us. It’s a friendly house, the spirit is very positive.”