A layered Minneapolis home that puts craft front and centre
In Minneapolis’s historical East Isles neighbourhood, there’s one item getting passed around more often than a casserole dish: a burly and solid wood upright piano incapable of holding a fine tune. After being decommissioned from a restaurant in nearby Kenwood years ago, the antique piece – decorated with hand-carved motifs, no less – has been carefully transferred from household to household. “It’s a terrible piano, but I loved the fact that it’s a neighbourhood fixture,” says its current owner, interior designer Victoria Sass, who proudly displays the instrument in her home studio. “Someday maybe I’ll move and pass it on to another neighbour.”
Until then the piece remains in a house that – much like the piano itself – has lived many lives. Built around the turn of the century, the three-story Craftsman-style abode remains rich in character and architectural charm. At some point over the past few decades, its owners renovated the sprawling property into a duplex, then later into a triplex. In 2017, when Sass – the principal and design director at Minneapolis-based studio Prospect Refuge – and her young family moved in, the process of returning the residence into a single-family home began.
“My house is such a mutt,” Sass says. “Sometimes you think something was original, and the more you live with it, you begin to think it may have been added later and vice versa. It keeps you guessing, which I like.” To help uncover the home’s past, Sass sifted through historical documents at the local library – a fruitful endeavour that revealed the property’s original layout. From there, she invited the home’s previous owners over to learn more about the updates they had made.
Yet despite the hours of historical research, Sass is no purist. Her design firm has built a calling card around the concept of “old homes for young families.” Sass says, “I love recognizing those places that we can respect and honour, but it’s also about keeping people in these neighbourhoods and making the houses work for us today.”
It’s an objective she wisely illustrates within her own house, where original woodwork, period textile and wallcovering patterns, and heirlooms (decommissioned piano included) coalesce with contemporary fixtures and a more intentional floor plan. The eclectic assemblage is an authentic reflection of the residents: a bit Midwestern charm, nodding to Sass’s Minneapolis upbringing; a bit bohemian, drawing eccentric colours and a laid-back sensibility from the designer’s years spent in Santa Cruz, California; and a bit Scandinavian, influenced by a year studying abroad and her husband, a Copenhagen native.
“I think it’s interesting to have family heirlooms next to pieces from RH next to things that you gathered on a trip,” Sass says. “When you only live amongst antiques, even that starts to feel a little expected. And so when you can have a little of everything, it keeps people on their toes.”
Take the home’s arched entryway, wrapped in original wood panelling and complete with a fireplace. Every modern enhancement within the space was made with consideration of the past. Sass commissioned Minneapolis design duo SheShe to create a hand-painted mural rich in symbolic references, a common gesture found in heritage homes. (“I’m the bird with the flappy wings; my husband is the calm, stoic bird,” Sass says.) The room’s pair of vintage swivel chairs, upholstered in a contemporary beige fabric when purchased, even got a retro reimagining: “I had to chuckle because some people would be reupholstering this House of Hackney stripe print into a tasteful beige, but I thought this felt more original to what would’ve been on a rocking swivel chair, but with a fresh twist.”
The wood panels also proceed into the formal dining room, where the first floor’s 12-foot-tall ceilings define the interior. To soften the grand tone, Sass added a bit of texture to the walls using a mossy green plaster paint, a technique that also helped the room’s wall art feel more proportionally scaled. A set of contemporary dining chairs from Gubi, upholstered in a similarly hued suede, pull up to a clean-lined table from RH.
Without that dialogue of varied aesthetics – reflective of one’s nostalgia or travels well spent – Sass says that an interior becomes “a little one-note, a little flat for me.” And that’s coming from the designer with a decommissioned piano in her studio.
1/11Cheerful patterns offer a warm welcome in the entry, thanks in part to a custom wall treatment by local design studio SheShe. Vintage swivel chairs have been freshly reupholstered in House of Hackney’s ‘Rainbow Rose’ Dusk Stripe fabric, and a 1960s Italian mother of pearl light fixture hangs overhead.
2/11In an effort to add more character to the Cloud sofa by RH, Sass reupholstered the support cushions in the Zebulon fabric by Pierre Frey and the seat cushion in a tablecloth by Gregory Parkinson. A 19th-century French military campaign bed, found at an antiques store in New Orleans, has been recovered in a Tibet epingle from Clarence House.
3/11“It’s pure indulgence – things I like and nothing more,” Sass says of her home office, enveloped in Nicholas Herbert’s Golden ‘Toile des Lapins’ wallpaper and fabric. “I call it my pad of butter because when I’m working there, it just glows yellow and warm and buttery.”
4/11Most of the office’s furnishings have been collected over time – the wall-hung plates and floor lamp heirlooms from her grandmother; the rattan chair, a roadside find; and the antique piano acquired from neighbours. A custom silk stripe rug by Temple Studio invites a modern twist underfoot.
5/11Another corner in which Nicholas Herbert’s Golden ‘Toile des Lapins’ is used to deft effect.
6/11With so much of the home’s woodwork preserved throughout the interiors, Sass opted for black-painted wood cabinetry to offer contrast in the kitchen. Richly veined Calacatta marble covers the perimeter counters and backsplash, and plaster paint adds interest to the sculptural range hood.
7/11Contemporary furnishings help lessen the architectural formality – and inject personal touches – in the dining room. “My husband, being Danish, loves his candles,” Sass says of the inspiration behind choosing the RH chandelier. “Everyday, even if it’s a Tuesday night and we’re eating macaroni, we have candles on the table.”
8/11The great room, which was newly renovated after being made into a studio apartment by previous owners, is now a spacious area for the whole family to relax. When designing the interiors, Sass was inspired to “play with the nostalgia of growing up in the Midwest,” as portrayed through the braided rug from Capel Rugs or the lounge chairs upholstered in Schumacher’s checkered Smithton Weave. The latter, Sass says, “felt like a new take on a quilt.”
9/11In a dining nook a few steps from the great room, Swedish pine chairs by Rainer Daumiller from the 1970s surround the table, which is covered in Lori Coti’s Corolla cotton tablecloth. Another candle-inspired chandelier, this time by Arteriors, hangs above.
10/11Wanting the powder bath to revel in patterns, Sass turned to Adelphi Paper Hangers, the American maker known for its historical wallpaper recreations. A trio of custom-coloured wallpapers ensued: Berrian House Sprig on top, Cowing House Border in middle, and Otis Federal Stripe at bottom. Cabinet hardware by Ashley Norton and a faucet by Kalliste add warm metal finishes.
11/11“I think it’s important to keep your references varied and not get stuck in one vocabulary – all-new everything,” Sass says. The primary bedroom offers a perfect example, as bucolic layers such as plaid pillows from Goldfinch or a floral quilt from Collyer’s Mansion meld with contemporary art and lighting. Fixtures include the Vertigo pendant by Petite Friture and shadowy table lamps by Lostine.
