Tough Glamor: At Home with a Napa Valley Designer - Remodelista
Photographs by Laure Joliet for Remodelista. A cinder block fireplace, shag carpet, and “babyshit blue” colored walls were a few of the daunting details in the 1950s Napa Valley ranch house that Dione Carston and her husband, Ham, faced when they moved in several years ago. Dione, an avid equestrian and interior designer, stylist, and owner of Steed Fine Hoarding & Tack in St. Helena, has filled her own home with her far-flung collections and groupings of high and low objects, antiques, and flea finds. The large wingback chair with elephant ears was from an estate sale; Dione recovered it in vintage Kubo cloth with hemp fringe and zebra print cow hide (a vintage bear throw is draped on top). The mahogany veneered paneled walls and lights are original to the house. Crystal decanters sourced at thrift stores sit atop an R & Y Augousti tray from Paris. The reproduction drop leaf table is a consignment shop find; the Swedish Demi Lune Chairs are from Restoration Hardware. Dione took the doors off the cupboards in the kitchen to create open shelving. A collection of cleavers from a local flea market. The side table in the bedroom was brought back from Mexico, while the chair is a consignment store score. For Dione, “Bedrooms are for sleeping and loving–nothing else. They should be simple, serene and as restful as possible. No technology or televisions, just a place for the mind to rest.” She pulled out the inbuilt closet and placed a Moroccan carved headboard in its place; the walls are painted Benjamin Moore Linen White. Dione had the shower curtain made from linen and leather remnants. An arrangement of dogwood branches on Dione’s dressing table. The blind is made from bamboo garden fencing that Dione cut to size and staple-gunned into the window frame. Dione hangs her necklaces from steel push pins. “I put together a room like an outfit with layers of texture and color,” says Dione of her dressing room. The leather and steel body cast is a lamp and was a find from the Les Puces at Clignancourt in Paris. On the porch off the kitchen is Dione’s “aviary real estate,” nests bought at Pier One that now house finches. The green table is an upside down cow’s watering trough. The entrance to the ranch house is nestled among a stand of trees; Dione also keeps stables for her horses. The exterior of the nearby stables that Ham built for Dione’s two horses.