This Whimsical Alpine Chalet Is the Remaining Après-Ski Retreat
In distinction to many ski areas world huge the place resort cities had been purpose-built, Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo is a small village with a centuries-old historic previous tucked between the confines of the Venetian and Holy Roman Empires. Though nonetheless inside the Veneto space, its capital, Venice, is a two-hour drive down winding mountain roads, whereas the German-speaking South Tyrol feels rather a lot nearer; even Austria is barely under an hour’s drive over the valley go. The town—which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1956 and may co-host the next model with Milan in 2026—has prolonged been a favorite trip spot for the worldwide jet set, lured by every its world-class ski runs and its appearances inside the 1963 Pink Panther and the James Bond conventional For Your Eyes Solely.
A visit dwelling in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, designed by Natalia Bianchi for her sister, Alessia Bianchi Bormioli, and her husband, Francesco. Bianchi found salvaged parts of a former stairs—a Tyrolean wood-paneled room—and rebuilt it on-site as a look at. A extreme shelf holds a bunch of Czech glass.
No matter these star turns, Cortina retains a normal style with its alpine construction and combination of locals and journey house owners from all through Italy. The town has on a regular basis had an entice for a pair from Milan, Alessia Bianchi Bormioli and Francesco Bormioli, who spent holidays proper right here as a child when he was rising up in Parma. It was Francesco, a enterprise govt and entrepreneur, who found a property inside the metropolis’s Chiave district and was captivated by its mountain views. Alessia, nevertheless, was initially crestfallen. The prevailing development had initially been a semidetached farmhouse that had burned down inside the Forties and been rebuilt as a ho-hum inn.
The partitions of the entry had been sheathed in render and painted by hand with decorations impressed by these at St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. The dresser is by Flamant.
It wasn’t until she seen {a photograph} of the house from sooner than the fireside that Alessia purchased excited. She instructed her husband that he would possibly proceed with the acquisition on the state of affairs that she would possibly “start from zero.” She then often called her sister, the acclaimed Milanese architect Natalia Bianchi, to see if she would help her cope with this formidable assemble. She agreed directly. “In a way, her palms are my palms,” Natalia says. “She has a strong aesthetic sensibility, and I found strategies to create the world for her to brighten.”
The partitions inside the kitchen are coated in whitewashed render, a textured finish of cement and limestone, and the door is of reclaimed pine with hand-forged iron {{hardware}}.
An infinite draw for the sisters is that the world continues to be residence to many artisans. “The native know-how may very well be very extreme,” Natalia observes. For this enterprise, just about each little factor was made or restored inside 15 miles of the house—from iron door handles to pine beds and wood-burning stoves. This diploma of workmanship allowed them to find quite a few mountain sorts contained in the context of the native vernacular.
Look Inside an Italian Ski Retreat
All by the house, they carried out with a troublesome grain render normally used inside the area as an exterior wall treatment. The textured finish, a mixture of cement and limewash, was an excellent base for layers of painted decoration. This technique is used to its full affect inside the entry, the place, with out moldings or corners, the room feels as if it was excavated from the hillside. Painted rosettes, impressed by St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, envelop the room, whereas ebonized wood paving blocks line the bottom.
The hand-painted decoration inside the main mattress room was based mostly totally on the embroidery on a traditional Russian shirt. The custom-made headboard and ottoman are in Andrew Martin supplies.
This hanging space leads into the lounge and its adjoining piól, a normal balcony made out of a salvaged flat-sawn balustrade, with views of the encircling mountains. Natalia insisted that every the entry and the entire social rooms of the house—the dwelling and consuming rooms and the stube, a Tyrolean wood-paneled room—would occupy this story, the center floor of the four-story dwelling.
A curved staircase hyperlinks this entertaining diploma to the rooms upstairs and the bottom beneath, which accommodates further bedrooms and a light-flooded kitchen that opens onto a big deck the place the family gathers for lunch in warmth local weather. Extra downstairs, the family has simply recently added a spa and well being membership. “My rule is that you just can’t go away lifeless space in a house,” Natalia says. “Every room should have a use.”
The precept bathroom has partitions lined in reclaimed wood planks, just a few of which might be stained pink. The mirror and vanities are custom-made, as are the bone and iron knobs.
This winter, when the Bormiolis and their three youngsters are joined by Natalia and her family, prolonged days on the slopes will culminate in nights of entertaining. There is likely to be drinks and dinner with associates and late-night campfires ablaze inside the iron cauldron saved by the aspect of the house. “Our goal was to create a house with spirit, made on a human scale and imbued with native craftsmanship,” Natalia says. “And,” Alessia offers, wanting throughout the imaginative rooms they’ve collectively designed, “a great deal of magnificence.”
This story initially appeared inside the Winter 2025 concern of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE
