LEADING LIGHT

Neutrals play a starring role in Schumacher creative director Dara Caponigro’s Bronx home, making it a place that shines bright

- FIONA MCCARTHY

It seems ironic that Dara Caponigro’s Bronx home should be bathed in understated neutrals given her role as creative director of Schumacher, the 133-year-old American textile house renowned for fabrics, wallpapers and trims imbued with a sophisticated combination of colour, pattern and intricate embellishment.

‘I love colour but I’m faced with a lot of it at work,’ says Dara. ‘While I admire people who can mix pattern so well – like Kit Kemp – when it comes to living with it, I wanted this house to feel calm and serene,’ says Dara of the home she shares with her husband David, two grown-up children and dogs Victory and Sasha.

Cocooned by a woodland of tall trees that provide sanctuary for red cardinals, robins, skunks and even coyotes, Dara’s elegant, ivy-festooned, red-bricked 1920s house in the landmarked area of Fieldston north of Manhattan is an oasis of light-filled rooms with wonderfully square proportions. ‘You’d never believe that it’s in the middle of the Bronx,’ Dara says.