When Stephanie Wenk and João Paulo Siqueira Lopes first saw the town house where they’d raise their son, Felix, it was beautiful but bland. “The previous owner was an architect, and his taste was quite different from ours,” Stephanie remembers. “It was basically all white, with plenty of Scandinavian and Brazilian furniture.”
As the creative director of Sauer, a renowned Brazilian jewelry company known for its bold gemstones and sustainably sourced materials, Stephanie is drawn to details. She sees how the shape, finish, or even placement of something—like the shade of a round pearl or the cut of a shimmering amethyst—can make all the difference in creating a lasting effect. João, who is an art advisor, is no different. So, when they looked upon this blank box, they were able to discern the feature that made it seem valuable. “I was particularly fascinated by the three arches that can be seen from both the front and the back of the house,” Stephanie says.
Set in the São Paulo neighborhood of Jardim Paulistano and built in the 1940s, the town house was in a calm residential area of the city, but still close enough to the action at its center. There was a front patio with room for a fireplace and a lush garden in the back, sandwiching a pair of bedrooms and bathrooms that provided just enough space to stretch out together. “It was in great condition,” Stephanie says. “There were really no major issues.” The family moved in, and only made a few minor changes to the layout with help from architect Felipe Hess—most notably, they turned the third bedroom into a closet. What concerned Stephanie and João most was how to bring those three arches to their fullest potential. “We wanted to use colors that were joyful, but also nothing too tiring,” Stephanie says.
They hired artist Jejo Cornelsen to paint the connecting spaces in independent yet coordinating hues: a mustard yellow in the family room, a pale pink in the middle entryway, and a sage green in the living room. Together, they highlighted those architectural curves and provided a road map for how they’d like to live in each realm. “The organic pigments also have this natural texture, almost like skin,” she adds.
The family room became the place where they would casually watch movies and read books, so a velvet green couch and a shelving unit were brought in. Across the way in the more formal living area, Stephanie and João wanted to host guests who would gather here after eating in the garden, where João would lovingly serve food he prepared. With that vision in mind, a pink U-shaped sofa was placed under black-and-white geometric art, with nearby chairs mixing straight and round edges. “On one hand, the pink accents against the green is Old English chic, and on the other it has a ’60s futurist vibe with a Brazilian twist,” Stephanie says.
Nearer to the garden, a room where vines crawl on the walls and birds can be heard chirping would be where their son would play on a daybed as they sipped coffee, and, at night, they’d retreat to a space nearly devoid of color so that everything beneath the arches would continue to get their due. Nearly everything they’ve used to bring these playfully refined ideas to life in the last two years was either found at a vintage shop, sourced from a thrift store, or picked up from family. Like in her work, Stephanie wanted to prioritize craftsmanship and environmentalism where she could.
“I don’t think we have one distinct particular style,” she says. “But our work is absolutely connected to our home, in terms of what’s inside it and how we want to feel in it. It’s a kaleidoscope of a lot of different references.”
Art direction by Thalita Munekata
