Sibling styles
[Times photo: Fraser Hale]
The rug was the inspiration for the eclectic living room in Gail Bernucca’s house in Harbour Island in Tampa, above. “I already had everything in this room,” she said, much of it purchased when they lived in Detroit, “where my designer pushed me to contemporary.”
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The designer of twin sisters' homes faces a challenge: Help each one create what she wants without making one too much like the other.
By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 13, 2002
THE CHALLENGE: Twin sisters hire the same interior designer to do their homes on Harbour Island in Tampa. One's married with a son; one's single. One sister has a houseful of furniture; the other has almost nothing. One sister loves to visit the showrooms; one hates to shop. They like some of the same colors (well, sort of). One's more formal than the other (well, maybe). One sister's request to the designer: "Don't make my sister's house look like mine."
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[Times photo: Fraser Hale] Sara Ingber can look down on the family room-kitchen — “Sara’s bistro,” the designer calls it — in her Harbour Island townhouse.
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THE SISTERS: Gail Bernucca and Sara Ingber, 47 years old (they're fraternal twins; Gail is older by two minutes). Gail and her husband, Lou, are the parents of Matthew, 14; Gail's a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. Sara is single and self-employed as a manufacturer's representative for technical parts.
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THE SISTERS
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THE DESIGNER
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[Times photos: Fraser Hale]
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THE DESIGNER: Patricia M. "Trish" Wiley of Platinum Panache Interior Design Service in Tampa. Gail's hair stylist recommended Trish when Gail and Lou were starting to plan the 3,314-square-foot Charleston side-entry house they moved into in 1999. Sara saw and liked her sister's home and hired Trish when she moved into her 2,924-square-foot townhouse last June.
GAIL'S STORY: "I brought all my furniture with me," with the exception of Matt's room, from their former home in Hyde Park, collected over the years when they lived in Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh. That included stunning area rugs that became the focus of the new living and dining rooms, and some fine works of art. Trish reupholstered the furniture in the family room, the dining room chairs and some of the pull-up chairs in the living room. She took the cue for the master bedroom from some Chinese lamps Gail bought years ago in Boston, playing off their colors of black, white and Chinese red. The carved wood chandelier over the kitchen island, Gail said, "We had for years. Funny, when you develop a sense of taste and self, things you had a long time ago just keep fitting when you go from house to house." On shopping: "I go into a showroom, I glaze in 30 seconds, I can't handle it. I can't stand shopping." Trish brought samples to her and let her choose. On taste: "I think I have a much more traditional floor plan" than Sara. "We both like color, but the tones and shades are different. I'm more into bolder, in general. I'm a green person, and I like tones of red and things like that."
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| [Times photo: Fraser Hale] |
| The hand-painted, mosaic-look backsplash in Sara’s kitchen was created by artist Leonardo Montoya. |
SARA'S STORY: She was living in Belmont, Mass., working as vice president of sales and marketing for her father's precision-parts business. One night in the fall of 2000, a speeding car failed to negotiate a curve in front of her split-level home and plowed into the living room, destroying part of the house and much of her furniture. "I took it as a sign it's time to move," said Sara, who prefers a warmer climate anyway. She bought her townhome in January 2001 and moved in last June. "A few things that were still okay, I brought with me, but other than that everything was purchased when I got down here." (Says Trish, the designer: "There wasn't much coming off that truck.") On shopping: "I like to get out and see things. We went to a bunch of showrooms, I looked through fabric and wall-covering books." On taste: She and Gail "have very, very different personalities and ways of looking at life. My tastes are very eclectic, hers are more refined. I am not a modernist. I'm more of a traditionalist."
TRISH'S STORY: "When Sara saw Gail's house and said, 'This is what I want my house to look like,' I said, 'No! It's got to look like you!' " Both homes were built by Bayfair Custom Homes, which allowed the Bernuccas to do "basically anything we wanted. We designed the house to fit the furniture." In Sara's townhouse, she had fewer choices, though she picked her flooring, countertops, cabinets and wall colors. Instead of a small formal living room opening off the foyer, she reconfigured that space into an intimate little sitting area that opens off her bedroom. Both sisters, Trish said, "like green, the color of life, and I could see that was going to be a challenge right away." Gail's family room is a dark green; the colors in Sara's family room "are yellow-greens, very uplifting and soft." When she and Sara visited showrooms "and I could see from her reaction to fabrics and colors that this was going to be Gail's house again, I said, 'Let's redirect.' " She steered Sara toward "fabrics that were yellow-green prints; chenilles rather than cottons or jacquards -- things that were softer and fuzzier. Gail doesn't like anything with pink or purple. She has watermelon and strawberry in her reds. Sara's are red to pink tones, raspberry, a soft, soft pink." Gail's accent color is black; Sara's is purple. Gail's master bedroom has a "Zen Chinoise feel with no froufrou"; Sara's master suite has pale pink walls "and a gardeny cottage feel."
GAIL'S FAVORITE PLACE IN HER OWN HOME: "My little office off the kitchen. I'm there most of the time. It has shelves and file cabinets and a really nice work station." As a Realtor who sometimes works from home, she likes having a dedicated space to leave paperwork out undisturbed.
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[Times photo: Fraser Hale]
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| Gail Bernucca’s favorite colors, red and green, dominate in the family room. The Bernuccas acquired the sofas “20 years ago in Boston, for a house we were going to stay in forever and moved out of after only five months,” Gail recalled. Designer Trish Wiley simply reupholstered them. |
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[Times photo: Fraser Hale]
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| Strawberry-patterned wallpaper covers the ceiling in Gail Bernucca’s kitchen, left. “I don’t cook often, but when I do, it’s big,” said Gail, who had 25 people at her home for Passover recently. The eight-sided granite-topped island was custom-designed. |
SARA'S FAVORITE PLACE IN HER OWN HOME: Her family room, with its custom-made furniture and soft green walls. Says Trish: "The color flowed from a painting in the kitchen that she brought with her that we hung above the wine bar. That's where I worked from to try to find Sara, where she was happy."
OTHER COOL STUFF AT GAIL'S: Loves her mud room between the garage and kitchen, with its newspaper-print wall covering and a sign saying, "Back-door friends are the best kind" . . . the strawberry-patterned wallpaper on the ceiling of the kitchen . . . in the family room, the sled hanging on the wall was a baby gift to Matthew when they lived up North. "It's real important to me to create warmth in the family room and kitchen, and a comfortable home."
OTHER COOL STUFF AT SARA'S: The big second-floor loft overlooking the family room, where she has her home office . . . the dining room, surprisingly formal in an otherwise relaxed house, with its animal-print wallpaper, family-heirloom sideboard. "I just loved the way the dining room came out. I don't want to be like everyone else. I want to be different."
DESIGNER'S NOTEBOOK: Although she'd been talking to Sara for months before Sara moved to Tampa, she didn't know until moving day that the sisters were twins: "Gail just talked about 'my younger sister.' " The sisters, she said, "have this in common: They don't like stuff. They like things with meaning" -- family heirlooms and pictures, items gathered over time that have personal significance, treasured gifts. Gail is "very straightforward and knows exactly what she wants, her likes and dislikes. There's a little more boldness coming out in Sara as the house is starting to look like her."
[Times photo: Fraser Hale]
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In contrast to the modern, funky look of her family room, Sara’s dining room, below, is formal, with a family heirloom sideboard and a chandelier from the early 1900s. |
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