Small Home. Big Style.

These are some of the things designer Berkley Vallone loves: cake plates, mirrors, French soap labels, the color pink, Coco Chanel, antique teacups, Fornasetti plates, and, well, you get the picture. Berkley is one exuberant young woman. The daughter of a designer, Berkley turned designer herself and says the most important thing she tells clients is to “find things you love, and we’ll make them work.”

“Love” is the operative word for what’s inside Berkley’s own two-bedroom cottage. She’s passionate about everything here—including husband Ken and their son, Cash. Purchased as a bachelorette pad when she came home to Scottsdale from New York a decade ago to form Vallone Design with her mother, Donna Vallone, the house was renovated before she even met Ken. “And now we’re exploding out of my bachelorette pad!” she laughs.

Built in 1985 on the lush grounds of a vaguely Moroccan 1920s resort hotel, the house had a somewhat choppy floor plan. With typical enthusiasm, Berkley couldn’t resist moving every wall, pipe, and wire—right down to repositioning the front door.

Visitors arriving at that new glass-and-steel front door are greeted by a visual allée guiding the eye straight through to a beautiful backyard garden filled with whimsical chaises, striped awnings, and grass-green pillows. But the real color riot is inside.

“When I design for other people, I don’t always use this much color. But for me? I love to be surrounded by color,” says Berkley. “I think that comes from my mom, who’s a master. I grew up in a house with lots of vibrant fabrics; it obviously made an impression!” Snappy throw pillows top every seat in this house—“I’m constantly moving them around and changing them,” she says—and artwork seems to cover every available vertical surface.

The art collection began when Berkley started buying her classmates’ work while studying at New York’s School for the Visual Arts, but the living room’s focal point isn’t some starving student’s masterpiece. It’s dominated by an oversized climate zone map that hangs above the sofa. “It’s a vintage school map,” Berkley explains. “I love the big scale. It’s the perfect size and it’s got blue, orange, pink—all the colors of the living room. It was more about colors than subject matter.”

But mastering color entails knowing where to hold back, too. Once she’d finished her architectural tweaking, Berkley gave the walls of the main living space a coat of bright white, then installed contrasting ebony-stained wood floors. “I imposed the same rules here that I do with clients,” she says. “You start with classic bones, classic furniture, and white walls, then you add color with accessories and art. I like to bring in the things that speak to me.”

On a 30th birthday trip to Paris, Berkley happened on a flea market jumble of oversized letters from the side of an old German bank building. Back home, she tried arranging them in something comprehensible for her living room wall. When Ken visited for the first time, he found the message she’d settled on quite compelling—“KISS ME.”

Berkley has a thing for numbers and letters. There’s the red “77” (her birth year) hung high on a wall and the gorgeous Louis Vuitton trunk/cocktail table she couldn’t resist because it was embossed with a “B.” Little Cash looks up from his changing table at an alphabet needlepoint by artist Paul Smith.

Ken playfully inquires whether their home might someday be a little less girly, but it’s hard to see Berkley giving up the vintage Barbie prints over her tub or the big pink ottoman anchoring the dressing room anytime soon. Judging by her gilt-edged powder room, fabulous small spaces may be her forte. She admits she likes to “go a little crazy” in powder rooms, and the high-wattage gold chinoiserie scene on the walls in hers might be the room’s most subdued element. Berkley even gold-leafed the baseboards and ceiling in fond genuflection to Bemelmans Bar in Manhattan’s famed Carlyle hotel. “I’ve always loved that bar; it’s so sparkly and decadent.”

Even though she, Ken, and Cash are starting to burst out of her once single-girl space, she doesn’t think she’s prepared to let go. “I love coming home here. I’m not ready to leave, not just yet.”

Photography: Colleen Duffley
Produced by Barbara Mundall

Interior design: Berkley Vallone, Vallone Design, 7007 E. Third Ave., Scottsdale, AZ 85251; 480/421-2799, www.vallonedesign.com.
Builder (remodel): Nance Construction, 480/663-7894, www.nanceconstruction.com.
Landscape design: Berghoff Design Group, 480/481-3433, www.berghoffdesign.com.
Flowers: Flora Bella, 480/483-8181, www.florabellaaz.com.
Light fixture (discontinued): Design Source, 336/841-1650.

Living Room

Clean-lined windows and white walls sans trim showcase vintage bergères with gold-leaf finishes and easy-wear fabric. The red French farmhouse-style coffee table is from homeowner/designer Berkley Vallone’s childhood home.

Living Room

“Start with classic bones, furniture, and white walls, then add color with art and accessories,” says homeowner and designer Berkley Vallone.

Living Room Details

A vintage Louis Vuitton trunk doubles as a cocktail table. Owners used to label their luggage with their initials so they could be easily identified in a bustling train station. Berkley says, “I was meant to have it!”

Living Room Details

Tiny teacups form a unique and artistic wall clock near the living room.

Entry Hall

The new central hallway serves as both art gallery and pathway to the backyard.

Entry Hall Details

For a traditional feel, Berkley paired a sparkly gold mirror with a console from On the Veranda. A collection of small cross-topped glass bottles adorns the marble console.

Entry Hall Details

Berkley has collected art since her days as an art student. Though her collection is vast, the pieces all share a whimsical feel with happy colors.

Powder Room

Inspired by the sparkly powder room at Bemelmans Bar in Manhattan’s Carlyle hotel, the room is sheathed in Osborne & Little’s gold-patterned chinoiserie wallpaper and floored in penny tiles.

Powder Room

The powder room, drenched in rich gold damask, serves as a strong counterpoint to the modern simplicity of the living room.

Window Seat

Piled high with pillows, the window seat is covered in an antique Suzani from Afghanistan. The textural table lamp is one of many repurposed “found” pieces that Berkley loves to incorporate into her designs.

Window Seat

Another signature “B” is found on a window-seat pillow.

Dining Room

Lee Industries chairs in Ralph Lauren raw silk soften an industrial zinc table; pink peonies add a feminine touch. Colorful bowls and glassware enliven the wet bar.

Dining Room Details

Berkley’s whimsical design sense is expressed through this cake by Tammie Coe Cakes.

Kitchen

Festive dishes and a bright backsplash add a dash of playfulness to this sophisticated kitchen. A Viking range and polished nickel refrigerator have a retro vibe.

Kitchen Details

A polka-dot tea set fits right in with the colorful kitchen.

Terrace

Berkley jazzed up a cookie-cutter outdoor area with a fireplace displaying a vintage zinc mirror and a small patio paved with concrete tiles from Handcrafted Tile of Mexico.

Terrace Details

Long afternoons on the sunny terrace call for thirst-quenching cocktails in this lovely viridian glassware.

Nursery

With the addition of a bumper, a ready-made console became a changing table for Cash, who admires the graphic charm of the alphabet needlepoint on the nearby wall.

Nursery Details

Baby supplies are easily organized below the changing table.

Laundry Room

Commanding wallpaper from Lee Jofa sets the tone for the black-and-white laundry room. Classic hexagonal tiles cover the floor, while polka dots play under the sink.

Master Bedroom

A master of making moderately priced furniture like this Oly bed look lovely, Berkley dressed it in washable white linens. The mirrored bedside chest is topped with a lamp featuring a carved bust of Marie Antoinette. French doors lead to a petite patio and garden.

Master Bedroom Details

A small chair in Berkley’s bedroom lives large in a bold animal print.

Master Bedroom Details

An antique bust gazes across the bed at its lovely partner.

Master Bath

The stunning master bathroom is accented with marble and mirrors throughout, making every morning feel like a spa retreat.

Master Bath Details

A mirrored tea tray holds small glass dishes and perfume bottles. Such dainty details feel right at home in this glamorous master bath.

Master Bath

The master bath and dressing room combined are larger than the master bedroom. A tub from Sunrise Specialty fitted with Waterworks’ crystal-handled “Boulevard” faucet keeps the glam flowing.

Master Bath Details

“I took the marble shelf all around the room,” she says. “It displays perfume bottles and candles.”

Master Dressing Room

“This is my favorite room,” Berkley says. “I love the glamour of it. It’s like a giant dressing room.” With its girly pleated skirt, a pink ottoman from Hickory Chair is ideal for lounging.