Cherry Colors and Restored Rescues Transform This 1920s New Jersey from Ordinary to Exceptional

Setting up an arrangement of bright colors in all the rooms transformed this home in New Jersey into a golden treasure. The most exciting part? Almost half of the furniture pieces are restored.

Virginia Toledo may have lived in Brooklyn for most of her life, but when the time came to decorate her home, she drew her inspiration from further away – South Carolina. She said that when she thinks of her home, she imagines sitting on a porch in South Carolina enjoying the summer wind.

She also got some influence from south Puerto Rico, where there’s an infusion of her vibrant heritage with her idea of perfect home colors.

She recounts a memory of her grandmother doing some garden work with a machete while wearing a red scarf and memories of her as a child seeing lots of exuberant red trees and coral houses with their joyful occupants. She continued by saying how she realized how content people were with the little they had the older she got and how they probably wouldn’t have felt that way without all the colors surrounding them.

To set a friendly atmosphere, she painted the front door chartreuse. She says she wanted a space that did not feel pretentious. For the indoor color palette of the 2,800 square foot 1920s house, they used a flamboyant watercolor textile – Midsummer Day by Christian Fischbacher.

When you’re doing a painting project involving multiple colors, you need a common element to tie it all together, says Virginia. For her, she used different shades of blue in each room for a calming tone. Cobalt furnishing accented using white ribbon trims transforms the formerly plain sofa into a statement piece.

The high ceiling with glossy yellow paint nicely complements the paisley pattern that adorns the foyer.

Virginia, with her husband, Jhovanny Hernandez, their daughter Sienna, and puppies Wolfgang and Tate, intend to share her extensive mix of consignment and flea market scores. She says the best part is that her daughter wants from the house when she has hers.