A Breath of Fresh Air: Inside Francesca Bodini’s Upstate New York Sanctuary

Main Facts

For Francesca Bodini, a newly divorced mother of three, the concept of luxury underwent a radical evolution. Already the owner of a pristine, highly curated Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan, Bodini found herself yearning for a completely different energy when it came to a country residence. She envisioned a permanent retreat where formality was stripped away, replaced by an atmosphere that welcomed children, dogs, and spontaneous weekends without the anxiety of precious surfaces or museum-like constraints.

The resulting home is a stunning, light-filled 10,000-square-foot contemporary structure nestled within her father’s sprawling, nearly 1,000-acre estate in Millbrook, Dutchess County, Upstate New York. Designed by Raffaella Bortoluzzi Architecture and styled in close collaboration with AD100 designer and longtime friend Rafael de Cárdenas—alongside art advisor Meredith Darrow—the house is an exercise in sophisticated ease. Featuring custom furniture, layered family heirlooms, a breathtaking integration of interior and exterior spaces, and an unapologetically playful design ethos, the residence serves as a masterclass in modern, family-first country living.

Chronology of the Project

The roots of this grand design journey stretch back decades, though the specific vision for the new house crystallized following significant life transitions.

• 1982: Businessman Daniele Bodini, Francesca’s father and a trained architect and engineer, originally purchases the vast Dutchess County estate, laying the groundwork for family summers and bucolic weekends that would span generations.
• The Planning Phase: Following her divorce, Francesca Bodini decides to build a permanent sanctuary on the property. Rather than opting for a laborious, hyper-cerebral construction process, she seeks a creative partnership defined by levity and mutual trust. She enlists her longtime friend Rafael de Cárdenas, whom she originally met through art advisor Meredith Darrow.
• Architectural Execution: Working alongside architect Raffaella Bortoluzzi—and under the watchful, experienced eye of Daniele Bodini, whose hilltop residence overlooks the site—the low-slung contemporary structure is meticulously planned. The architecture is intentionally designed to harmonize with the estate’s existing barns, equestrian facilities, and sports infrastructure.
• The Years-Long Interior Curation: Over several years, de Cárdenas, Darrow, and Bodini curate the expansive interior. The team finds inventive new homes for Bodini’s accumulated collections of art, vintage furnishings, quirky flatware, and family mementos, blending them with custom creations from de Cárdenas’s studio.
• Completion and Realization: The finished home emerges as a triumph of contemporary architecture paired with an "anything-goes" interior spirit, marrying high-end design with unpretentious comfort.

Supporting Data and Architectural Breakdown

The scale and materiality of the Millbrook estate require a delicate balance between massive architectural presence and intimate, human-scale comfort.

Architecture and Exterior

• Property Scale: Situated on a magnificent 1,000-acre estate in Dutchess County, featuring expansive lawns, mature trees, and landscaping by Drake Design Studio.
• Structure: A sprawling, low-slung, 10,000-square-foot contemporary residence designed by Raffaella Bortoluzzi Architecture.
• Materials: Clad in understated, earthy materials including teak siding, a sloping bronze-colored roof, a prominent stone chimney, and expansive floor-to-ceiling glazing that floods the interior with natural light.
• Site Integration: Carefully positioned so as to remain in visual harmony with the estate’s historic barns, indoor riding rings, and soccer and tennis facilities. Daniele Bodini lent his architectural expertise to ensure the new build complemented his own nearby hilltop home.

Interior Highlights and Curation

• Formal Living Area: Anchored by custom sofas designed by Rafael de Cárdenas and upholstered in luxurious Dedar fabrics. These flank a table by Xavier Lavergne atop a custom Tai Ping rug. The space is graphically grounded by Allan McCollum’s Collection of 90 Drawings on the wall, alongside a 1960s French chaise longue, a 1972 Meret Oppenheim side table, and a vintage rattan stool.
• The Sunroom: Bodini’s personal retreat when she has the house to herself. It features custom millwork and an upholstered niche executed by Studio Townsend and Jouffre. Luteca armchairs, a sofa from Bodini’s collection, a vintage Lorenzo Burchiellaro coffee table, and a Beni Rugs carpet create a cozy enclave. Peter Beard’s Untitled (Picasso Sheet) hangs above the bench, illuminated by vintage Murano glass sconces. Additional accents include a 1960s French bamboo table, ceramics by Kazunori Hamana and Yukiko Kuroda, and a lacquer side table by Christophe Delcourt.
• Dining Spaces: The western-facing formal dining room bathes in dramatic sunset light, featuring Lina Bo Bardi’s Espasso dining chairs surrounding Bodini’s table atop a Christopher Farr rug, all illuminated by a Josef Hoffmann Wiener Werkstätte pendant from Woka Lamps. Meanwhile, the breakfast area features Pinch Design dining furniture beneath a vintage Stilnovo ceiling light, paired with family-collected tableware and a 14th-century Maiolica jug from Faenza.
• The Primary Suite: Conceived as the home’s one "fancy" space. It features a bed frame designed by de Cárdenas, upholstered in Pierre Frey fabric, dressed in Matouk linens, and flanked by vintage sconces from Provence. Most notably, the ceiling is tented in Dedar Fanfara silk shantung, sheltering a crystal chandelier inherited from Bodini’s grandmother—a piece originally designed to hold real candles.
• Kitchen and Bath: The kitchen island is topped with Tortuga marble from ABC Stone and fitted with Dornbracht hardware, offset by Gérard Hofmann ceramics on open shelves. The primary bath boasts a Cocoon tub beneath a skylight, accompanied by a Simon Roberts Somerset print from Flowers Gallery and a Pierre Paulin ottoman.
• Walls and Finishes: Throughout the residence, walls are finished in tactile Limestrong limewash, providing a creamy, organic backdrop for the eclectic artwork and furnishings.

Official Responses and Design Philosophy

The underlying philosophy of the home is rooted in a deliberate rejection of museum-like rigidity. For Francesca Bodini, the home had to serve its primary occupants: her three school-age children and their dogs.

"I wanted everything to be chill for my kids and the dogs," Bodini explains, summarizing the core brief of the project. "It’s meant to be very comfortable, usable, not overly precious, and fun at the same time."

This sentiment is echoed by Rafael de Cárdenas, whose professional portfolio frequently leans toward high-intensity, heavily conceptual commercial and residential projects—including retail spaces for Cartier, Nike, and Skims. Collaborating with Bodini offered a refreshing, liberating pivot.

"It felt very fresh, very immediate, and not super thought-out, which sometimes is great," de Cárdenas reflects. "There was something kind of nice about having this project that was mutually cool." He notes that the breezy, conversational rapport between client and designer directly influenced the home’s eclectic success, allowing long-held personal collections—ranging from an excess of vintage flatware and china to unexpected art pieces—to finally find a joyful home.

Drawing an unexpected pop-culture parallel, de Cárdenas likens the creative shift to an interview he heard with pop icon Madonna. Explaining why she chose to work with producer Stuart Price rather than the more cerebral Mirwais on certain tracks, Madonna noted that while she loves Mirwais’s intellect, sometimes she just wants to make dance music. "That’s what this house was," de Cárdenas suggests. "An opportunity to just make great, fun music."

Implications

The completion of the Millbrook residence signals a broader cultural shift in high-end residential design. For generations, secondary country homes for elite urbanites often mirrored the formal constraints of their city townhouses or apartments—temple-like spaces where comfort was frequently sacrificed for aesthetic perfection.

Bodini and de Cárdenas’s collaborative retreat proves that contemporary luxury can successfully pivot toward emotional resonance, whimsy, and radical usability. By integrating high-art masterpieces with quirky, inherited artifacts—such as a candle-lit family chandelier re-imagined under silk shantung, or an ever-expanding collection of mismatched antique flatware—the home redefines what a multi-generational estate can be. It demonstrates that the ultimate status symbol in modern architecture is not perfectionism, but permission: the freedom to kick off your shoes, gather with loved ones, and let an anything-goes spirit reign supreme.