Gracious Living, Even with Five Kids

– By Robin Jovanovich –

When the Bugniazets bought their stately 1920s Hilltop Place Colonial three years ago, Sheila decided to take her time redecorating. “I wanted to live there for a year or so before redoing any of the rooms. With five kids, four of them boys, I wasn't interested in a showplace, but this is a beautiful old home that has been well maintained over the years and deserves some fine touches.”

For decorating inspiration, Sheila bought every shelter magazine. She starting clipping pictures of rooms and fabrics and soon realized that two of the room designs she liked best were by the same designer, Cindy Rinfret of Greenwich. Sheila called her. “We had our initial meeting and when I went back for the second appointment I liked every fabric swatch, wallpaper and paint color she had chosen.”

The color palette is similar throughout the first floor - lots of greens, especially celadon, and pale, natural shades. “We wanted to bring the outside in.” By the outside, she's referring to the three rolling acres with a pond and majestic views of three golf clubs, Apawamis, Westchester and Willow Ridge.

The kitchen and family room were the first rooms to be redone, but Rinfret didn't want to do the job piecemeal, said Sheila. “It was stream of consciousness design, so that everything flowed easily from room to room.”

Once he saw the redecorating coming, Eddie Bugniazet told his wife: “The den is my room; you can have the rest of the house!”

Sheila currently “operates” out of the kitchen where she has a big desk. “There is a small room upstairs that looks out over the pond that I probably will turn into my office retreat some day, but not while I have five young children I want to see grow up.”

RHS House Tour

The Bugniazet home is one of five distinctive homes on this year's Rye High School Parents' Organization House Tour. Save the date: Friday, May 18, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lunch will be offered from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., either sit down or to go in a newly constructed stone Colonial. Boutique hours are the same as tour hours.

The annual tour is Rye High School's major fund-raiser, with proceeds providing need-based scholarships and supporting school-based events and organizations.Tickets are $45 (tour only), $65 (tour and lunch). For information, call Micheline DiNardo at 967-2945 or Judy Walsh at 698-9045.