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Livingetc has published a feature on real estate entrepreneur Veronica Lafleur’s Milan apartment, designed by Gaia Venuti of GaiaHomeProject. The residence also serves as Lafleur’s creative studio and business meeting space, with its design built around bold color, contrasting materials and a fresh start in her personal and professional life.
Livingetc has profiled a Milan apartment designed by Gaia Venuti for real estate entrepreneur Veronica Lafleur, showing how strong color and contrasting materials shape a home that also functions as Lafleur’s creative studio and business meeting space. The feature describes an interior organized around emotional transitions rather than a uniform palette, with a pair of burgundy-and-blue sofas setting the direction for the rest of the apartment.
The project began with Cornaro sofas by Carlo Scarpa for Cassina, upholstered in blue velvet and set on burgundy lacquered structures. Venuti, who works under the name GaiaHomeProject, said the combination captured what she understood of Lafleur’s character. She called the sofas the home’s “genetic code”, describing them as the starting point for the wider design.
That palette continues through burgundy cabinetry, dark marble and terrazzo flooring. Venuti told Livingetc that she uses intense color as an accent or to define particular architectural volumes, and described managing saturation and tactile contrast as central to making color work. An ochre-yellow room, the designer said, changes in appearance as afternoon light crosses its walls.
The apartment is also Lafleur’s workplace and meeting space for her real estate business, BetterCallVero. A garden-facing area has natural cork walls, chosen for their warmth and ability to absorb light and noise, alongside metal furniture. The bedroom combines lavender-gray walls, chartreuse linen and a silver faux-leather headboard. Lafleur said she wanted the room to convey “peace, energy, and positivity.”
A Home That Also Hosts Work
The feature highlights a practical challenge for people whose homes must also support professional life: creating distinct moods and functions without making the interior feel fragmented. Lafleur’s apartment combines a private residence with a creative studio and business meeting place, and its design uses material and color shifts to distinguish spaces while retaining a shared visual language.
That approach is presented through specific choices rather than a claim that the design is a general solution. The cork walls and metal furniture, for example, bring together materials with contrasting textures and temperatures, while the bedroom’s muted gray-lavender walls sit alongside brighter chartreuse bedding. The report shows how the designer and homeowner used these contrasts to reflect Lafleur’s stated preferences and daily use of the apartment.
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Design Built Around a Fresh Start
Lafleur told Livingetc that she chose not to bring belongings from her previous home into the Milan apartment. She described the decision as intentional, linking it to a new personal and professional phase. The report does not specify when the move took place or give details about the apartment’s location beyond Milan.
The designer and homeowner met during the closing of a retail property deal, according to the feature. Lafleur recalled noticing Venuti’s unusual color combinations at that meeting. Their subsequent collaboration turned that initial impression into a home-wide design direction, beginning with the blue velvet and burgundy lacquer of the Scarpa sofas.
Venuti describes her method as planning visual and emotional movement through a home, rather than treating each room as an isolated project. She told Livingetc that she likes the idea of a corridor revealing a “chromatic plot twist behind every door.” The feature’s photographs are credited to Monica Spezia of Living Inside.
““The sofas aren’t just furniture — they were the genetic code of the entire home.””
— Gaia Venuti, interior designer
Details the Feature Does Not Give
Livingetc’s source material is a design feature and home tour, not a real estate listing or independent evaluation. It does not state the apartment’s size, purchase price, renovation budget, construction timeline or the extent of any structural work. It also does not give detailed information about the building or the apartment’s address.
The feature records the homeowner’s and designer’s accounts of the project, but offers no external assessment of its costs, energy use, acoustic performance or suitability for other households. It is also unclear when the article was published, as no date appears in the supplied source material.
No Further Project Update Listed
The supplied Livingetc report does not announce a follow-up project, renovation phase or public event. It presents the apartment as an account of a completed design, with Venuti’s design choices and Lafleur’s experience as its focus. Any later changes to the home, or further information about its use as a workplace, are not provided in the source.
Readers seeking additional details can refer to the original Livingetc home tour, which includes photographs credited to Monica Spezia and Living Inside. The available source does not identify a next milestone or say whether the designer or homeowner plans to share further updates.
Key Questions
Who designed Veronica Lafleur’s Milan apartment?
Gaia Venuti, who works under the name GaiaHomeProject, designed the apartment, according to Livingetc.
What inspired the apartment’s color scheme?
The design began with Carlo Scarpa’s Cornaro sofas for Cassina, which pair blue velvet upholstery with burgundy lacquered structures. Venuti said that contrast informed the wider palette.
Does Lafleur use the apartment only as a home?
No. The feature says the apartment also serves as Lafleur’s creative studio and meeting space for her real estate business, BetterCallVero.
Why did Lafleur leave her previous belongings behind?
Lafleur told Livingetc that she wanted the apartment to represent a fresh start in her personal and professional life. The source does not provide more detail about the move.
When was the Livingetc feature published?
The supplied source does not give a publication date, so the timing cannot be confirmed from the material provided.
Source: livingetc.com
