London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 03, 2025

Upbeat Colors and Rehabbed Rescues Take This 1920s New Jersey Foursquare from Basic to Bold

Upbeat Colors and Rehabbed Rescues Take This 1920s New Jersey Foursquare from Basic to Bold

Releasing an array of upbeat colors in every room turned this designer's New Jersey home into a treasure better than a pot of gold. The best part? Half the furniture pieces are secondhand scores.

Virginia Toledo may have grown up in Brooklyn and lived most of her life nearby, but when it came to creating a look for her current home in New Jersey, her inspiration came from farther away. She wanted a happy summer feeling-the kind she associates with sitting on a porch in South Carolina.



An equally strong influence came from farther south-Puerto Rico, where the vibrancy of her heritage links her idea of home with color. "I remember my grandmother weeding in her garden with her red headscarf and her bata [machete]," says Virginia, who continues to draw inspiration from the coral houses and brilliant red flamboyant trees she saw as a kid during summers on the island. "As I got older, it struck me how happy people were with the very limited things they had," she says. "I don't think they would have felt that way if they lived in white boxes."



To set a convivial tone, Virginia painted the front door of her 1920s American foursquare chartreuse. "I wanted to create a space that didn't feel pretentious," she says.



An exuberant watercolor textile-Midsummer Day by Christian Fischbacher-became the blueprint for the crayon box of hues throughout the 2,800 square-foot home Virginia shares with her husband and daughter.

"When you're doing something this varied, you need something that pulls it all together," says Virginia, who worked closely with Jessica Geller, her business partner at their design firm, Toledo Geller. The solution: varying intensities of blue as a neutral in each room to create calm. Cobalt upholstery accented with white ribbon trim turns the sofa into a statement piece.



A high-gloss bright yellow ceiling-Yellow Finch 2024-40 by Benjamin Moore-enlivens the delicate paisley pattern in the foyer. "If that ceiling were any larger, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off," Virginia says.



Virginia-with husband Jhovanny Hernandez, daughter Sienna, and pups Wolfgang and Tate, plans to share her eclectic mix of flea market and consignment shop finds. "The joy is that there are so man things that my daughter says she wants to take with her when she has her own house," she says.



An inky blue grounds the kitchen and unites black and white appliances. To give the 1950s-era kitchen a budget facelift, Virginia painted the cabinets with Stiffkey Blue 281 by Farrow & Ball and installed marble-look laminate countertops as well as vinyl plank flooring laid in a herringbone pattern.



A coffee and plantain farm her parents own in Puerto Rico inspired the island flavor of Virginia's breakfast nook. Despite her love of traditional furnishings, Virginia favors the lines of modern lighting. "It helps keep things from feeling too dated," she says.

A judicious use of pattern keeps the atmosphere cheerful, not manic, as does a collection of rehabilitated traditional furnishings-most with clean, simple lines. Virginia adores flea markets and consignment shops for their eco-friendliness and economy. "I don't like anything that's too new," she says. "For me, it really is about the thrill of the chase. I love that everything has a story and that we're creating family heirlooms and new chapters."



Virginia's favorite spot is the sunroom. The Sunday mornings she spends there reading may be quiet, but the bold color of the banquette is downright effusive. "It's framed by the doorway; I knew I had to go big."

A purple tufted-velvet banquette finds its counterpoint in the sunroom's easygoing chambray wallpaper, and lemon yellow leather cushions on the dining room chairs mellow beneath vibrant blue millwork on the coffered ceiling. "You want your eyes to be like Ping-Pong balls, bouncing from room to room," Virginia says. "There's this continuous rhythm."



"I start every project with a furniture plan," she says, "so I know where I need to make statements and where the colors can whisper."



A bedroom makes a good palette cleanser. "You can relax your eyes here," Virginia says. She sought serenity with a creamy palette in her bedroom but included spots of the yellow introduced downstairs. In keeping with the restful mood, the bedcover is a pale shade of the main accent color.



The dresser is a secondhand piece. "The panel detail is so cool," Virginia says. "I gave it new knobs and paint, and it's perfect."



Determined to turn a utilitarian subterranean space into a place of joy, Virginia covered the laundry room walls with a romantic floral pattern that feels fresh yet appropriate for the 1920s home.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×