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Dorinda Medley Reveals Major Renovations to Blue Stone Manor
The RHONY mom expanded the home’s kitchen, saying, “I wanted something right out of Beauty and the Beast.”
This we knew: Dorinda Medley’s iconic Blue Stone Manor home in western Massachusetts’ ritzy Berkshires town suffered from a major pipe burst and subsequent flood last year (which just happened to occur while she was dancing away at Andy Cohen’s baby shower!) that caused a whopping $1 million worth of damage. Since then, The Real Housewives of New York City mom has been completely redecorating and restoring the seven-bedroom home for the second time — the first time occurred when her late husband Richard purchased the home for her as a wedding gift in 2005 — as we witnessed on a recent episode of RHONY.
Completely devastated about the disaster, Dorinda said her daughter was the one who helped her cope, telling BravoTV.com, "Hannah said, 'You know what I think, Mom? I think you’ve run this house for eight years as your and Richard’s house. I think now you need to make your mark on it and make it your house. And Richard would be happy with that.... When you reopen it, call it your house.'"
What did she tackle in the reno? Well, everything. But first up was a whole refigurement of the kitchen, where Dorinda expanded the space into what was once the garage. “I didn't want a delicate kitchen,” Dorinda told Architectural Digest in a recent feature of her home. “I wanted something right out of Beauty and the Beast, someplace you could bring a dead animal and chop it up.”
Dorinda also added coffered ceilings modeled after Hearst Castle to the brightly-hued library/billiards room, and even had an artist paint and stencil each ceiling panel in a variety of colors.
Working with her longtime friend and interior designer Marshall Watson, Dorinda’s overall inspiration in redecorating the 11,000-square-foot Tudor-style mansion was her go-to aesthetic, “Marilyn Monroe meets Frankenstein.” And this flamboyant look can be seen throughout the house now — from the library’s matching Chesterfield sofas in bright purple velvet to a zebra-print hide rug in the dining room; from the central staircase’s rainbow Missoni runner to the living room walls that now boast 11 (!) coats of Prussian blue paint.
“I want people to walk through and have an opinion,” says Medley, exclaiming, “‘What’s that? Why is that? Where did that come from? Why do you have it? I love that color! I hate that color!’”
To see more photos from the stunning home, head to AD.
