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Where History and Art Meet

Designer Michele Cottone Kriticos Love of Art Shines in the Renovated Silas W. Robbins House

The formal dining room in Michele Cottone Kriticos’ picturesque English Tudor is like an artistic metaphor for the woman herself. 

Every wall of the tidy room is covered by a mural of pastoral serenity. Painted in warm hues it depicts people walking along a scenic river and through meticulously landscaped grounds that surround large homes. 

In the middle of the room the dining table is covered by a crisp white tablecloth and set with full-service china, seemingly ready for a sumptuous five-course meal. 

“I create constantly,” Michele says. “Everything you see today is me, it reflects who I am.”

An interior designer whose artistic endeavors go well beyond creating beautiful home spaces, Michele says one of her crowning achievements was the interior design she undertook on the historic Silas W. Robbins House in Old Wethersfield.

Constructed in 1873 the rambling French Victorian home was built in the Second Empire style. It’s one of many historic homes in Old Wethersfield but is unique in its sheer size and colorful and ornate architecture. 

Michele, a longtime Old Wethersfield resident, says she had longed to someday design the home’s interior. 

“Every time I would drive by it I had this yearning, if only I could get my hands on that house.” 

Her hopes were dashed, however, when the home suffered serious damages in 1996 fire. 

In 2001 new owners started an arduous renovation of the home that lasted until 2007 when it was opened as a bed and breakfast inn. 

Michele was hired during the renovation to do interior design work on the sprawling three-story mansion. 

“It was a huge undertaking,” she says. 

Some of the work included recreating details from some of the design elements that survived the fire. It meant removing things like colored floor tiles and wall wainscoting and having someone recreate their patterns so they could be reinstalled in their entirety. 

During the process workers unearthed original 18th century walls with detailed paint and wallpaper designs that Michele was able to recreate for the new owners. 

“To see it in person is an overwhelming experience,” she says. 

It took her over nine months to complete the interior, which was massive because she had to maintain continuity of design over so many rooms. 

“I had never done Victorian design before but I fell into it naturally.”

When the work was done, Michele says, the home was featured in a Hallmark Christmas movie, “Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane.” 

The entire community took part in some way for the film, she says. “The whole town was dressed up for it.” 

An interior designer for nearly 35 years, Michele dabbles in numerous art forms, including painting and jewelry-making. 

Her most recent passion, she says, is designing small, hand painted acrylic stones that she sells on friendchipsbymck.com under the brand FriendChips. Each stone comes with space to write an intention or affirmation on the back to pass along to friends and family.

Scattered across her dining room table one recent afternoon were hundreds of the brightly colored glass stones. 

She started making them, she says, in part because of her constant artistic need to create beauty and to counter what she felt was an overwhelming amount of cultural negativity.  

“I just wanted to make something beautiful because I felt like there was so much ugliness in the world right now. I’m just passionate about making things beautiful.” 

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