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Beginning in the living room, she introduced the creamy colors that weave all the spaces together. "Although I enjoy working with color, this house called for a neutral palette that radiates a sense of pure and classic elegance," Susan notes. "The soft tones of cream, white, and gray make the living room's European hand-carved marble mantel a dramatic focal point."

Designed with four formal rooms that form a perfect square, the architecture required some care with color. "Each of these rooms feeds into the next through architecturally detailed openings, so it was very important to make the design flow from one room to the other." Adhering to her basic palette of pale neutrals prevented jarring disconnections, but Susan still managed to individualize rooms by taking each one a step up or down in tone from its adjacent spaces. "I changed the wall hue slightly between rooms. While the living room has a calm, crisp look, the trellis-patterned wallpaper and the gold of the draperies make the dining room more dramatic," she says.