In My ROOM WITH CLAUDIA
Claudia Vitarelli is a Creative Strategist at Droga5 working at the forefront of global advertising while building an independent textiles practice. At the agency, she develops systems and strategies that shape how brands connect with audiences. Beyond client work, she founded a textiles platform to explore materiality, craft, and heritage, extending design from the studio into daily life.
Her home is a long-term creative project and a living expression of her practice. Designed from the ground up architectural choices to the smallest finishes it bridges personal narrative and professional vision. Moving between Italian heritage and New York influence, Claudia’s space becomes a site of cultural cross-pollination where values, materials, and traditions merge.
Rooted in a family background of art and design, she brings intuitive sensitivity to texture, color, and spatial curation. For Claudia, design is as much about memory and belonging as it is about aesthetics transforming materials into heirlooms and rooms into resonant, lived stories.
ReFramed: Do you remember your first bed
Claudia: I still sleep in it when I’m home. It’s a full-size bed from Poltrona Fraud, in ribbed cotton with a fold-over headboard that hides the pillows. My parents bought matching beds for my sister and me when we were comically tiny at the time - good memories
ReFramed: Do your parents still have that house?
Claudia: No. We moved, and lived in two different rentals in Florence, then several places in Turin. The beds were in storage for years in Florence; when we reached Turin my dad converted a huge warehouse into a home so we could finally live with our furniture again. Those beds reemerged there and are still in Turin.
ReFramed: You’ve said objects matter to you. Why?
Claudia: I’ve lived far away from family for many years, so objects connect me to the people I love. Almost everything in my home has a story: my grandma’s bedside pieces, chandeliers from my dad, a coffee table I designed and built with him. I buy intentionally and rarely buy new.
ReFramed: Beyond sleep, what does a bedroom represent to you?
Claudia: It’s sacred and intimate. I don’t hang out there unless I’m resting on purpose with a coffee, journaling, meditating, staring at the wall, having a good cry, or having sex. It’s where deeper emotions live.
ReFramed: What was the last change you made around here, and why?
Claudia: In the living room, swapping a white rug for a brown one. The room’s dark wood, warm light, green marble, and the chairs needed warmth; the white rug fought that mood. The brown ties it all together.
ReFramed: And the bedroom, how has it evolved since you moved in?
Claudia: You’re seeing its best version. It’s a small room, so I spent ~2.5 years designing a custom closet: three deep drawers below and four hanging sections above. Everything tucks away, which gives the room boundaries. I added a vintage mirror (highly recommend a bedroom mirror), minimal art, and twoTolomeo clamp lamps from Artemide a dear friend gifted me. The curtains are vintage linens from southern Italy, another link to home.
ReFramed: How has this space changed you?
Claudia: I feel like a plant finally in the right pot, south-facing light, enough space but not too much, my books, my things. I bought this place in 2021, redesigned the kitchen from scratch, refined the bedroom; the bathroom is classic 1950s New York. The home reflects me, and that’s grounding.
ReFramed: How has your relationship with “home” evolved?
Claudia: I’ve mostly lived alone and never with a partner, so my home has always felt deeply personal. But it’s also my favorite club in Brooklyn: I love hosting.
ReFramed: Does your bed hold traces of your days?
Claudia: Absolutely. It’s where I unwind, so it absorbs the day good or bad and grounds me.
ReFramed: When you’re away, what small things do you miss most about your bedroom?
Claudia: My memory-foam mattress, my four pillows (family joke), and a duvet year-round. I hate being cold at night.
ReFramed: And from this room?
Claudia: The sun in the living room and my kitchen. The distances fit my body; I cook for friends and we hang out there. It’s the home’s social heart.
ReFramed: How does this space resemble you?
Claudia: Homes always mirror their people and their moment. This mirrors my headspace now intentional, layered, lived-in.
ReFramed: If this room were a season or time of day?
Claudia: Fall, without question New York fall. Warm tones, a touch of melancholy. Very me, very this space.
ReFramed: What emotions does this room carry?
Claudia: Hope. I never imagined I’d end up here from where I started. Being in this space nudges me to look ahead; it feels optimistic and forward-looking.
ReFramed: How present is your Italian heritage in your home?
Claudia: It shows up naturally, objects from home, an Italian design sensibility, familiar colors and materials. My kitchen has Italian marble I’ve loved since childhood. Friends suggested “resale value” choices; I refused. If you build a space, it should look like you. The chairs are Italian design icons I’ve wanted since college.
ReFramed: Any other details that quietly say “Italian”?
Claudia: A Sicilian ceramic “head” vase, and a vintage holy-water stoup from a small town in Puglia that I use as a sculpture. They’re pretty unmistakably Italian.
ReFramed: What do you hope people feel when they enter?
Claudia: Loved, comfortable, safe, unjudged, at peace. I’m lucky to have this space; sharing it with people I love is everything. I was in Italy when friends sent a photo of dinner on my terrace it made me ridiculously happy.
ReFramed: If you left tomorrow, what would you want untouched?
Claudia: The kitchen. It’s perfect for the space. Please don’t change it.
ReFramed: If your bed could describe you in two words?
Claudia: “Needs a nap.” Also: “Everything’s okay.”
ReFramed: Your bedroom in two words
Claudia: Functional. Calm.
