Jade Ocean in Sunny Isles
Mendez Vela Design Collection Designs Vacation Home
Story by Josie GulliksenPhotos courtesy of Mendez Vela Design CollectionBeing commissioned to design a Latin American family's only vacation home (located here in Miami) would seem like a pressure-filled assignment, but veteran designers from Mendez Vela Design Collection were up to the task.The design team, led by firm principals Osirys Mendez and Sabrina Vela, worked on the family's three-bedroom, 3.5 bathroom, 2,600-square-foot unit with ocean, city and bay views guided by the vision of the couple and their oldest daughter, out of the three."The clients are very well educated world travelers and are multiple homeowners," said Vela. "I worked very closely with the mother and the oldest daughter who both had input into the work we did. And the father chose the chandelier in the dining room."
Starting at the top, the team worked to house recess lighting and LED in the perimeter and window pockets in the living and dining rooms. Then to achieve an easy yet luxurious look a palette of naturals and whites were used along with lots of textures. Every wall throughout the unit is covered with different materials giving many different types of surfaces.They created custom Walnut wood paneling on the main dining room, living room and foyer entrance walls, with a contrast of shell wall paper on the opposite wall by Maya Romanoff. Glass tile by Casa Cielo covers the entire left wall in the foyer and the floor tiles are a light-colored mosaic. A vintage console table of goat skin and glass by Uzca circa 1970s adorns the foyer and on it rests a sculpture entitled "Ethnic Energy" by Tolla Inbar, purchased at Adamar Fine Arts.Working with a long and narrow living and dining room layout was challenging but the designers made it work."The client wanted to segregate the living room from the dining room area without losing the dining room's spectacular ocean view provided by the floor-to-ceiling glass and double sliding door," Vela said. "They also wanted a fully-functional bar plus a dining room to accommodate at least 8 to 10 dinner guests comfortably with a seating area for the same amount of people, as they entertain a lot while they are in Miami."So, the team went to work, creating a bar cabinet from their own custom furniture collection built with Colombian exotic solid woods by Flor Morada, done in a high gloss finish as well as fluted doors with silver leafing. "The bar serves its purpose as a place to make cocktails but also as a divider between the dining room and living room without interrupting the views while also letting in the natural light. It creates an open layout," Vela said.
Because the main door leads directly into the dining room, they had to create a focal point. They achieved this with a gorgeous chandelier and table from Carriage House at DCOTA along with a striking 60X80 painting by Carol Goldberg-Brown entitled "Purple Snow" from Adamar Fine Arts. The chairs and bar stools in this room are by Judith Norman."The painting complements but doesn't compete with the chandelier and adds just a touch of color. The owners wanted very neutral tones with only splashes of color," she said.Across in the living room with a view is a streamlined cream-colored sofa by B&B Italia purchased at Maxalto with uniquely and perfectly crafted arm chairs by Christopher Guy. The acrylic benches are by Uzca while the coffee table of goat skin topped with a high-gloss finish is from Mendez Vela's custom furniture collection. On top of the table are a pair of Murano vases by Fendi Casa and a head sculpture by artist Luis Efe Velez entitled "Love and Money."Also custom made in Germany from their collection is the cream-colored area rug with splashes of bright colored sea coral patterns by Oliver Treutlein. The other pop of color in this room is a tridimensional artwork by William Braemer that adds a deep blue accent color to the wall. Those are the only two splashes of color in the living room.
Onto the master bedroom where muted, neutral colors dominate with no hint of color. The soothing, light-colored wallpaper, soft drapery fabric and custom bedding fabrics also in earth tones are made using Ralph Lauren and Romo fabrics. Those make up a custom made bed which is framed by night tables by Judith Norman, each featuring simple, elegant table lamps by Judith Norman. The vanity is also from Judith Norman. And because this room features panoramic water views through floor-to-ceiling windows, recess lighting was created and the ceiling houses the television which is brought down when in use and retreats back up when not.Texture is on every wall in the master bathroom particularly behind the dual his and her sinks where a custom made piece with glass circles in earth tones adorns one wall and wallpaper by Romo resides on the other. Missoni towels hang from holders in front of the sinks and specialty tile and stone by Casa Cielo completes the look.In the brightly colored den that leads to the patio is a cream-colored sofa by B&B Italia with a couple of turquoise-colored throw pillows, neutral wallpaper by Romo and a plush brown Fendi rug underneath the cushiony coffee table. Decorating the wall are two more of William Braemer's pieces from Art Fusion Gallerie in the Design District. The pieces almost look black light-inspired with pops of white and neon turquoise (to match the pillows). "The two pieces play well with the room's overall color scheme," Vela said. For the guest bedrooms they incorporated shell tiles purchased at Designer's Tile in the Design District as their textural element.
And finally outside on the terrace is patio furniture by Inside Out. One side features chaise chairs and the other a streamlined patio table and matching chairs.The entire process worked well because as the project progressed, the clients were shown exact renderings of the room's end result, including all materials and textures. This was necessary since every wall within the unit was covered in some type of material.The six-month project was a labor of love for the Mendez Vela team, who took a decorator's ready unit, let their ideas and creative juices flow and in the end, created a dream vacation home for their client while developing "an instant friendly working relationship."
