A Compact Miami Condo Makes a Bold Statement
With an established design theme of eclectic with a Parisian accent for a couple’s Brickell Key apartment, designer Maite Granda combined classic French black-and-white stripes on the lounge chair with an Ikea sofa wearing Perennials fabric in the living room. The midcentury modern-inspired coffee table is from West Elm, as are the sofa’s throw pillows. The geometric Seabrook wallpaper is from Palmetto Paint & Decorating Center, and the hand-tufted wool rug is from CB2.
For most people, the thought of downsizing and shrinking a lifetime of memories and furnishings into much tighter quarters is a daunting one. For homeowners Robyn and Allan Webb, who were accustomed to small-scale apartment living after years of vacationing in Paris, the transition from their multi-level Virginia home to a one-bedroom apartment on Miami’s Brickell Key was made with relative ease.
With the help of designer Maite Granda, the homeowners, an award-winning cookbook author and a retired aeronautics engineer, carefully culled a few things to display in their new digs. “Incorporating souvenirs from their travels, we picked items that were fun and colorful,” says Granda, who designed the apartment with broad brush strokes of black and white, and bold interjections reminiscent of a chic pied-a-terre.
Knowing she had to make every inch of the 900-square-foot space usable, Granda eliminated a row of upper kitchen cabinets to establish a more social flow between the adjacent dining room, and tucked a desk into one corner of the living room to serve as Allan’s home office. Even the balcony functions at a high level. As Granda explains, “There’s a comfortable swivel chair on one end just for Robyn where she can work on her computer while enjoying the ocean views.”