This Miami Home Combines American Comforts With European Style

For years, designer Stephanie Roy-Heckl was content outfitting homes as a hobby, despite friends’ frequent requests for her assistance. While working in the fashion industry in New York, she renovated and flipped a series of residences. After Roy-Heckl relocated with her family to South Florida, however, a French couple was so impressed by the blossoming designer’s work on her new house that they convinced her to take them on as her first clients.

Eager to renovate the 1990s structure they had purchased in Miami, the owners knew Roy-Heckl was the right person for the job because of their shared worldly aesthetic and her Austrian upbringing. “I appreciated that she was multicultural and had similar European influences,” the wife recalls. The designer agreed to the job on one condition: that she be joined by the professionals who helped update her own home, architect Carlina T. Arronte and general contractors Diango Olivera and Reinier Perez. With the team assembled, Roy-Heckl formulated a plan to reorganize the interior flow and inject an aesthetic that fuses Parisian flair with stateside comfort.

Materials, meanwhile, ground the residence in a European feel, like the kitchen’s natural oak cabinetry and Calacatta Vintage marble countertops along with the wood flooring that warms most rooms. “As Europeans, we all want wood floors,” Roy-Heckl admits. “It was a given.” To that end, she reserved tiling only for the foyer and bathrooms, an uncommon sight for Olivera. “Everyone in Miami has a modern house with a lot of tile,” he says. “This felt totally different, but I love it.”

Within the new framework, the designer established an eclectic yet sophisticated mix of vintage and contemporary furnishings—mostly French and Italian—that offer continental élan. Instead of large-scale seating so common in American homes, for instance, she arranged an assortment of smaller pieces with shapely lines, such as the living area’s petite T-back chairs and dish-shaped stool. “The furniture is delicate and refined,” Roy-Heckl observes. “Every piece is sculptural.” Equally diverse is the dining area, a study in geometry with angular chairs, an oval table and graphic artwork illuminated by a chandelier of three artistic pendants, each a different shape.

When it came to color, the designer formed a palette plucked from the French countryside. Rich, organic shades of olive, mustard and burgundy with hints of subtle beige offer an earthy backdrop for the occasional vibrant accessory on a bookshelf or built-in. To inject a youthful vibe, she accented spaces with black—like the living room’s Calacatta Viola marble fireplace surround, which juxtaposes an antique gilt mirror above. “It adds a fresher, industrial component,” Roy-Heckl explains. “I didn’t want to convert this house into an old Parisian apartment. It’s a balancing act.”

Given the tropical locale, she made sure to incorporate a few endemic nods to the area but with an overseas twist. A powder room is swathed in an emerald-green palm-print wallpaper—plus a hanging monkey light fixture as a touch of cheekiness—while the playroom spotlights a jungle mural in modern tones that features three animals, a nod to each child. The singular place the designer went nearly colorless: the cozy primary bedroom, a tranquil space with creamy tones, a quietly patterned wallcovering and romantic white sheers. “It’s the one area where I like to keep the palette neutral,” she says. “It’s important to walk into a space that feels calm and Zen.”

While completing the residence, Roy-Heckl was approached by other homeowners, many who have also lived in Europe, asking for her worldly touch—and this time, she did not decline. Now running a thriving business, the tried-and-true designer finds herself taking creative risks, a lesson she carries from her fashion career. “I try to be conscious about creating environments that are timeless yet unique,” she reflects—just like this home.