This Modern Miami Home Has a Swiss Beat
From skiing in the Swiss Alps to water sports in Key Biscayne, a relocation for a Chilean couple with three small children was a sea change. “They’re probably the most opposite places in the world,” says the husband about moving from Switzerland to Miami. The couple fell in love with a tropical modern house in Key Biscayne with architecture by Marta Zubillaga and Juan Jose Zubillaga of Zubillaga Design. The white-stucco home with horizontal planks of red cedar had them at hello due to the open interiors kept bright and airy with limestone and marble plus an abundance of windows. “The light,” the husband says, “is something we loved.”
While in Miami on an overseas trip, the wife met with designer Maite Granda, whose style she had seen and liked online. For their interview, the homeowner brought along a photo book she created that essentially offered a roadmap to their family with profiles, likes, sports, and hobbies to navigate through the design. They immediately clicked, and Granda’s passion for designing children’s rooms was a value-added perk that the mother of three appreciated. “She painted a picture for me of each of the kids,” recalls Granda. “She said, ‘My boy is very creative—always building; he loves Legos. My oldest girl is very artistic—always dressing up in costumes, and she likes to sing. And the little one—we’re still discovering her personality.’”
The designer and family communicated each week via Skype. At first, the couple planned to move most of their furniture from Switzerland. “We had some good Italian pieces,” the husband says. Still, Granda persuaded them to rethink that approach. “The style was dark—very different from what’s prevalent here, where it’s all about island living and natural, light tones. I suggested I do a presentation from scratch, and they loved it.”
When the family arrived from Europe, everything was in place, in true turnkey fashion—even the refrigerators were stocked with food. And not to leave the children out, Granda delivered on her promise. “At one point, Maite asked my wife to have the children draw their rooms as they imagined them,” the husband says. That translated to a nautical theme for the 10-year-old son, with a loft space for a “ship” and steering wheel; a room fit for a princess with a four-poster bed and wardrobe, dress-up space and a stage with a microphone for the 7-year-old daughter; and a pretty room to grow into with pastel tree decals on the wall and a built-in dollhouse with niche seating and shelving for the parents to read to their 2-year-old girl. “When the kids saw this come to life, it was very exciting,” the husband says. The moment he laid eyes on his outdoor kitchen, he smiled and said: “This is my dream home.”
—Elaine Markoutsas