How Lamarc Studio Blended Classical and Contemporary Design in a Stunning Key Biscayne Condo
NOUBIKKO - From Noubi Says 
Great Design is an Artful Balancing Act in Which the Clients and the Designer Engage in a Give and Take Before Coming to Terms That Result in Beautiful and Functional Spaces.
But what do you do when the husband and wife each have exquisite taste, but their styles are diametrically opposed? You compromise without sacrificing the integrity of the design or wounding the pride of either partner. A case in point is a project in Key Biscayne, Florida, that Marcela Restrepo, the founder of Lamarc Studio, undertook. She had worked with the couple before. They were, in fact, her very first clients. This project, though, was much more extensive. And it started in an unconventional manner.
The couple had a second home in Key Biscayne, the one Restrepo designed a powder room and master bathroom for all those years ago, and they were looking for a larger condo, one that included a laundry room and an additional bedroom, for them and their four grown sons.
So they asked Restrepo to look around and find them a new condo she could remake for them. “We visited a condo that, at first glance, seemed very unpromising to them,” Restrepo says. “It was full of bright colors, and the spaces were all enclosed and dark. But I told them that we could redo it and that it was going to be beautiful.”
Restrepo opened the layout and changed the floor plan, creating a large space where the living room, dining room, bar, and kitchen flow into each like the ocean waves the couple can view from their windows. These newly created spaces served as a blank slate that offered many possibilities for the couple’s divergent tastes.
“The design is a dialogue between the two distinct perspectives of the owners,” Restrepo says. “She gravitates toward the classical— she’s drawn to crystal, moldings and traditional detail and art. He favors the contemporary, with its clean lines and understated clarity. I reinterpreted classical elements through a contemporary lens, allowing ornament and simplicity, history and modernity, to meet in harmony.”
The marriage of styles, which Restrepo likens to adding wow fashion accessories to a classical suit, is introduced in the foyer, which is reached via private elevator. It makes a dramatic entrance with a checkerboard floor of travertine and Nero Marquina marble, a floating travertine shelf and a large organic-shaped mirror. Inspired by the hues of the sand, water and sky and the feel of the ocean breezes, Restrepo created a color palette that reads as a neutral while imparting serenity, something the husband and wife both craved.
The wife readily agreed to adding traditional moldings to the walls, and the husband assented to the addition of simple floating shelves for books and display objects. Restrepo painted the walls and ceilings a custom-mixed ecru and detailed the baseboard in bright white, which provides a subtle contemporary pop. “The wife saw a contemporary chair in ecru and fell in love with the color,” Restrepo says. “It took us 20 custom-mixed paint samples to get the color right.” The ecru is picked up in the laminated kitchen cabinets and in the IceStone countertop of its island and backsplash.
Against this background, Restrepo placed comfortable contemporary furnishings that speak with a chic accent. And art that personally resonates with the couple. In the living room, a cloud-like Poliform sectional sofa, an instant favorite of the husband, pairs perfectly with the Maxalto coffee table she fell in love with.
The couple had vast discussions and disagreements over the dining room. The husband, as a surprise, had bought the wife a huge black-and-white artwork by Victor Rodriguez that features a woman with butterflies. He had intended it to go in the entrance hall, which has an austere concrete bench by Holly Hunt.
It didn’t fit the space properly, so Restrepo suggested putting it in the dining room, whose sleek table is from Restoration Hardware. The wife didn’t like the piece in the beginning and rejected that idea, saying she wanted to return it to the gallery. But after a few days, she came around, and the work, along with a spidery black chandelier from Flos that she liked at first sight, has become a key conversation piece of the condo.
The husband and wife agreed that the bedrooms should be simple and serene with little decoration. Restrepo designed matching headboards, each upholstered in a different fabric. For the boys’ rooms, the beds are designed to be pushed together to create a king-size sleeping space.
Each is distinguished by carefully curated art that reflects the personality of the occupant. The project is a testament not only to good design but also to a good marriage. “The husband and wife were willing to concede to and listen to each other,” Restrepo says. “They respected each other’s choices.”
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