Category: Interior Architecture

richard shapiro's home and garden outdoor via belle vivir

If you think that all homes in Malibu, California are glass houses and flashy ones, think twice.  This home, belonging to Richard Shapiro, antique dealer and head of Studiolo Home Furnishings is all about style and substance.  Richard Shapiro’s home and garden have direct reference to classicism from far and stylish lands as Italy and Spain with a breath taking garden inspired by French-Japanese gardens, yes such combination is possible as you’ll see below.  Some of the beautiful details Richard had interpreted in his Malibu beach home are a fragment of a fourth-century Roman column, a Spanish oil pot, and 17th-century Florentine marble lions… His authentic home was featured in Architectural Digest and his amazing garden in Elle Decor.  “I wanted complete seclusion and mystery,” Shapiro said of his Japanese-French inspired garden.  To Architectural Digest he said about the beautiful patina in his home… “If things are slightly off, I like it.”  Richard Shapiro’s home and garden are a true inspiration.

 richard shapiro's home and garden living room via belle vivir blog

A frescoed plaster finish on the walls while a 17-century Italian gilt-wood mirror adds the subtle touch of glam to the living room.

richard shapiro's home and garden library belle vivir

A daybed in the library.

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Steven Gambrel has been living every Interior Designer’s dream or perhaps it’s more appropriate to say every developer’s, architect’s and entrepreneur’s dream.  According to Elle Decor Magazine, Gambrel has restored over six homes in Sag Harbor, New York, as a matter of fact the designer owns a home in the town as well.  Enlisting Historical Concepts, a firm based in New York and Atlanta, Gambrel restores and preserves these homes to their original states of charisma while adding the modern touches of 21st-Century living.  Steven Gambrel’s style with its inclination to masculine lines and strong contrasting characters, is one that can appeal to both sexes, especially families.  One of his many elegant signatures is the use of a darker color paint on the inside moldings as well as on the kitchen cabinets trims.   His interiors usually exhibit a unique color combination, as I pointed out in this post about Unusual Color Combination in Interiors some time back.   Sag Harbor has been my favorite town in the Hamptons for its laid back bohemian vibe and also because it feels more like a beach town where you can walk.  I can’t imagine how rewarding it must be to be able to buy, restore and sell or even live in one of Sag Harbor’s charming homes.

Steven Gambrel Bridgehampton living room, sagharbor belle vivir blog

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Even though the late Oscar de la Renta is not with us anymore, his legacy and excellent taste will forever be.  His exceptional training and career led him to creating one of the most admirable fashion brands in the world.  But as any extraordinary taste maker, his exceptional taste did not stop at Fashion, rather was represented in every single part of his lifestyle.  A true gardener, as his closest friends knew him and many witnessed, it was his homes, full of chic classic style that enchanted and inspired many.

oscar de la renta new york city bedroom chic classic style shared with his first wife, francoise de langlade

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I posted about Interior Designer Julie Hillman‘s modern warm interiors a few years ago and while visiting her site lately I realized how avant-garde her work is.  She is capable of creating modern but still warm interiors by juxtaposing classic furnishings of clean iconic lines with modern abstract work.  Exactly what I believe dreams are made of.  A home that is far from common and boring, a home that interprets its homeowner’s lifestyle, travels and tastes but manages to be collected, sophisticated and mostly comfortable and livable.  And, if the home decor happens to meet half way between traditional and modern a.k.a transitional Interior Design, sign me up because that right there is what Chic Comfortable Interiors are to me.

julie hillman design living kithchen via belle vivir blog

Julie Hillman spent 10 years as a fashion designer before moving to Interior Design and she also went to Parsons, I’d like to think that we share a lot of things in common, the same awesome name, pardon my lack of modesty, we went to the same school and we have a love for 1940’s French furniture.   Julie describes her style as Modern Eclectic. A mixture of collected antique and modern masterworks, balanced with sumptuous fabrics and comfortable furnishings, tailored to each client’s individual needs.  I love how Julie can keep the color palette to neutral, of course always warm neutrals, and still make her interiors look exciting and warm perhaps that is due to her abundant use of quality art.

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renovation tips for bathrooms Julie Paulino Design marble shower
When we started remodeling our home I knew we were not going to live here forever, I also knew what many people knew, that the time of the housing boon was over.  Knowing that, my choices on materials and structural changes needed to be more cautious, but I didn’t want to sacrifice style or comfort.  So I kept the kitchen and bathrooms as traditional and neutral as possible, something that would appeal to most people, in case one day we decided to sell this house.  For our master bathroom I mixed “real and steal” materials: marble mosaic in calacatta gold for the floor, chair rail (to end the tiles that I extended 12″ up the wall, below) and the pencil border that frames the walk-in shower.  The shower walls are in porcelain that look exactly like calacatta gold marble.  It’s funny the tile installer didn’t know it wasn’t marble until he saw the back of it.  The vanity is custom made.The master bathroom is on the small side so I installed a programmable tile warmer, a luxury feature that will compensate for the lack of space. Anyone who has ever remodeled a home knows that faucets can be expensive.  For the shower faucets I simply left out unnecessary things such as volume control handles.   The main shower handle does the volume control already so why buy an extra one?  I wanted to create a luxury experience for my shower with more than one water source without having to pay top money for it.  I got the big overhead shower at Lowe’s where the handheld shower is a combination of one of those handles that come with the shower I just replaced the hose for one that you can connect separately and got the set of handles with its respective valves at a trade showroom.  This way I was able to have two separate shower sources with two separate faucets.
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Pablo Paniagua entryway Design via Belle Vivir

When I came across this modern home designed by  Pablo Paniagua, the custom black and white geometric floors stopped me on my tracks.  If not for the visual impact, then for what it does to the space.  The way the elongated diamond-shaped pieces of marble are placed forming a big half fan, creates a central focal point while consequently elevating the entire space.  What a clever way to enhance the architecture of an entryway.  Pablo Paniagua’s
modern style in Interiors has been a blogger-favorite for a while as you can see in this house
through which the Madrid based designer became more well known among Interior Design Blogs.  While I found this house in his online portfolio, there is not much information about
it.  Although it’s all there, the modern and classic details intermingle with jewel tones here and there.  Enjoy!

Pablo Paniagua entryway Design via Belle Vivir

Love the modern art and the studded nailhead trim on the walls

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