Nature-Inspired Great Room by Fiorito Interior Design

This gorgeous, nature--inspired Great Room--comprised of the kitchen, dining area, and sitting room—was reimagined for some wonderful repeat clients, beginning with a small, treasured piece of art.

Their large 1950s ranch house nestled into a gentle hill surrounded by orchards of fragrant orange, lemon, and cherry trees initially featured a too-small kitchen adjacent to a warren of small spaces with low ceilings serving as a dining and sitting area. They dreamed of a more spacious, light-filled layout.

A complete redesign of the home not only resolved spatial constraints but also embraced the beauty of the home’s natural surroundings. By removing walls and creating an open-plan layout, we enhanced the flow and connectivity between the kitchen, dining, and sitting areas, seamlessly integrating the outdoors with the indoors.

The relocated kitchen now faces the backyard, to facilitate outdoor entertaining and features a large island, serving as a welcoming focal point for both cooking and socializing. I designed a distinctive ceiling feature above the island, crafted from planks of the adjacent vaulted ceiling, mirroring the shape of the island below. This feature adds architectural interest and visually connects the flat kitchen plane with the vaulted plank ceiling of the sitting area, creating a harmonious sense of continuity and warmth.

A beautiful, prized painting of a bird on a branch created the direction for the color and texture palette. An intriguing yellow-green-tan background in the art guided my choices for the backsplash tile (an iridescent version mimics light glinting on water) and countertops. The kitchen's soothing color palette features various shades of natural green, while the dining area introduces feather-blue tones through chair upholstery and rug. Just steps away, the inviting sitting area features a rebuilt fireplace clad in cut, polished Haisa marble tiles in a vertical pattern. The soft, generous seating creates a comfortable spot for movie nights or cozying up by the fire on a cold winter evening. The elegant, simple silhouettes of the furniture enhance the serene and calming atmosphere of the space.

After photos: Bernardo Grijalva and Fiorito Interior Design

Happy designing!

A Wine Connoisseur's Home by Fiorito Interior Design

Like many projects, this one started with a simple wish from a client: turn an unused butler’s pantry between the dining room and kitchen into a fully functioning, climate-controlled wine room for his extensive collection of valuable vintages. But like many projects, the wine room is connected to the dining room which is connected to the sitting room which is connected to the entry. When you touch one room, it only makes sense to reinvigorate them all. With the help of the great team at Elite Construction, we overhauled the entire ground floor of this lovely home.

For the wine room, I worked with Vintage Cellars in Southern California to create custom wine storage embedded with LED lighting to spotlight very special bottles. The walls are in a yummy burgundy tone and the floors are porcelain tiles that look as if they came from an old wine cave in Tuscany. A bubble light chandelier alludes to sparkling varietals.

But as mentioned, the rest of the house came along for the ride. Since we were adding a climate-controlled wine room, the brief was to turn the rest of the house into a space that would rival any hot-spot winery in Napa.

After choosing new wood flooring and a new hue for the walls, the entry became a destination in itself with an impressively large concave metal mirror and custom bench. We knocked out a half wall that awkwardly separated the sitting room from the dining room so that after-dinner drinks could flow to the fireplace surrounded by stainless steel pebbles; and we outfitted the dining room with a new chandelier. We chose all new furniture for all spaces.

The kitchen received the least amount of work but ended up being completely transformed anyhow. At first our plan was to tear everything out, but we soon realized that the cabinetry was in good shape and only needed the dated honey pine color painted over with a cream white. We also played with the idea of changing the counter tops, but once the cabinetry changed color, the granite stood out beautifully. The final change was the removal of a pot rack over the island in favor of design-forward forged iron pendants.

All photos by Genia Barnes.

Photos by Genia Barnes

Happy designing!

White: A Blank Page Or Canvas 2020

Hello past, current, and future clients, and regular readers and followers: welcome to 2020. As we begin a new year with promise and the possibility of much-needed change and optimism stretched out before us, I am reminded of these words from "Sunday In The Park With George" by the legendary Stephen Sondheim: "White: a blank page or canvas...so many possibilities." Here in the western world, white represents purity. It is basic, untouched, unformed. These are the qualities of a blank piece of paper or a painter's canvas, ready to absorb any ideas and to support whatever might be created upon it.

There are those in the interior design world who think that white is a lost opportunity for color, and being more of a maximalist myself, I might lean in that direction, but I can't deny the allure of the absence of color as well. White can be a bold statement as much as any hue and the following white rooms speak volumes.

Happy designing!

Dark and Dramatic

Over the years, I have heard many clients say that they do not want to paint a space a dark color because they are afraid it will make it feel smaller. This fear is especially powerful for small rooms.

Yet, a dark color can actually make a room look larger. It seems counter-intuitive, I know, but Interior Design Mantra #6, seen at the right on this blog, is true: "Light colors advance, dark colors recede."

Think about it. It is the reason theaters hang black fabric around the perimeter of stage sets and in wings... it masks the entrances and backstage areas. Black makes those areas disappear. The dark color does not permit the eye to read any definition, any spatial markers, any dimensions. As far as an observer knows, that space could be 30 feet deep...there's no way to know.

With this idea, small spaces are actually ideal candidates for black or dark colors on the walls... there is simply much less visual information for the brain to process the shape of the room.

Powder rooms seem to benefit the most from this optical illusion.

Butler pantries and narrow hallways are also logical places to employ this color trick...it makes these spaces seem not only larger but more elegant and intriguing.

But larger rooms look fantastic in darker colors as well...

The home of London designer Abigail Ahern is a spectacular example of the power of dark colors in every room...

If you'd like to add some dark drama to your home, give me a call!

Happy designing!