A Ritzier Welcome

The following first appeared by this author on Homeclick.

Alena Capra has an exotic-sounding name, fitting given her environs: South Florida, where tropical breezes and spectacular peach and violet sunsets bathe the soul.

As a certified kitchen and bath designer, as well as a full-scale interior designer, Capra plies her trades with the deft touch of an artist. Just look at this 2,000 s.f. 12th floor Ritz-Carlton at Coconut Grove condo. Its simple yet elegant color palette, furnishings, and curios make the home more than just a Miami vice.

Making it pretty

Capra says she just “fell into this” career after working primarily redoing kitchens and bathrooms. She particularly loves space planning.

“What can [one] do in this space?” she likes to ask. “What makes it work? [I love to] make a space pretty – and love space planning challenges.”

This residence definitely presented some challenges, because she had to completely restructure the kitchen area and even haul in a whole new column in the dining area. And both columns had to have tiles applied – that would match those on the kitchen backsplash!

The client had decided upon certain colors: reds, ambers, greys, and a certain metallic hue. “I blended it all together – This set the color palette for the whole space,” says Capra.

Livable luxury

For this two bedroom-plus-guest room residence, a fully separate condo from the hotel, Capra wanted to be true to her client’s wishes, and this meant knocking down some walls. The space needed to be as comfortable for this single father of three and his kids.

“The kitchen was closed off, so the first thing was we had [to deal with was] a wall that was a little cut out [see photo],” says Capra. “The client wanted to showcase [the space], but we had to reconfigure it.” Flooring was changed out as Capra and her team “worked around the footprints of the existing space.”

Coconut Grove Before & After

She further explains that the wall of the kitchen that was parallel to the living room area was removed and replaced with a long elevated bar top and bar stools.

“The wall of the kitchen that is perpendicular to that one (on the right side if you are looking into the kitchen from the new bar area), was turned into a full height [taller] wall, with a doorway from the kitchen. We also built out a wall from where the left tiled column is in the dining room,” she says.

“These two new walls met, closing off an area that was once open. Before that, that room was probably the area for a dining table or breakfast nook,” says Capra. Coconut Grove Kitchen Before & After

A portion of the old kitchen was actually turned into a “bonus room” – seen in the picture as a den. Here, a child or other guest can count sheep happily in the gorgeous Murphy bed.

The home boasts two and a half baths, including a remodeled powder room, a semi-remodeled master bath and a full bath in the guest room. Den

Rooms with views

The owner, a real estate developer, wanted to “frame out the view.” Capra says that means he didn’t want to the see the tops of buildings below when pressed up against the ceiling-to-floor windows.

So she brought in a banquette that would push right up to the window, hence creating “a beautiful picturesque view” of the Miami skyline. Then, while there was already the column on the right, Capra had to anchor the banquette by bringing in another column.

“Now you can’t get close enough to see over things you don’t want to see,” she says.

Other parts of the renovation included redoing the powder room; then in the master bath adding some additional tiling. When gutting the main space, Capra kept the existing tile, but added new carpeting to the bedrooms.

Coconut Grove Dining Room

Furniture choices, such as the mod recliner that the client already owned, are striking. Capra nicely jumped off from there, launching the perfect space for this developer dad, with a variety of both high-end and lower-priced vendors.

Most of all, she was going for the right balance. “I was trying to make sure the flow worked,” she says of the glamorous project.

And flow it certainly does. ###

Alena Capra has designed beautiful homes for numerous clients throughout the Miami area. In 2011, she appeared on HGTV on “Rowhouse Showdown”, and has been featured in numerous national and international publications. Photos by Troy Campbell.