Interior designer in Coral Gables
Looking for an interior designer for a house in Coral Gables?
In Coral Gables, the first question is not the style, which the city settled a century ago, but which part of the work touches the outside of the house. What stays inside is yours to rethink; a new window, a roof, an enclosed loggia or an addition goes before the Board of Architects, so we draw those parts to pass that review from the start.
Coral Gables: the buildings and what they demand
What you find here
Coral Gables was incorporated in 1925 as a planned city, and its early houses were built almost entirely in the Mediterranean Revival style written into the original plan: stucco walls, barrel tile roofs, arched openings, loggias and courtyards, with Miami limestone, the local coral rock, in walls and garden details.
Those houses were built for another way of living. Rooms are often small and closed, service areas sit apart, kitchens and baths have usually been redone more than once, and the loggias that cooled the house have frequently been enclosed. The work consists of giving the plan back its logic while keeping what makes the house what it is.
- Mediterranean Revival houses of the 1920s and 1930s, in stucco and barrel tile
- Arched openings, loggias, courtyards and coral rock details
- Newer houses, Mediterranean and contemporary, both of which the market supports
- Historic designated homes, whose character-defining features must be preserved
What the city asks
The Board of Architects reviews new single-family houses, additions and exterior alterations. The city's design guidance for houses asks for massing in proportion with the street, pitched roofs, windows in proportion to the walls, authentic traditional materials, and planting that completes the house. A project drawn with those rules in mind goes through more smoothly than one that discovers them at the first comment.
The city's Mediterranean "Med Bonus", often quoted, is an incentive for multi-family and mixed-use buildings. For a house, what counts is the Board's review and, for a designated home, the preservation rules. Structure, envelope and permits are carried by Florida-licensed engineers and contractors, whom we coordinate.
- Board of Architects review for exterior alterations and additions
- Preservation rules for historic designated homes
- Windows, doors and roofing with a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance
- Permits from the City of Coral Gables building department
Our interior design services in Coral Gables
The work we are asked for here
Most requests combine three things: a plan that works again, kitchens and baths that belong to the house, and openings that let the garden back in.
- Reworking the plan of a 1920s house without erasing its rooms
- Kitchens and baths drawn for the house, not picked from a catalog
- Reopening or rethinking an enclosed loggia
- Replacing windows with approved impact products in the original proportions
- Additions designed to pass the Board of Architects review
What we do
We carry the interior design from survey to handover, and we draw the exterior changes to the Board's rules, so the permit set starts from a design the city can accept.
- Survey and diagnosis of the house as built
- Space planning, kitchens, baths, lighting and joinery
- Materials chosen for the style and for the climate
- Drawings for the Board review, with a licensed local engineer wherever structure is involved
- Tendering and follow-up of the Florida-licensed contractor
The work in Coral Gables, and our references
How the work runs
The Board's review comes before the permit, and it can ask for revisions. We schedule it as a stage of its own rather than as a formality, because it sets the start date more than the contractor does.
Hurricane season runs from June through November. Openings, roofs and anything that leaves the envelope exposed are best planned outside those months, or protected for as long as they stay open.
Our work in the area
The studio has not yet completed a project in Coral Gables. The closest work in spirit is the Nasseem Residence in Muscat, now under construction: thick walls, arched openings and a courtyard that filters the light before it enters the rooms.
Our services, the six-stage process and how our fees are calculated are set out here: Interior design for Mediterranean-style homes in Miami: our process and fees. For the style that shapes many of these houses, see Renovating a Mediterranean Revival home in Coral Gables.
Sources
Questions about a project in Coral Gables
Does the Board of Architects review interior work?
The Board's published scope for houses covers new homes, additions and exterior alterations. A renovation that stays inside the walls does not go before it, though it still needs the permits the work calls for, from the City of Coral Gables.
Can we replace the original windows?
Yes, under two conditions. The new windows must carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, the county approval for openings in its hurricane zone, and as an exterior alteration they go through the Board, which asks for windows in proportion to the walls. The work lies in choosing a product that satisfies both.
Is my house historic designated?
The city keeps the register, and it changes what you may alter: a designated home must preserve its character-defining features. It is one of the first things we check at the survey stage, before any drawing.
Can an enclosed loggia be opened again?
In many houses it can, and it is one of the changes that transforms the way the house is lived. Because it alters the outside, it goes through the Board, and a Florida-licensed engineer checks what was built when the loggia was closed.
Which materials suit a Mediterranean Revival house?
The ones it was built with, used well: lime-based plaster rather than acrylic coatings, terracotta and stone rather than imitations, wood joinery sized to the openings. Kept within the house's own family, they also age well in the humidity.
Send us the address, a few photographs of the house and what you want to change. We will tell you in writing which parts go before the Board, which stay inside, and in what order to do them.
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