Interior designer in Pinecrest
Looking for an interior designer in Pinecrest?
In Pinecrest, the house is rarely too small; it is laid out for another era. Much of the village grew in the 1950s and 1960s with ranch houses on one-acre lots, and the work is usually to reorganise a long, low plan around how a family lives today, and to open it to a garden that is already generous.
Pinecrest: the buildings and what they demand
What you find here
Pinecrest developed in the 1950s and 1960s with ranch houses on one-acre lots, which gave it its landscaped, almost rural character, and it became a village of its own in 1996.
Those houses are low and wide, and many have been extended over the decades. Rooms often follow one another along corridors, the kitchen is closed, and the garden is seen through small windows rather than lived. They are good houses to renovate: space, light and a single level.
- Ranch houses of the 1950s and 1960s
- One-acre lots with mature gardens
- Houses extended over several decades
- A village canopy of more than 10,000 street trees planted since 1997
What the Village asks
Permits come from the Village of Pinecrest building and planning department, which has moved to digital plan submission. As everywhere in the county, windows, doors and roofing must carry a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance.
The large lots invite additions, but the landscape is part of the village's character and the trees are part of the lot's value. We place an addition around the garden rather than at its expense.
- Village of Pinecrest building and planning permits
- Windows, doors and roofing with a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance
- Mature trees on large lots
- Additions reviewed with the Village before any drawing is fixed
Our interior design services in Pinecrest
The work we are asked for here
Most projects are family houses to reorganise rather than to enlarge.
- Opening a ranch plan into one living space
- Bringing the kitchen to the heart of the house
- Letting the garden in through larger, approved openings
- Rethinking bedrooms and baths for a family
- Giving unity to a house extended several times
What we do
We rework the plan and the interior as one project, so the house reads as a whole rather than as a sum of additions.
- Survey of the house as built and as extended
- Space planning, kitchens, baths, lighting and joinery
- Openings to the garden with approved impact products
- Coordination with a licensed local engineer wherever structure is involved
- Tendering and follow-up of the Florida-licensed contractor
The work in Pinecrest, and our references
How the work runs
A single-level house can often be renovated in phases while the family lives in part of it, and the long plan of a ranch house makes that easier. We decide the phasing with you before the contractor prices the job.
Opening walls in an older house reveals what past renovations left behind. The survey looks for it before the drawings, so surprises become decisions made in advance.
Our work in the area
The studio has not yet completed a project in Pinecrest. The Nasseem Residence in Muscat, a family house organized around its courtyard and now under construction, is the closest reference for a home whose rooms are drawn around the garden.
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 Pinecrest
Can a ranch house be opened into one living space?
Usually, yes, and it is the most common request here. Some of the walls you want to remove may carry the roof, so a licensed engineer confirms what can go before the plan is fixed.
Do we need a permit to renovate inside?
Most work that touches the structure, the plumbing, the electrical systems, the windows or the doors does. In Pinecrest the application goes to the Village building and planning department.
Can we stay in the house during the work?
Sometimes, in phases. A single-level plan makes it easier to close off part of the house, but kitchens and baths usually mean some weeks elsewhere. We plan it with you from the start.
Should we add on or reorganise?
Reorganise first. Most ranch houses have the space; what they lack is the right sequence of rooms. An addition makes sense once the plan works, not as a way around it.
Can the garden be part of the project?
It should be. On a one-acre lot, the view, the shade and the way you step outside decide how the house is lived. We work with a landscape designer so the interior and the garden are drawn together.
Send us a plan of the house if you have one, a few photographs and how the family uses it today. We will tell you in writing what the house can become without an addition, and what an addition would bring.
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