It takes an expert eye to take an authentic Spanish-style home and sympathetically update it to reflect modern-day living. The interiors need to celebrate those living in it, function for the way they live, yet retain the exquisite architecture that makes the property unique – and that's no easy feat. In this Southern Californian home – which belongs to interior designer Stephanie Parisi and her fiancé – dark, overfilled rooms needed to be reimagined into an open, bright space while retaining the original details.
The beauty of this project was that, unlike designing the interiors for a client, Stephanie could fill the space with anything she wanted, and create a space that truly feels like home. Here, she welcomes us inside to showcase the beautiful transformation of her Spanish-style home. 'The home has an authentic Spanish Colonial architectural layout and was built around a central enclosed courtyard.
There were many charming details in place before the recent transformation – many of which were made by artisans and imported from Mexico – but was used excessively, thus giving the home a sort of heavy and busy appearance,' says Stephanie Parisi . The layout of the home was the first thing to tackle. A long hallway was the only route to the various rooms, all of which had small doorways that simply weren't practical for day-to-day use.
So, it was key to create a better flow between each room. 'Interior doors were replaced with wide openings headed with exposed b.