Overseas travel informs our design aesthetic here at Wolfe-Rizor, and we love incorporating one-of-a-kind treasures that our clients bring back from their journeys. A bold painting purchased from a street artist in Montmartre, a steel sculpture from an Athens flea market, an embroidered tapestry from Marrakesh… bringing these into the home is a perfect way to remember an amazing trip and to add unique flavor to your environment.
The pitfall comes when clients want to duplicate a whole city, say, to make your dining room feel like a restaurant in Tuscany. It’s easy enough to slap some grape vines on the wall, scatter a couple of plaster busts, hang a big picture of an Italian landscape, sip on chianti and play ‘La Dolce Vita’. But then you’ve fallen into the trap of themed décor, something we never do here at Wolfe-Rizor. We believe your home should be timeless, multifaceted, classic yet modern, with clean and simple lines to showcase the unique treasures you gather while traveling the world.
So when a client wants to recreate a place from their travels, we approach it by breaking down the experience into the elements. We find out what feeling the environment created in them: what smells, sensations, tastes, and visuals stood out. And then we go deeper to discover which of these things was most meaningful. Maybe it was the deep red of the walls in a dining room in Venice, enhanced by glowing candlelight that created a warm, welcoming environment to savor a meal. This is something we can work with, and incorporate into our client’s Florida home.
It’s always a joy to collaborate with clients to bring home the vacation feeling and the exotic memories of faraway lands. So next time you take a trip abroad and you spend some time in a place that makes you feel good, try to pinpoint what elements are creating that feeling. And then come to us, we’ll be glad to help you translate it into something livable and elegant that you’ll be proud to call your own!