Transforming History into Modern Aesthetics: Carla Maria Designs' Spanish Oasis Story

Get ready to embark on a journey of transformation with our guests, Carla and Rosa Palenzuela from Carla Maria Designs, who took a Spanish waterfront gem in Coral Gables, Florida from the 1940s and turned it into a modern oasis. Highlighting their dedication to preserving history and sustainability in their designs, they intertwine the charm of vintage elements with the contemporary needs of their clients. As a woman-owned venture, Carla Maria Designs proudly brings forth spaces that are not just visually captivating, but also narrate tales of the past.

Carla and Rosa share their personal experiences, with a special focus on their Spanish home renovation, where they used Mallorca and Lake Moon ceramic subway tiles to breathe new life into the third floor. They talk about the wonderful interplay of light in design, the magic of matching wall and floor tiles, and how to choose the right ones for your space. Drawing on Rosa's experiences in Spain and their shared love for vintage aesthetics, they emphasize the importance of preserving the beauty of vintage pieces and best practices to seamlessly integrate them into a modern design aesthetic.

As we near the end of our journey, the duo gives us an insider's look into their upcoming Bahamian house project, as well as their recently concluded Spanish project. They share practical advice on home renovation, including investing in quality materials, trusting your instincts, and not shying away from expressing yourself. With their commitment to honoring the past while creating beautiful and sustainable spaces, this conversation with Carla and Rosa Palenzuela is a treasure trove of inspiration for all passionate about design and history.

LINKS:

• Follow Carla & Rosa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlamariadesign/
• Mallorca Tiles
• Lake Moon Tiles

Transcript

Lindsay Fluckiger: 0:00

Welcome to Tile Trends by Tile Club, the podcast where we explore the world of interior design and the role of tiles in creating beautiful spaces. I'm your host, lindsay Flukiger, and today we have two very special guests with us Carla and Rosa Palenzuela of Carla Maria Designs. Stimming from their shared journey of transforming a vintage 1940s Spanish waterfront gym in Coral Gables, florida, this mother-daughter team has taken their passion and expertise to the next level. They're not just about giving spaces a makeover. They infuse every project with vibrant day-to-day elegance and seamlessly blend in vintage and reclaimed elements. Their commitment to honor the authentic spirit of each home while weaving in the contemporary desires of their clients. Every home they touch unfolds a unique narrative, sculpting what many may call the true dream home. Carla and Rosa, welcome to the show.

Carla: 0:56

Hi, thank you so much for having us. We're so excited to get started. We're Carla and Rosa.

Carla: 1:04

This is my mom.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 1:05

Awesome. It's a pleasure to have you both. We're so excited. You are our very first mother-daughter duo. So, as we've said before on the show, as a woman-owned company, we love seeing strong females leading in the industry and just making beautiful things happen. So, to start things off, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourselves and also how you got started in the world of interior design?

Carla: 1:28

We basically kind of started when, like you said, our Spanish home here in Miami Florida, in Coral Gables, is a 1940 home and we basically restored the home and remodeled it. But, unlike you know, other properties here in Miami, we didn't just kind of get rid of the Spanish charm and then we made sure to incorporate the character while adding modern elements. And it was also kind of fun because we incorporated a lot of wallpaper tiles like color, like you can see behind us. So our friends and family loved it and thought that it was so beautiful and different and I think, kind of incorporating that like Spanish-European look to a little bit of charm and modern all mixed together gave it a lot of character and it kind of reflected like who we are as people and like our tastes and interests too.

Carla: 2:27

So kind of what that we started and people. I started my account on Instagram and people started following us and really like what we do and asking for advice and things like that. And we also brought in a lot of vintage aspects. Actually, we we frequent to Spain because my mom's from there originally, so we go to actually a studio since in the north of Spain, and we brought a lot of vintage tiles that we incorporated in the kitchen and the guest bathroom and just kind of I don't know special, unique pieces like that, but got us into kind of the restoring and interior design. You know world so.

Rosa: 3:08

I grew up, basically for my inspiration. I grew up in. I'm from the north of Spain and my mom's house is a historic house and during the Civil War in Spain it was used as a jail. And when my grandparents and my mom and her sister went back to Spain after the Civil War it was completely destroyed, but the tiles were there. The original floor, the original flooring, is there. So I've always found it so beautiful. And then in the actual dining room it's blue and yellow and in Spanish it's called I'll tell you a little what it's Los Adorables, which it's a hydraulic tiles, and there used to be in a studio. There used to be a lot of factories, but now they're hard to find.

Rosa: 4:01

But when we purchased our home here in Miami I one summer, thanks to the internet, I said I'm going to see if I can find all tiles. So I searched and there was this gentleman, super nice, that I found. I went to his warehouse, that amazing, beautiful, breathtaking stuff. So I bought a bunch of them, incredible price, and between my suitcase, my daughter's suitcase, my husband's, my son, we all brought it and then we used it here in a house in Miami and I love it. I think it's a, you know, but a lot of people don't like doing that, but I think it's good for the environment, it's a way of preserving the past, of, you know, honoring our history. So you know, that's how we started. And then, if it was for me, I would redo a bathroom once a month, but it's impossible because I love tiles. I love it.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 4:54

Yeah, oh, that is such an inspiring story. Thank you for sharing that. I love everything you touched on with the sustainability aspect and then also just bringing a little bit of the past to the present and really hang on each other.

Rosa: 5:09

Honestly, it was like how do you say honor Like honoring? A tribute to my mother that passed away right before, right after we started remodeling here. So I wanted to have a piece of her house here in Miami, you know, to remember her, that's so beautiful.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 5:27

Yeah, so interesting, you know, of course we are a tile company and so that's our forte, that's what we do day in and day out. But it's so inspiring to even see like excavations in Rome where, like, the tiles are still intact. I mean, it's just such a timeless piece, it's such a cool design element to bring into the space.

Rosa: 5:48

And being such a young country because in the United States a young country, you know it's good to incorporate a little bit of something old I don't know how to translate it Like character, yes.

Carla: 6:01

And this home. We were lucky that we were able to maintain and save basically the tiles of the main part of the house, kind of like the formal area. It was all original from 1940.

Rosa: 6:13

They were called Cuban tiles because they were made in Cuba and then Miami was so close to Cuba, so you know they would bring them, you know sell them here and sadly a lot of people don't like it because it's a big red ceramic tile. But for me, if you clean it and you maintain it with the decoration, it looks amazing because it gives a lot of, you know, character to the area.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 6:35

Yeah, and we're seeing a lot of those same elements, like the more rustic kind of style, coming back into play the two cottage and you can see our star and cross behind me that are, I believe, manufactured also in Spain. We just launched a new line called Amira. That's an encaustic porcelain tile that's also manufactured in Spain and they're just made so well and they're so beautiful and add so much to the space. So, yeah, and I love what Carla was saying, just about adding character, Like, even though it might be old, it still just brings that uniqueness to a space.

Carla: 7:09

No, and it's fun. It's like I feel like my friends come here and they're always like your house, like I just feel like it brings the beauty out of every day because it's just we add the color and tiles, like have the ability to do that versus, you know, just boring. Let me just make every bathroom the same type of thing. We really try to give every room its unique character and, like the bathroom is kind of where everyone you know expresses themselves a little bit with what they want.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 7:37

So yeah, I love it. Well, speaking of design and creating the aesthetic of your dreams, let's dive into the world of interior design. What do you both love most about being interior designers and what inspires your work? I think we touched a little on that, but let's take that a step further.

Carla: 7:56

I think really the goal for us specifically is, I think, just sustainability and restoring and kind of. I think we have like a duty, you know, as interior designers, to try to maintain as much of an original home as possible and incorporate antique pieces, like we were saying. Of course, you know, with us and like with our clients, we try to make the home as much of a representation of them as possible and, you know, up to their tastes and incorporate beautiful modern pieces as well. But I think kind of for us a goal is to doing as much as possible to restore and maintain the original part of the house.

Rosa: 8:43

And it's hard because a lot of people are afraid, I have to say, they're worried to restore and they know, oh my God, what if it doesn't look good with them? With them, modern, relax, you know, and it's hard to explain to them how it's gonna look, but at the end they all love the final product. But it's, I think, besides a it's overworked, of course, and contractors don't like remodels honestly, they'd rather just start from scratch. It happened here in our house to be able to get somebody, which at the end, I ended up being the contractor. I had Sally, she fired everyone. No, I fired the contractor and I did it on my own. I was awake and fast, and the way it's supposed to be, but before, when I contacted, I said no, no, no, no, no, you have to turn down the house and start from scratch. And I know I'm gonna remodel, and we remodel and did a addition. So, and then our architect was amazing. He agreed with me and we're able to, you know, to incorporate both.

Carla: 9:46

I see a lot of like here in four gables. There's a lot of beautiful Spanish houses that have gotten knocked down and like people that just don't appreciate.

Rosa: 9:56

We have a historic board and a lot of houses are, you know, then, certifying the story so they can touch them, but a lot of don't.

Carla: 10:06

I don't know. That's really. I think the overarching purpose is for that and like maintaining history. And, like we said, the US has very little history, so whatever we have, you know, to keep it.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 10:19

So yeah, that's a beautiful story and a beautiful like a mission statement just restoring and sustaining and keeping this history alive, you know, and also incorporating other vintage items and historic pieces. I think that's just such a beautiful thing. Rosa, you being from Spain, maybe do you wanna speak on some of the inspiration that you've acquired from living in Europe. How does having you know Spain as home inspire your own interior design efforts?

Rosa: 10:49

I'm a very visual person so every time I go anywhere in Spain or any other beautiful city in Europe, I'm always looking at ideas and admiring the beauty of anything but mainly tiles, wallpaper, and and. In a lot of our projects we bring the product from, even new or old. We bring the product from Europe to incorporate it here. But here in the United States we have great factories of tiles also and mainly like oh my God, my Portugal and Spain are mainly the bigger manufacturers of tiles in Europe. So I'm lucky that around me I get ideas from everywhere and I'm not into magazines. I buy every magazine that I can find. I'm always looking, I buy all my magazines over there and that's my happy time just looking and getting ideas and everything they have such great style there too.

Carla: 11:50

Yes, and that's where we see these beautiful houses that were an old monastery or something like that, and we're like this is stunning how they put it together.

Rosa: 12:00

If it was for me, I would remodel every abandoned house there is over there. But you know, and it's funny, because now in Spain, or in general, most people don't like old stuff, quote unquote they like modern. That's why you find all this material, this old material, this vintage material, so cheap, because they get rid of it. And you have to dig and you have to find it, and I'll have Carlos in your picture of what we did here with the old tiles. So you see them?

Carla: 12:32

Yeah, it's really something beautiful.

Rosa: 12:35

And then, of course, here you have. You can go to many places and purchase something similar and incorporate the old with the new.

Carla: 12:43

This art piece here came originally with the house. As an artist in 1940, he kind of made it like a mural that he made. I don't have any of the artists, but a lot of houses in Coral Gables. Had this man come when, they would build the house like make specific to each house a really pretty window.

Rosa: 13:07

It's a window that used to be the garage. It's a window, so the breeze would come, you know, pass through also and they had like a beautiful ornament and then the natural breeze of Miami, it would go through.

Carla: 13:22

I don't know, we've actually noticed around the still houses that are still remaining with it. You can see them and they're very beautiful. We had a neighbor, actually, that remodeled their house and had this spectacular one, the same exact size, but instead it had an anchor in the middle with a cross and then a heart, and we were like so jealous we were talking about all the time. We were like, oh my god, that one's even prettier than ours, like wow. And then one day we noticed that it wasn't there anymore and we were like what's going on? We go knock on their door and they were like, oh no, we got rid of it, like we destroyed it, and we were like this is like so sad.

Carla: 14:04

We were like you know, people just don't appreciate the art and like the beauty that comes with what the original house, like they could have saved it and they could have put it somewhere else and it would have been so spectacular. But that's just an example of like, I guess, part of our mission where we're like you know, we don't want to see that happen. So so, yeah, and we were this is our kitchen, so we were able kind of the breakfast area, so we were able to incorporate it here and I think I think it looks. It looks beautiful.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 14:31

So I was eyeballing it. I was like what is that behind them? That's so, it's very unique. I love that yeah.

Rosa: 14:38

Beautiful.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 14:39

But it sounds like you guys know exactly like where your niche is and where you want to make an impact and a difference, and what has inspired you to continue this journey, so to kind of move things along. I definitely do want to dwell on tile, because that's what we do, but I wanted to talk a little bit about how you guys are so passionate about personalizing spaces. We definitely see that in your work. So, when it comes to design, tiles obviously play a significant role in enhancing the aesthetic and functionality of a space. So could you share some of your favorite elements of design that tiles can bring to a project?

Rosa: 15:18

Well, for me, the tile is the focal point of the space, and then, from there, the wallpaper, or the paint color, or even the, even the toilet, you know. So the tile is the number, the first thing you need to choose in order to continue with the design of the space. Right?

Carla: 15:40

right, yeah, and the floor and the wall tile right, and we. I think the funnest part is kind of seeing what goes together, like how do you match the wall on the floor and then from there you, you move on, and that's the funnest part.

Rosa: 15:53

It's choosing not so many beautiful. Oh, my goodness, I I'm telling you I would remodel my bathroom every month.

Carla: 15:59

There's beautiful, beautiful stuff and I think what you've seen is in Spain, which I think is the Mallorca ceramic subway tile and then the moon ceramic subway tile, which are in the third but the we remodeled it this summer, actually the third floor of our house in Spain and then the guest bathroom. In the, or the guest house bathroom, the tiles came on spectacular and it really I Don't know gave it kind of a princessy feel to the house because it's like in the mountains and it's like it has that vintage vibe. But then those new tiles made it just so beautiful and so like cozy and Came out like stunning. So we were super happy with how that came out.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 16:43

It's so beautiful. It's evidence in your design that that was the focal point and I love what you said about just like letting that be the foundational element of a space and then building upon that. That makes so much sense and it is really fun to see like matching floor and wall or niche, or like a shower feature wall, and it's sometimes there are unexpected combinations that can work together to really make a space unique. When you are approaching a New project for a client, what are some key factors that you consider when you're selecting tiles?

Rosa: 17:15

The light of the bathroom, the natural light, first of all, like what she was saying, for some experience in the bath bathroom, we, there was no bathroom in the third floor, nothing, the, there was a connection but no bathroom, but it's a very dark. It's all wood, it's beautiful wood, but it's very dark. It's a attic.

Rosa: 17:35

The light of the bathroom, the size of the space, but mainly for me is the light, because I'm, for me, light is very important for a project, because I don't like darkness. Explain that, carla, is that you know I'm like you see, here in our home, it's all, it's all windows. I love nature to come in into the space. So For me, I have to go to the, to the project, see the light, and then we can start choosing the tile. But, yes, like, if it's a dark space, you can, I would, I would not choose a Dark tile, for example, and and whatever the environment is outside, if you're near the water, if you're in the mountain and you try to bring in, you know, the mountain or the or the ocean into the space.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 18:23

So, so the Environment and the light both great factors to to keep in mind. For sure, can you share some projects that maybe stick out to you as designers? Is there one or two that have really really just kind of captured your own attention or the attention of your followers and clients?

Rosa: 18:43

Well, there's a project, what? That we haven't Published yet, that it's a house in the Bahamas. It's a beautiful wooden house, a beautiful on the water, and the water, the ocean is turquoise, basically that, the beach. So we were able to find a tile that matched the ocean, that the color of the water, and we brought it into the bathroom and it came out out of this world. So it's still.

Rosa: 19:12

We still haven't finished taking pictures, hopefully now, and now in November we're gonna go so we'll send them to you, but that that project is gonna come out Spectacular. And there we kept, obviously it's a bathroom, it's all wood, so, and so we kept obviously the wood, and then, with the shower, all new tiles, and we didn't, we did the same week. It was, you know, sustainable, no, yeah, mm-hmm. So so, yes, that project is gonna come out beautiful. And then the other one is a personal one, of the last bathroom that we did in Spain. I think it came out and it was. It was all long distance between the contractor that I have there and here I had. You know, I chose everything I want, this and this and this, and when I got there was done, wow, that was great.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 20:00

It had to be like super satisfying.

Rosa: 20:04

I trust them with the key. You know, yes, but that's another thing, the most important thing for me, for a client, they need to make a decision Right away, in the sense that you cannot give them, give them too many choices. If you get them too many choices and then they're gonna oh, I don't know what I'm gonna do, I don't. You know, this is the one is gonna look good and and that's it. I'm be sure about the decision. That way, you know, move quickly and you can buy the material quickly, and that's it.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 20:30

And kind of streamline it so that they don't and like linger on being indecisive, that's what they're hiring you for.

Rosa: 20:38

Yes. Time passes by and by the time you know, it's a month after. No, no, no, let's make this a change now, and that's all yeah.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 20:47

I love that. Oh, it's been such a pleasure to chat with you both today. I love hearing about the different projects that you guys are excited about, that you've accomplished things that you're going to be bringing to social and to your portfolio soon. Again, I love that your mission has so much to do with sustainability and history, and I think that that is going to be such a game changer as you guys continue to grow in the industry and people start to look to you as a source for how to and why these elements can truly be beautiful and make spaces so unique. So thank you for sharing all of that with us. If there was anything that you wanted to say to someone who was considering renovating a space in their home, what advice would you give them just starting out?

Rosa: 21:34

Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of maintaining the old character of your home.

Carla: 21:39

And doing what you want, because a lot of times people want to do you know they're like oh, I feel like I love this color, like you know, this is really me, but then they get afraid because they don't want. You know what are people going to think? Is it going to come out weird, like, and it's kind of just like. You know, it's your space, do what you want with it and don't be afraid to express yourself, and it's all going to come out great.

Rosa: 22:00

you know, if you really trust in your instincts and you know what is it going to represent you Also another important thing is to buy quality tiles, even though they spend a little more, because hopefully it's going to be there for a long time. So my thing is it's better to spend more now than have to spend a lot more later. So it's to maintain the old character of your home, but at the same time, if you need to purchase new material, go ahead and just spend the money on the good stuff like the products that you guys sell.

Lindsay Fluckiger: 22:37

Well, thank you, I've been with our company for two years now and just, I know that we sell top notch stuff. I've seen it, I've installed it, I have Spanish tiles in my own kitchen at the moment and I just, it really truly does make a difference, like you said, to just invest now so that in the future you're not having to redo everything and rip out tiles, rip up floors. Just you know, do it right the first time and you won't have regrets. It was such a pleasure to meet you both and to learn more about Carla Maria Designs and the many wonderful things that you're both doing to change lives, to create beautiful spaces and keep our history alive. So thank you for joining us today.

Carla: 23:19

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We had such a great time. This was fun.

Rosa: 23:25

So, okay, we'll see you soon.