Warming Up Modern Rooms

I love the work of Nestor Santa-Cruz, a Cuban designer who’s a design principal with the Washington D.C.-based firm Gensler. He has a wonderful way of bringing warmth and personality to modern spaces.

I asked him recently to share his thoughts on how he generates positive feelings in a room. He told me that as a designer, he tries “to make spaces that have a soul and therefore bring an certain ‘interior’ joy to the inhabitants of the rooms.” He said he likes to find or create a personality in a room by developing a point of view that somehow reflects the people who live in it. “I believe in taking one of my client’s favorite things and making it the most important piece in the room,” he said. “This personal element or piece, when well placed or highlighted, will always bring a smile to the owner. A sense of harmony is found not only in the interior object’s visual strength, but also in the meaning it has to the client, regardless of its value. I also like spaces to be real, spaces where I, as the designer, am not found, so it’s as if I was never there.”

This ego-less sensibility may be one of the reasons a lot of other editors like Nestor and his work, too. He told me he was quoted in the May issues House Beautiful and the Portuguese glossy Casa Claudia and that later this month his work will be featured in a room he is doing in the Washington Design Center Design House, which is sponsored by Elle Decor. His work was also featured in the 50^th anniversary issue of Contract magazine, which I’ve been

contributing to for years.

For more of Nestor’s ideas on creating joyful rooms, look for the Woman’s Day Special Easy Decorating, which is on newsstands now and features a piece on Nestor’s tips for mixing old and new furniture. You can also find other tips on arranging furniture in my book Staged To Sell (or Keep).