Listening to architect Felipe Carolo talk about the renovation of this apartment in Campos do Jordão is to be enchanted by the process of interior architecture. If there are projects that challenge by searching for the client’s identity when starting a house from scratch, those that call for updating and re-signifying the history already present demand respect. And that was how he gave a new face to this winter holiday address.
This is a country apartment conceived in the 1980s and belonging to a family who frequented it for many years. Today, with the daughters grown up, the way of using the space has changed, and that is why I was called,” says Carolo. “When I arrived at the property, I felt transported back to the 1980s. The entire aesthetic, the furniture, objects, and appliances were from that time—refrigerator, stove, blender, TV. Absolutely everything. There were stuffed animals and collections of slippers from the women when they were still girls, and a lot of emotional memories in every room.”
From the furniture to the color of the walls, everything there breathed memories. “I knew I was in a place with a lot of affection involved, but it needed renewal to be lived in with more comfort today. And the client was clear from the beginning: “you can do whatever you want with the furniture—reform, restore, but buy new only what is really necessary. That was my challenge,” says the architect.
Known for his use of white and for interiors that are not minimalist but almost always in light tones and with furniture and objects reduced only to what is needed, and determined to preserve the soul of the house, Felipe Carolo fulfilled the client’s wishes without abandoning his concept. “The house is this collection of family memories; I cannot change that, it is the face of the house. And without being able to spend, right? I think that is where you can reach an even more personalized place, within this exchange and in deciding what I will and will not give up.
The first request was to solve the problem of little hot water in the bathrooms, a major issue in a city with harsh winters and something that also made the renovation even more challenging, since the demand consumed a large part of the budget. “I needed to take care of the basics, to review plumbing and electricity. After all, in a winter tourism city, everyone adds a heater to the wall, an extra outlet for television, hairdryer, these things. This maintenance was necessary. The walls had no plaster, no finishing coat, they were not smooth. So I had to plaster the entire apartment before turning to the décor.”
The next décor solutions began in the living room. The main issue was the television, still a tube set, which stood on a piece of furniture with wheels. “The fireplace is the main spot there. At TV time it was: pull the cart! There was no cable TV or internet in the apartment. And where was I going to place the TV now? I solved it with a piece I had designed for my own home, and it worked very well. A piece where you can also place the TV, a contemporary one, and turn it in whichever direction you want, without having to pull it around as before,” says Carolo. “Besides that, there was the sofa, which couldn’t be white—after all, color is part of the identity of the space. When I came across this moss green during my research, I decided: that’s it! This will be the Campos sofa. It has the atmosphere and comfort that the living room needs to bring family and friends together.”
Bold within his usual palette, Felipe Carolo stepped out of his comfort zone and played with colors also in the kitchen, where he installed grayish-green cabinets with Provençal-style framed doors that share the space with the terracotta floor. However, the punctual colors, a hallmark of his work, were not left aside—the walls received works by Djanira, Keneddy Bahia, Glaucio Costa, and tapestries from all over Latin America, after a curatorship within the client’s collection. “I changed the frame of what I found most interesting and highlighted it in the living room. The tapestries went to the bedrooms along with personalized bed linens and, once again, completely outside my comfort zone, with embroidery and strong colors, but reflecting the client’s personality,” he says.
The bedrooms, in fact, received a new layout—the four original rooms were replaced by three suites and an office to meet the more current needs of visitors who like to use vacation time also for work.
The themed bathrooms in amber, green, and gray tones, filled with colorful accessories characteristic of the period of construction, were standardized and received 20 cm x 20 cm white tiles. “I used the paneled cabinet aesthetic for the bathroom vanities, all in very light American oak. And since the fixtures and countertops were already white, I chose to keep them. Very clean, but still in dialogue with the other spaces.”
The family’s request for the apartment to gain more light was fulfilled through small glass globes in the passage lighting throughout the home. Two large fabric plafonniers in the living room added coziness alongside the English-style lamps that were already there and were redistributed.
Nothing was discarded—everything received a new perspective. Objects from the 1980s were placed on the shelves to tell the story of those who live there, along with collectibles. “This was the most embroidered of all the projects I’ve ever done. My fidelity was not to take away the memory and affection of this space. I went beyond what I was used to and, above all, I used six different types of wood. And I managed to make them all remain in balance and harmony,” concludes the architect.
