J and A are a young couple planning to expand their family. They envisioned an interior renovation focused on modernity, practicality, and coziness, while also updating the house with potential improvements and aesthetic upgrades.
They value integrated and functional spaces. They love cooking and wanted an open kitchen, a climate-controlled wine cellar, and a strong connection with the gourmet area — which they see as the heart of the home. The gourmet renovation focused on finishes, coatings, and millwork, without major structural changes. During the briefing, they expressed their desire for a small pool (which did not exist before the renovation) and a water feature at the entrance, as well as a well-designed landscaping project.
They wanted a more striking entrance hall, with a larger door and a modern visual identity.
On the private floor, they requested three spacious suites and wished to preserve and restore the existing wood flooring. They planned to renovate the bathrooms, with one adapted for a future baby.
The rooftop area has great potential and will be enhanced. They intend to keep the hot tub and include elements such as a fireplace, TV, refrigerator and a simple barbecue, creating a more intimate setting for up to six people.
They appreciate modern solutions, integration with outdoor areas, and are open to suggestions.
The main requests of the couple, J and A, revolve around integration, modernization, and optimizing the spaces with a focus on daily use. Their expectations were met as follows:
• Integrated kitchen with dining and gourmet area: Designed as the heart of the home, with a table and climate-controlled wine cellar, reflecting their love for cooking and hosting.
• Impactful entrance hall: Repositioning the entry and enlarging the door ensured a more modern and welcoming arrival.
• Better use of the environments: Living, dining, and gourmet areas were rethought to provide greater indoor–outdoor integration.
• Updated bedrooms: Master bedroom expanded, bathroom renovated with bathtub, and planned baby room.
• Enhanced rooftop: Space redesigned for intimate gatherings, hot tub maintained.
• Modernized outdoor area: Updated finishes, contemporary and tropical landscaping, and a new pool design.
It is a complete renovation, in which only the main structure of the house was maintained. All coverings, finishes, coatings, window frames, and façades were modernized. We focused on reorganizing the internal spaces and updating the finishes while preserving the original structure. The new layout prioritizes the integration between the kitchen, dining room, and gourmet area, the creation of a more imposing entrance hall, better use of the living room, as well as enhancing the rooftop and modernizing the bedrooms and bathrooms.
Inspiration
• Contemporary minimalism, straight lines, clean designs, and strong influence from natural elements and textures from nature.
• Rustic, natural, and organic materials, such as Nuvola stone (living room wall), wood, tropical landscaping, and organic shapes in the selection of furniture.
• Connection with nature through the presence of plants, brise-soleils on the façade, metal roofing with glass, and a light skylight (staircase), which enhances natural light.
• Organic and sophisticated aesthetic, evident in choices of furniture, millwork design, sculptural raw stone countertop (powder room), and use of indirect lighting (providing coziness). Monofloor for the flooring in the social area (continuing the ceiling and wall texture), giving a sense of a “natural habitat.”
Project Concept
• Visual and material integration between environments, as seen in the continuous use of textures on ceilings, floors, and walls.
• Attention to scenic lighting, using LED lines, recessed lighting, and sconces, suggesting a focus on visual comfort and atmosphere.
• Functional design with discreet sophistication, through solutions such as recessed handles, doors, and panels.
• Well-defined social areas, such as the gourmet space and living room, with emphasis on millwork and customized finishes.
The project expresses a balance between the urban and the natural, rusticity and refinement, translated into a welcoming and elegant contemporary style.
The key starting point of the project was the integration between the kitchen, dining room, and gourmet area, since this space was highlighted as the “heart of the home” by the couple. This connection represents their lifestyle — social, welcoming, and functional — and directly influences decisions regarding layout, circulation, millwork, and even landscaping.
Starting from this integration allowed us to organize the other environments around the experience they value most: cooking, hosting, and spending time together. To ensure full integration between indoor and outdoor spaces, we used window frames with recessed tracks.
The optimization of the spaces. Since we created the pool in a location where there was previously a good storage/deposit area.
The structural alterations (changing the position of the staircase and removing an original column that divided the kitchen from the living room — replaced with a metal).
The choice of materials revolved around natural aspects:
– Nuvola stone on the main wall of the entrance hall and living room
– Monofloor flooring used continuously on the walls and ceiling, giving a natural habitat aesthetic
– Light wood in the millwork, leaning towards white tones to bring softness, contrasting with a slightly darker wood in the furniture
– Tropical landscaping
– In the gourmet area, we used flooring with an organic cut (Colormix revestimentos), also evoking a natural atmosphere
Pool and entrance water mirror in Cristal Pool — a coating that resembles beach sand and brings uniformity and continuity
Team:
Lead architect: Simone Saccab – Si Saccab Arquitetura
Coordination: Lara Japiassú
Photographer: Evelyn Muller
Materials Used:
Wine cellar: Art des Caves
Sauna: Ateliê Saunas
Powder room stone: Equipe Arte Pedras
Planned furniture and millwork: Bontempo
Curtains: Casa Mineira
Barbecue grill: Indainox
Quartzite, porcelain tiles: Colormix
Dining room pendants: Criss Bertolucci
Pool and entrance water mirror coating: Cristal Pool
Lighting: Decorlight
Landscaping: Leticia Bononi
Sanitaryware and fixtures: Deca, Mekal, and Tecnobanho
Decorative millwork: Promóveis
Stonework: Montblanc and São Domingos
Furniture: Estar Móveis, Estudio Bola, Wentz, Zeea, Wooding, Casa Ática
Living room floor: Monofloor
Living room stone: Pedra Nuvola, by Piso de Pedra
Perfecta Esquadrias – PVC window frames
Heated flooring: MDR Comfort
Bulletproof door: Mul-T-Lock
Baseboard: Pluripiso
Air conditioning: Sulfrio
