Interior Designer Nicole White Breaks Down Her Vibrant Style

Writer Monique McIntosh | Photography Jennifer Hillstead

South Florida homes couldn’t look more chic than they do in the hands of interior designer Nicole White. Infusing oodles of glamour, the Jamaican native combines sleek, contemporary lines with a fresh take on color, inspired by the Caribbean.

This self-taught designer and former journalist always nurtured a fascination for creating beautiful spaces. “I was that kid always moving around the family furniture every day,” recalls White. She  started out planning her enviable interiors as a side gig, growing her clientele base until her hobby could become something more serious.

Today, Nicole White Designs Interiors has attracted much acclaim, with features in Better Homes and Gardens, Ocean Drive, HuffPost and Apartment Therapy. She was also named one of the top 25 interior design firms by the South Florida Luxury Guide in 2016, and dubbed one of the 10 emerging designers to watch by the Black Interior Designers Network. Her popular blog, Live, Laugh, Decorate, also serves up plenty of Instagram-ready inspiration.

“You wouldn’t want to hire me to design an all-beige room,” jokes White, as she delves into her design perspective. “I can do it, but I love layering colors and textures within a contemporary aesthetic.” Though her approach embraces an international modernity, White says her tastes never wandered too far from her Caribbean origins. “I can’t hide color, because I grew up around color. The rich hues of the markets, the open ocean – they have always served as an inspiration.”

But it takes a lot more than deftly matching color swatches to create a successful, lasting design company, as White can attest. “I’ve learned to focus on the business of business, which can be so hard for creatives.” She explains that, “running your own firm is not as glamorous as what you see on HGTV. It takes a lot of hard work, good negotiation with vendors, and strong follow-through with clients, to develop meaningful relationships. And a lot of coffee too.”

The trick, White says, “is to never lose the passion for design, no matter how busy it gets, or how stressful it is. When it’s over, the results are all worth it.”

We Chatted More With the Designer About One of Her Favorite Home Projects, and the Secrets Behind Her Signature Style.

Describe this project’s style in three words.

Global, modern, eclectic.

What was the brief for designing this home?

We were given complete design freedom. This wasn’t an easy process, since our clients live overseas, but we paid close attention to the ideas they shared with us virtually.

The family’s Afghan rug in the living room is stunning! What’s the story behind it?

This rug sets the tone for this room. The owners literally went to a bazaar in Afghanistan hunting for rugs, sending us photos so we could make selections based on the dimensions we needed. We fell in love with this one and a few others, and they shipped them home for us to incorporate it in the home.

The monotone bathroom is a major departure in this colorful home. What inspired that choice?

We wanted to take their wish for a modern, global and luxurious home to the next level. The black and white, with touches of gold, definitely achieved that, and was a great way to balance the colorful choices we used elsewhere.

How did you reframe the old dining room as a home office?

We stumbled across the extra space under the stairway as we remodeled the downstairs guest bathroom. It felt like such a waste of room, so we decided to transform it to a home office and lounge, since there was another dining area by the kitchen. It’s definitely a custom feature that highlights the many ways you can find hidden square footage in your own home and make it as beautiful and functional as possible.

Bedrooms with dark walls are so in vogue now… but can be intimidating. How did you make this one so cozy?

We’re doing a lot of navy and black walls in design these days, but we always reached for layers of texture. This moody, faux leather wallpaper from Wall Republic was the way to do that here. We balanced it by only doing an accent wall, and cooling things down with light walls, a linen headboard, and neutral bedding.

Writer Calibe Thompson | Photography Rolando Diaz

In the trendy area of Miami known as downtown Brickell, a two bedroom condo in one of the area’s newest buildings became a blank canvas for Cuban American designer Maite Granda.

Floor to ceiling windows bathe living spaces in sunlight during the day, while offering the young Brazilian couple who have made this their vacation home, a breathtaking, panoramic view of the city.

Clean, modern and eclectic are words that come to mind when observing Granda’s design aesthetic. A variety of bold patterns find their way onto floors, pillows and walls, never becoming overwhelming, always knowing their place.

She says her biggest challenge on this project was the large, lean, structural column piercing upward through the living room, from the floor below and into the floor above. Instead of approaching it as an eyesore to be hidden, Granda embraced its peculiarity, and made it the focal point of the room, taming its rotund opulence by adding equally prominent blocks of muted color to its base.

In the sitting rooms, the black and white color palette with grey and pastel accents suggests an effortlessness, belying the meticulous attention to detail that allows fuzzy pink pillows to coexist peacefully with a wicker basket lampshade, sleek modern cabinetry, and slick, white art deco chairs.

A swirl of deliberate, black paint strokes dance across a plain white canvas, rounding out the exquisite curiosities in the sitting room, meant to catch your eye.

In one of the bedrooms, another fuzzy pink pillow is nestled into simple, white bedding, basking under an accent wall whose white and pink patterns are a sneaky, inverted nod to the pillow’s whimsical silhouette. Blue and grey tones add subdued points of interest here, and throughout the other rooms.

There’s a work area whose black and white decor is punctuated by a single pop of red on a wall, a few green leaves, and a pair of wicker arm chairs. With a tidy collage of perfectly positioned wall hangings, the room is clean and simple, but far from boring.

Granda’s clients left her with a blank canvas, and returned to a newly completed vacation home that they “absolutely loved”. She declares, “I just love the process. Reinventing and designing without limits. If you care about your craft and your ideas, you’ll take the extra time, and add the touches that you know will make your work really shine.”