above: Soaring Loewen glass windows and warm vertical wood wrap a low-slung living room built for views and lounging on the B&B Italia sofa. A perfectly placed Noir bench extends the sectional’s silhouette, with a Ben Soleimani rug adding soft texture below.

Passion Project

One designer’s journey through setbacks, self-discovery and the beauty of starting fresh

INTERVIEW WITH LORENZA AVILA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN GRUEN
STYLING BY ANNA MOLVIK

Tell us about your background as a designer and how you ended up in Greenwich.
I have a big international background. I was born in Mexico City, and when I was eight, we moved to Madrid. I lived there for six years, and then we arrived in Greenwich. So, I did technically grow up here for my teenage years.

After college I moved back to Mexico City and began working in marketing. It had nothing to do with home design, but I learned the basics of business management, for sure.

While I was there, I met the man who would become my husband at work. We moved so he could get his MBA at Harvard. After we got married, we ended up in Austin, Texas, and began this journey.

My husband was diagnosed with cancer, but despite that, we had this philosophy to keep living, keep traveling. People thought we were crazy when we bought land to develop it and ended up building two houses on it (one ended up selling). That’s how I got introduced to design, and that’s how I discovered I had talent.

Eventually, my husband died in December 2020, and I stayed in Austin for one more year.

During COVID, I sold our house and put an offer on this land in Greenwich, sight unseen. When you’re a widow, people have strong opinions about what you should be doing, but I had this dream of building a new home for me and my kids.

What was your process like after getting here and seeing the property?
I just enjoyed it so much, in the beginning. Designing it was the easiest part. I was crazy about this beautiful oak tree on the property, and I designed the entire house around it.

I really am passionate about lighting, and I wanted a lot of natural light. I really tried to position the house in a way that would always get beautiful light.

Then I started asking, ‘What does the house look like? What’s the story?’

I’ve traveled a lot and have been to so many places that I could pick up on these preppy elements, things that are so East Coast. I wanted people to think this had always been here. And then I picked out these elements, and I wanted them to be intentional, but simplified them so it looks a little bit more modern.

I went and looked at all these old houses, and I was really inspired by how what was early American architecture is literally what we call “modern” today. It’s simple shapes.

I wanted the house to fit in without disrupting. It’s a modern contemporary style, but it still belongs.

Then I really cared about durability of materials, so I picked ones that would stand the test of time. I hired a drafter who I had worked with before, and the plans were done within a month. In the end, it took three years to finish.

What were your design priorities?
I really care about function. I don’t like wasting spaces. So, I thought about storage of anything and everything. This house has storage everywhere.

And I can be a very private person, but I really value my family and my friends and wanted an open floor plan. But if you’ve lived in them, you know how much noise travels, and how overwhelming it becomes if somebody is making a lot of noise or watching you eat. It disrupts the whole house. So, I wanted this like feeling of openness but also this feeling of privacy and connection. I was really careful with that, and I created a lot of it through a lot of big windows. I have all these trees that change through the seasons.

I think nature is our best teacher. I really wanted the dining room to look like a sunroom, but on a crazy beautiful scale. The windows are gigantic. I think it’s like 18 feet tall.

Tell us about the entry.
Often, new houses lack that interest when everything looks new. It just feels like my eye’s not satisfied with everything.

So, I added a lot of texture, really leaning on organic materials, like the travertine ivory and walnut floor. It really creates this warmth and elevated story when you walk in.

And then the walls have this Holland & Sherry beautiful raffia hand-woven wallpaper that you really notice as a natural element.

You’re kind of compressed, because the entry is not gigantic, but then you walk down the hallway and arrive at the stairwell. It’s all glass and connects the structures, and there’s this ‘wow’ moment before entering the kitchen, where the marble is just amazing.

What was your plan there?
I bought these slabs two years before. I saw them and was really drawn to them. It’s my favorite marble, and in general, I think color schemes always involve three colors.

When there are just two colors, it becomes too flat for me. Adding that third color allows you to play off on that so well.

Viola has that natural maroon, natural cream, but the one I bought had lots of gold through it. It looks awesome with the white oak cabinetry.

I really love the shade of the maroon color, which is on the island and in the back pantry. It matches perfectly with the Urban Electric Co. lights (over the island).

But the star of the show is the marble. And that’s the one thing I constantly lean back on. Nature is just beautiful on its own, but we need to lean in and allow it to shine in our homes. That’s half of the art, in the stone.

I’m a big cook, and I love to entertain. I have a big family, and I like inviting a lot of people.

The idea of the back kitchen is that you don’t have to do the dishes right away, and the kitchen always looks clean. It’s also about function. There’s another dishwasher and a Miele steam oven in the back kitchen. I’m an anti-microwave person, so for me, the steam oven is everything.

I love that I used the window as the backsplash. I thought about this ahead of time; to make it exactly that size, so you could wrap the whole thing in marble and have the cabinetry be flat and pushed in a little, so you don’t hit your head when you’re washing the dishes.

Tell us about this family room and fireplace.
I think the fireplace in the living room is incredible. You can’t even see in the photos how cool it is, because the stone wraps around the sides. The front is all one gigantic piece from a full slab. And I did this little reveal edge in the top so that you can tell that it’s one. You can see that there’s no division. It’s really unique, and the texture of it is amazing. There’s this rawness to it, especially against the white oak wood, which is very warm. It’s just really soothing. It’s like your eyes are rewarded with the wood, and then you see the vertical lines and the fluting on the hearth stone.

I really love that B&B Italia sofa. I don’t think I’ll ever not be into it. When you do a sectional, it’s nice to have a piece of it be open. It feels still inviting and connected. And I found that perfect bench that measured perfectly. I searched for it forever.

Tell us about this green bathroom.
It’s off of a study that’s entirely that color. It’s dark and moody and also plays off of some equestrian vibes. Originally, I wanted to do a curved vanity in marble, but that was quite expensive. So instead, I bought a vanity that was already curved, and then I built the surround with marble. It really played well with the Holland & Sherry plaid wallpaper, which is linen. I think it really works.

Powder bathrooms are meant to wow you. They’re supposed to be like little delightful moments.

What was the biggest challenge?
Managing my expectations.

I was so fast developing the plans, and I really wanted results right away.

I wanted the house done, but I realized that building something great takes time and patience. And in order to do the finished product with that level of craftsmanship, it’s going to require a lot more attention to detail, which translates into time.

Designing it was the easiest. That is something that comes naturally to me and I sort of know what it looks like before it happens.

Do you have a favorite room?
I mean, my kitchen. It’s amazing; so good, so beautiful.

I also love the primary bathroom. The photos don’t do it enough justice, but I played off the height of the room with the white section where the wood starts.The ceiling height was high, but it wasn’t a perfect symmetrical vault because of the shower. So, I had to play with a weird ceiling. I was proud of how it came around and really proud of how it mixed together the elements.

How would you describe your style?
My style is rooted in classics. I will always love the vertical lines created with a shiplap pattern. And I love paneling, like I did in the entryway, and playing with natural textures. It’s always going back to nature.

But I also like drama. I like to create drama, whether it’s with proportions or with glass and windows, I like to push it to the edge. I don’t like to be just comfortable.

And I like color as well. I don’t love just plain things.

This was clearly such a transformational project for you. What would you say was the biggest lesson you learned?
Building a house is really a journey. Most people could agree that the nature of the business is stressful, right? There are surprises. Things happen in a way you don’t expect them to. You have to pivot. It’s often going to cost more than you think, especially in this kind of market post-COVID. There’s still so much that’s unknown. But I think that the greatest part is who you become in the journey.

If I’m looking back on buying it and building this, it began with just the dream. I think that’s the thing I’m the most proud of, beyond it being a beautiful home. It’s who I became in the process. And so many dreams never get built, they never get done.

RESOURCES:
Interior Design: Lorenza Avila, Greenwich; lorenzaavila.com
Stone Fabricator: Quality Marble, Stamford; 203-504-2900
Stone: ABC Stone, New York; abcworldwidestone.com