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Maybe it’s a contemporary crystal chandelier that surprises guests as they enter the foyer. Or it’s a fabric’s texture that’s soothing to the touch. Or maybe it’s the fun spirit and collaborative nature of Ricardo Ramos and Sheree Friedman that make working with them on interior design both enjoyable and educational.
But surely it’s the finished product that delights clients, such as Michong Covert, who recently completed an entire home design with Ramos and Friedman, principals of Studio Nuovo LLC. Covert prefers contemporary and art deco designs, while her husband likes traditional styles. So Studio Nuovo established a balance between yesteryear’s glamour and today’s contemporary. Step inside and see how Ramos and Friedman put the fun in functionality.
Decades of Glamour
When Ramos and Friedman first meet with clients, they listen and guide them, but also infuse their good nature to create spaces that speak to functionality, lifestyle, and environmental concerns. “We’re very passionate about what we do,” Friedman says. “One of the most important things we want to provide is good customer service,” she adds. “We want clients to know we are approachable.”
Important points of the interior design process include listening, learning, accepting, and being patient. The interior designers listen to the clients’ needs and wants; both the designers and clients learn from one another and accept each other’s opinions; and then they all wait for the order to be delivered. The last phase is often the most difficult. The waiting can feel like a year, Ramos says, but “we make the installation process as painless as possible,” Friedman adds.
“We do a full presentation initially,” Ramos says, so homeowners know what the furnishings are going to cost and what the schedule of events will be. “There are no surprises,” he adds.
While costs and schedules are covered, when it comes to actual design components, Studio Nuovo is all about the element of surprise. A space must be functional but it can also be fun … with a touch of intrigue, says Ramos, such as the Venetian glass chandelier from Murano in Covert’s staircase that is barely seen when opening the door. Guests move into the space, see it, and are totally in awe, the homeowner says.
“It entices them to move from room to room,” Ramos adds, to see what else may evoke the same emotion. There’s a sentimental side to Studio Nuovo as well. They always look at what they can reuse or repurpose inside a home before moving forward. They’ll ask, “What do you want to keep?” It’s usually inherited items, such as an apothecary cabinet passed down from Covert’s husband’s family, that work their way into the overall design. Often these pieces become accents and don’t dictate a room’s overall feel.
For the complete design of the home, Covert was looking for casual elegance with furnishings in soft hues and textures, as well as accents that showcase her passion for fine art. “Elegance with a sense of sophistication,” Covert says, was what she wanted and received. With images depicting decades of design from the 1920s to the 1940s, Covert conveyed to the interior designers that she wanted updated casual, blended with glamour not glitz, and topped with comfort.
Caring and Calming
“By the third day of installation, the homeowners say this is what they envisioned,” Ramos says. Being a part of how the whole design comes together and feeling the direction of the design make the process easy to follow, Covert says. “There’s a purpose, a flow,” she adds.
While the client is the one living in the house, Ramos and Friedman think of how they would like to live in the home and what they would want to live with. For Ramos, Covert’s living room speaks to him. “It’s relaxing with a touch of glamour,” he says. For Friedman, this home’s family room is a favorite space “because of the room that it is and everywhere I look something grabs me and attracts me.” In the music room, the bluish green wall color reflects against the deep ebony of the piano Covert’s learning to play. This is her preferred space.
Custom elements also are important in all the rooms, including the family room’s entertainment center designed by Studio Nuovo and built by Wayne King of Cornerstone Furnishings Inc. The fireplace stones’ hint of bluish gray may have influenced corresponding hues within the family room, which includes art by Kimberly Thorpe and a John McDonald vase from Appalachian Spring in Georgetown purchased by the homeowner.
But what really stands out in the family room is the combination of fabrics and textures. “Texture is a signature of ours,” Ramos says. “How a fabric wraps on a chair is important.” Texture serves a tactile and visual purpose here and throughout the home, just as lighting provides ambiance.
“Lights are works of art in the Covert home,” Friedman says. From the foyer’s Venetian glass chandelier assembled by Ramos to the clean lines of the crystal-base lamp in the music room, lighting accents a room, but is not the focus. “You can sometimes overdo it with lights,” Ramos adds, especially when there are already plenty of overhead lights on dimmers.
Eat and Retreat
Kitchens are often gathering places in homes, but they don’t always accommodate a large group of people. But in Covert’s case, there’s a large area adjacent to the kitchen that could either hold a large table or act as a sitting room. “It was appropriate to have something different and cozy here,” Friedman says, so the interior designers suggested an oval cocktail table surrounded by four comfortable chairs. The homeowner really didn’t need another dining area because she has bronze Swaim tables in both the formal dining room and the morning room. So the principals at Studio Nuovo provided a place for family and friends to gather comfortably while Covert cooks. “The kids use the sitting area more than us,” Covert says. It’s where they kick back and hang out.
“Each piece in the sitting room is very inviting, but not too formal,” Friedman says. And the designers used a mixture of woods – darker on the table and lighter on the chair frames. “By selecting different wood types, stains, and colors, there’s a lot of movement and depth perception is better,” Ramos says. As long as the woods are married together properly, the look is terrific and purposeful, Friedman adds.
A red pepper sculpture by Robert Kuo for Baker Georgetown, a marble garlic centerpiece from Torpedo Factory Art Center, and rugs from C.G. Coe & Son Inc. are among the charming accents that make this house a home. The owner’s desire to bring the grace of the 1920s into the home along with Studio Nuovo’s ability to grasp her desires and implement the design make this project one of their many successes.
Decades of experience in both the corporate and residential worlds have brought Studio Nuovo to a level of design that includes elegance, sophistication, surprises, and fun. “You can never take yourself too seriously,” Ramos says, and you must be approachable, down to earth, and communicate, Friedman adds. Studio Nuovo brings personality and professionalism to every decor.
