Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another SLD meet up. Super excited to bring you a very successful guest in the holidays to talk about interior design in luxury real estate. Now she's a good friend of mine and it's always a pleasure to talk because she's so interesting. She's a very famous interior designer from New York that is recently moving here to South Florida.
Her name is Karen Asprea and she's going to tell us all about her unique approach on how she designs high-end luxury residences because she uses natural materials and many other elements that makes her so unique. Now she's won many awards as top interior designer. Her studio has won many different awards and not only that but as an entrepreneur she has also been constantly renowned as Inspirational Entrepreneur of the Year and it's a pleasure to have her here with us today to tell us all about what she's working on and the exciting projects that are coming up this 2024. Hi!
Karen! How are you? I'm good. How are you doing?
Amazing, amazing. Now you're better now that I've seen you. Oh my god, you're so sweet. I am so happy that we're doing this.
It's so nice to see you. I can tell that it's warmer where you are because when I'm in New York it's very chilly. You were here in Miami just a few days ago so you definitely understand that the difference. Yes, it's different climate, different projects, different approaches.
It's really the best of both worlds, honestly. I love it. And that's the perspective of life, right? You want to look at the positives or the negatives.
So I really like that we get to enjoy both sides which are incredible. Absolutely. When it comes to your particular field, interior design. Yes.
I mean, I'm so impressed with everything that you've been doing and now that you're coming also to South Florida to start on extending all your projects. I just want people to know more about who you are. So tell us a little bit about it because I'm fascinating. Thank you so much for the lovely introduction.
I'm also impressed with everything that you're doing. I think that your energy is contagious and that's what's drawn me to you and to super luxury group and your team. You guys do amazing work and I'm so excited for the work that we're going to do together also. But you know, background wise, I grew up in New York City.
I'm a New York City girl 100%. And you know, life has brought me many different amazing things in the past five years. I opened up my own boutique studio. I used to be a managing partner at a much larger architecture firm.
And you know, I just felt like a corporate vibe wasn't for me. Like I just, I love to connect with people. I love to connect with my clients. And I think that there's more energy exchange when you're working in a smaller setting for me personally.
It's better. And you know, in the past four or five years, I've had so many clients move into South Florida and also actually into the Gulf on the Gulf side in St. Pete and Sarasota. So we started taking on these projects with all of the New Yorkers that have invaded you over the past few years.
And it's been an incredible experience in terms of design. Like as an interior designer, like from my perspective, it's incredible for me to be able to design in warm weather climates, you know, warm weather all year round because you have the interior of the home and the exterior of the home. And you know, it's combined. You can use both spaces year round, which for me and my team, we're all local and native to New York.
So we're used to not being able to use the outdoor space. And I think that it's a huge contributing factor to not just like space and furnishing, but also just like your general well-being. I think it's important to be outside and be in the sun. Now tell me a little bit about what you've seen in the last couple years, especially now coming here to Miami and everything that you've experienced.
Is there any trends that you see coming up in this 2024? Yes, for sure. Specifically in the Miami market. So back in 2009 and 2010, I was doing some work for clients that were New York based in Miami.
They were spec homes about 14, 15,000 square feet in Miami Beach. And that was the first time that I really got exposure to the Miami market. I did some market research then. And what I saw then was that a lot of these homes that were development for sale or condominium type buildings, they didn't have very strong identity branding.
I saw a lot of really beautiful big open spaces that were kind of left what we would call almost white box for people to buy and then make it their own. And now what I'm seeing more and more and more of is that developers and investors and buyers are interested in having fully, fully furnished, fully detailed homes with a little bit of personality. I see the trend where people are appreciating homes and spaces that are complete for them. That's a complete thought.
And really well done. I mean, what do you think about that? No 100% I think that right now. No, I definitely and we've seen this especially here now in Miami as you mentioned more of these new developments that already come in all furnished.
It gives life to the home, which is something that before, yes, you're looking at the space itself and then you can kind of build it in the way that you like. Just the fact that you can move into something that already gives you that life feeling. And right now it's important working with designers like yourself and understand that concept. I can't connect with the clientele because sometimes this is what happened in the past.
It was very difficult for the end user to connect with the design of a property. Now I feel like there is a better blend. Exactly. And I think that people, especially since 2020 and especially between New York and Miami, have become a little bit more transient.
Having these buildings, I designed condominium buildings, luxury rental towers and private homes and private estate. So I'm seeing kind of like both sides of the market and it's really interesting to watch both. But what I do see a lot of is people who are going back and forth between New York and Miami. So they want a place in Miami that's been thought about, finished, furnished, and they can kind of just put their clothes in and say, okay, I'm plain landed, I'm meeting in an hour, like just want to get myself comfortable and head out.
Yeah. And you know, same thing goes with the private residences as well. The private residences that I'm designing right now are a little bit bigger, 10, 15,000 square foot homes for private end users, you know, much, a much longer process to get that done because everybody has like their own personal idiosyncrasies that we want to design to and make sure we capture the essence of the, of the, of the owner of the home, you know, we turn houses into homes when we're dealing with private residences. But for the rentals and the condominium buildings, yeah, this like very thoughtful, completely furnished, um, package is easy to, it's easier to market, I think, from your side.
And I think people really appreciate it. 100%. Now, tell me what's been some of the most interesting or I will say complicated situations that you've had to face as a designer. Oh boy, I don't want to get in any trouble here.
Well, I mean, I think that every project presents its unique issues, right? You know, like on the design side, we have a client in New Canaan, Connecticut, who I just absolutely adore. They're the nicest people. And they wanted a slide that takes you from the ground level down into the lower level.
And we, you know, you get like construction challenges like that, we're saying, Oh my goodness, how do we build a beautiful slide for adults? You know, when you're looking for materials that, you know, you look at the slide, it's like everything that shows up is like slides for kids, like we can't use that. We need to find real materials. We have to custom build it.
Like then it turned into this really beautiful custom, unique piece of art, almost. So you know, you get those types of challenges and those are more tangible, like they're objects that you have to build. And then you know, you have business challenges where sometimes you work with contractors or trades who are not entirely trustworthy. And you know, you have to, every trade and every vendor that I put in front of my clients is a direct representation of myself.
And you know, sometimes you do have issues where, you know, specifically contractors, I love my contractors. Like don't get me wrong, I rely on them heavily. But every once in a while, you do like come up with a challenge where, you know, somebody isn't behaving professionally and like you have to course correct. And you know, you know what happens, you know, these things happen.
So those are two different types of challenges. No, I'm sure that's something that you have to do with. Now, if you have to put together everything that you've learned about all these years and you could tell something to your younger self, what would it be? Oh boy, I would tell my younger self be prepared to know everything.
Be prepared to know everything because the type, you don't think about it. Like as you go through your career, I think you pick up like a little bit here, a little bit here. But once you know, I've been doing this for 17 years now. And now that I can kind of look back on my career and think to myself, wow, the types of homes that we're designing and building, you know, 20,000 square foot homes and the types of buildings that we're designing, 500 to 900,000 square foot developments.
I as the interior designer have to know how the concrete slabs are poured, where the plumbing risers are, how the electrical is wired down all the way down the line to what fabric are the pillows, are they going to be comfortable? How does everything feel? What does the light look like in the room? My clients put their feet on the ottoman or they can have sunlight in their eyes, like, you know, you just kind of like think about everything.
Macro to my heart. I always have the same question to our guests and I'm very curious to know your answer. What is really luxury to you? Luxury to me is design that is silent.
When you walk into space and your eye is not drawn, you know, you go into spaces sometimes and it's like over designed and you're kind of like your eye doesn't know where to go. And there's a sense of unease that you may not be able to place because not everybody is looking at their surroundings the same way that like a designer is looking at them. But I think that like real luxury design is super quiet. When you're in a space, you feel really good.
Everything is kind of like within arms reach. It's user friendly. There's nothing like jarring about the design. It's almost like you don't realize it.
It kind of like falls into the background in a very natural way. Now tell me a little bit about just to wrap this up because you are having your new office space here in Miami, Coral Gables. It's super exciting. Tell us about that.
So I have always been in love with Coral Gables and a lot of New Yorkers that I know are like people from the Northeast who are moving to Miami. They all have their eye on Coral Gables and I think it's because in the Northeast we're used to living in historical buildings. You know, like I growing up in Brooklyn, the buildings and the homes that I've lived in, none of them were built after like the late 1800s. So we're used to those like really beautiful historical details and boldings and just like the character in charm.
So I had my eyes set on Coral Gables. I signed my new lease. We had an office in Windwood for a little while for about a year and a half. And now that we're expanding further, we have a much larger office on Miracle Mile.
The contractor just started swinging the hammer for demolition this morning. So we're super excited. Wow. Yes.
Congratulations. Thank you. We're so excited. It's going to be a beautiful space and we're going to throw an amazing opening party probably in the end of February.
I'll give you post it. I definitely will. That's very exciting. Well, look, I know that you have a lot of work to do to wrap this very successful 2023, but I can't wait to see what this upcoming year has been for you.
I'm sure it's going to be all great things and we're going to be definitely doing some great things together. Thank you, Alvaro. Same to you. I'm sure 2024 is a good year.
It has good energy. Thank you again for what you do. Keep on doing what you're doing and we'll see each other very soon. Amazing.
Thank you. Same to you. I'll see you soon. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today.
We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it's beautiful success in life. My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.