Houzz Tour: Whimsical Home Inspired by Alice in Wonderland
A minimalist interiors team takes on a maximalist family’s project by using the classic tale as a starting point
A mirrored console in front of a giant mirror, two white papier-mâché tree stumps and a bowl of candy were inspired by Carroll’s enduring tale. Although there’s no Eat Me sign by the candy, it’s implied. The giant feather sculpture next to the guest book is a cheeky oversize tribute to a quill pen.
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The homeowners moved with much of their furniture, including these Louis XVI-style dining chairs, which have black sequins on the back. “My client absolutely loves to go all-out with design. It was fun to work with that energy,” Ronderos says. The homeowner also already had this dining table, whose legs reflect objects in a prism of colors.
The designers used the ceiling architecture to help delineate the spaces. They floated lower ceilings over the living areas and left the ceilings high over walkways to indicate traffic patterns. They also wrapped and connected two awkward columns to create an overscale casing between the dining room and the living room, pictured at left.
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The designers used the ceiling architecture to help delineate the spaces. They floated lower ceilings over the living areas and left the ceilings high over walkways to indicate traffic patterns. They also wrapped and connected two awkward columns to create an overscale casing between the dining room and the living room, pictured at left.
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Much of the couple’s existing furniture playfully casts classic silhouettes in an unexpected material or a surprising scale. The sequins on the dining chairs, the un-upholstered solid-wood wingback chair and the oversize floor lamp helped spur the Alice in Wonderland idea.
Yellow Accents: Dining and Living Rooms
Ronderos used a wallpaper with a large botanical pattern underneath the stairs to serve as a cozy backdrop. Its hints of yellow gave her the open area’s accent color. “The controlled color palette is neutral, and then we picked one bright accent color for different areas in the house,” she says. “Each color was picked for the emotions it evokes.” Yellow inspires happiness and is associated with increasing appetite, so it suits the dining room.
Color Feast: When to Use Yellow in the Dining Room
Yellow Accents: Dining and Living Rooms
Ronderos used a wallpaper with a large botanical pattern underneath the stairs to serve as a cozy backdrop. Its hints of yellow gave her the open area’s accent color. “The controlled color palette is neutral, and then we picked one bright accent color for different areas in the house,” she says. “Each color was picked for the emotions it evokes.” Yellow inspires happiness and is associated with increasing appetite, so it suits the dining room.
Color Feast: When to Use Yellow in the Dining Room
Across the space, a yellow book niche in the casing picks up on the wallpaper’s yellow. Ronderos had her clients’ sofas reupholstered and added pillows in a fabric with the same pattern as the wallpaper. The couple’s feathered bergère chairs found a spot in here too.
Browse botanical wallpapers in the Houzz Shop
Browse botanical wallpapers in the Houzz Shop
A beverage bar on one side of the living room is convenient for entertaining since the more casual areas like the kitchen are on the opposite side of the house. The designers added the mirrored backsplash and flanked the existing cabinetry with cabinet towers for extra storage.
“We had a lot of fun picking out accessories with Alice in Wonderland in mind,” Ronderos says. The bar has a large clock, colorful glass cones and a checkered bowl. The coffee table features a jar full of oversize safety pins and a giant Jonathan Adler pill sculpture.
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“We had a lot of fun picking out accessories with Alice in Wonderland in mind,” Ronderos says. The bar has a large clock, colorful glass cones and a checkered bowl. The coffee table features a jar full of oversize safety pins and a giant Jonathan Adler pill sculpture.
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Green Accents: Kitchen and Family Room
Green indicates freshness, perfect for the kitchen, and harmony, just right for the adjacent family room. The team punctuated the sleek kitchen design with eclectic touches like the midcentury modern-style chandelier, acrylic counter stools and black-and-white serveware.
Tip: “Group like items together when accessorizing,” Ronderos says. “It keeps things feeling calm instead of chaotic when you have lots of things.”
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Green indicates freshness, perfect for the kitchen, and harmony, just right for the adjacent family room. The team punctuated the sleek kitchen design with eclectic touches like the midcentury modern-style chandelier, acrylic counter stools and black-and-white serveware.
Tip: “Group like items together when accessorizing,” Ronderos says. “It keeps things feeling calm instead of chaotic when you have lots of things.”
Shop for transparent bar and counter stools
This breakfast area sits between the working portion of the kitchen and the family room. The team designed the banquette and surrounding shelving, which contrasts white with charcoal. The clients already had the Warren Platner table and chairs, which the designers reupholstered in emerald green and gray to match the banquette.
Photo Flip: 91 Kitchen Banquettes to Start Your Morning Right
Photo Flip: 91 Kitchen Banquettes to Start Your Morning Right
The banana-leaf fabric on the banquette’s throw pillows picks up on the wall of tropical foliage just outside the family room’s floor-to-ceiling windows. The side table has a black-and-white op art look, and the coffee table is shaped like a slice of a large log that’s rendered in unexpected silvery metal.
Master Bedroom and Office
Calm and tranquil gray rules in the master bedroom, but though the color palette is monochromatic, the material palette is deeply varied. A flokati bench floats atop a wool rug, sequins sparkle atop bed linens, and an extended upholstered headboard is layered over a hexagonal wallcovering.
The master bedroom is a modern take on Art Deco, a maximalist design era. The extended channel-stitched headboard, the crystal chandelier and fringed sconces, and the shiny surfaces and silver, gray and white color palette are the biggest nods to that period. The hexagonal wall pattern and the rectilinear pieces make the room more modern.
Calm and tranquil gray rules in the master bedroom, but though the color palette is monochromatic, the material palette is deeply varied. A flokati bench floats atop a wool rug, sequins sparkle atop bed linens, and an extended upholstered headboard is layered over a hexagonal wallcovering.
The master bedroom is a modern take on Art Deco, a maximalist design era. The extended channel-stitched headboard, the crystal chandelier and fringed sconces, and the shiny surfaces and silver, gray and white color palette are the biggest nods to that period. The hexagonal wall pattern and the rectilinear pieces make the room more modern.
Mirrored furniture, the beads on the sconces and the crystals on the chandelier add shine to the room, while the botanical print on the drapes is lovely and soothing.
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Shop for curtains
This bedroom serves as the wife’s office. “I saw she had this collage of pink, black and white artwork in her collection, and it inspired the black-and-white houndstooth wallpaper,” Ronderos says.
Kid Zone
This room belongs to the oldest son, and his accent color is red, which represents love, excitement and courage. Anchoring the headboard is a navy blue accent wall with an illuminated Think Out of the Box sign — another reminder to keep creativity alive. Ronderos describes the malachite pattern on the ceiling as “psychedelic.” And the car paintings on the wall are 3D and trippy. “The artist paints the cars on paper, then punches the paper to make it look like they were wrecked and attaches the paper to a canvas. It’s the coolest thing,” she says.
This room belongs to the oldest son, and his accent color is red, which represents love, excitement and courage. Anchoring the headboard is a navy blue accent wall with an illuminated Think Out of the Box sign — another reminder to keep creativity alive. Ronderos describes the malachite pattern on the ceiling as “psychedelic.” And the car paintings on the wall are 3D and trippy. “The artist paints the cars on paper, then punches the paper to make it look like they were wrecked and attaches the paper to a canvas. It’s the coolest thing,” she says.
“This little girl is the sweetest, and the butterfly wallpaper, feathered light fixture and diamond pattern on the ceiling are so perfect for her,” Ronderos says. “We also have a space set up for her to have tea parties with her favorite stuffed animals.”
The reason these two children’s rooms have such a large beds is because the family observes Shabbat. On Friday nights, members of the extended family drive over for dinner, but if they linger after sunset, they can’t drive home, so they sleep over. On those nights, the kids give their rooms to their adult relatives and get to have a fun slumber party with the other kids in the family in another part of the house.
See more rooms with butterfly wallpaper
The reason these two children’s rooms have such a large beds is because the family observes Shabbat. On Friday nights, members of the extended family drive over for dinner, but if they linger after sunset, they can’t drive home, so they sleep over. On those nights, the kids give their rooms to their adult relatives and get to have a fun slumber party with the other kids in the family in another part of the house.
See more rooms with butterfly wallpaper
The other two boys share this sports-themed room, outfitted with bunks for weekly post-Shabbat dinner sleepovers. A grassy green wraps the bunk area, while a cityscape wallpaper mimics a big-city stadium view.
Check out more photos of bunk rooms
Check out more photos of bunk rooms
Another bedroom serves as the children’s playroom, accented in a rainbow of colors. The playhouse within the house has a little play kitchen and is wallpapered with trees that feel life-size. There’s room for the kids to enjoy games, crafts and other fun. And the ceiling provides stars overhead.
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More on Houzz
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House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their four children
Location: Bal Harbour Village, Miami
Size: Seven bedrooms, 7½ bathrooms
Designer: DKOR Interiors
This Miami house is covered in lots of different wallpapers, but it’s definitely not old-fashioned. Designer furniture, dramatic patterns and an Alice in Wonderland sense of discovery dominate this home, which was designed to spark creativity in the four children who live here.
Clients who hire the interior design team at DKOR usually are seeking its signature warm contemporary style and minimalist architectural approach. But this family of six, which was moving from Mexico to Miami, had maximalist tendencies. “This was a real challenge for us, and we learned so much,” says principal designer Ivonne Ronderos. “In order to keep things controlled and easy on the eyes, we chose a starring accent color for each room. And it was so rewarding to work with clients who truly wanted the decor throughout the house, not just in their bedrooms, to inspire their children.”
Down the Rabbit Hole
Influences from Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland included playing with unexpected scales and bold patterns and maintaining a strong sense of whimsy even in the smallest accents.
In the entry, the diagonal black and white stripes extending across the wall and onto the ceiling, along with the matching stripes on the floor, make it seem as if you’ve walked into an op art painting.