Designing From Basic to Unforgettable

Back in the Vue

This condo remodel brings “breathtaking” to a whole new level. Welcome to yet another successful build-out in the Vue Sarasota Condominium. Featured in the October 2020 issue of Home and Design Magazine Suncoast, “breathtaking” is just one word to describe this renovation.

Built by Joe Menna (Head Project Manager and now Owner and Contractor) and designed by Senior Designer Jeremy Strong, this unit has everything anyone could dream. All of this while utilizing every inch of available space to give the most functional layout imaginable. For example, just look at this fireplace.

Water Vapor Fireplace

Senior Designer Jeremy Strong says, “You’ll notice the fireplace that we custom-designed and built out. We used a combination of the Opti-Myst system. It uses a vapor and LED lighting to create the flames and appearance of smoke, which is no more than your typical water vapor.”

Jeremy assures us the unique features of this condo remodel don’t stop there. Complimenting the red glow from the fireplace are RGB color-changing lights. The changing color is the perfect way to set the mood throughout.

The fireplace is definitely the eye-catcher here. Many other details in the unit are built to match. For example, the wood in the dining room.

“We used the rift cut white oak in a driftwood stain, satin finish, and some stainless steel accents,” Jeremy says. “We wanted to create an area that balanced out the other side of the living room. That gave a serving area to the dining area. We also created a beautiful backdrop that the client chose before we even started.”

The Kitchen

Everything is designed to come together to create one continuous flow from one room to the next. The breathtaking views of this unit don’t stop with the living and dining areas, however. You’ll find illuminated natural quartz crystal countertops, custom electronic touch-to-open cabinets, and other state-of-the-art features in the magnificent kitchen where we tried to take advantage of as much usable space as possible without it looking too crowded.

We utilized a rift cut white oak and a back-painted white glass with a matte finish, which is a little different from what you typically see with matte-painted glass doors. We also utilized many interesting features such as servo-drive doors and drawers. The countertop is a combination of a couple of different types of stones. One is a leather finish, almost a slate-type granite. It has a very deep leather pattern to it that sparkles once the light catches it just right.

Now what does stand out in the condo remodel is the backlit crystal island. This is a real stone countertop, translucent enough to allow light to penetrate it from underneath. Not only is the top illuminated, but the backside. We wanted to make sure the illuminated stone could be seen from anywhere in the space. Looks sort of like a block of ice, doesn’t it?

The Master Suite

On the other side of this unit is the master suite, a combination of custom-made bedroom furniture, fabrics, and backlighting. Taking advantage of an awkward shaped room, true rosewood-paneled walls with a built-in dresser and floating bed and night stands only add to the wow factor of this amazing unit.

Jeremy says, “We wanted to make an illusion of a floating bed in the condo remodel. We did that with a combination of the nightstands and bed giving a floating appearance using the backlighting around the floor and a full backdrop of the rosewood from wall to wall. On the other side of the room, you’ll notice we did a custom-built in dresser that ties in with the wall space as well as to the column that was protruding out from the wall that we wanted to hide. We utilized the rosewood and the black matte countertops as well as the column grooves between the panels to pull that dark graining out of the wood.”

Jeremy goes into how he and the client wanted to create something a little different than what you see every day for the master suite bathroom.

“We used a translucent quartzite for the countertop that we illuminated with an LED panel system from underneath. We did that by doubling up the edge and creating a hollow cavity underneath the countertop. Also, we chose to do a shallow profile vessel sinks and a top mounted sink so that it didn’t take away from the actual illuminated countertops themselves.”

Although we were using different woods throughout the unit to keep some uniformity to each room, we wanted to tie this space in and bring some common ground from one area to the next, such as the coral stone in the backdrop, which we used on the fireplace area.

The Powder Room

The powder bathroom in this condo remodel was also a challenge as the client wanted something to remember in this space, as it is the bathroom that his guests would use. Jeremy used a beautiful graph wall-mounted faucet, as well as graph countertop-mounted fixtures that control the faucet.

“On the back wall,” Jeremy explains, “you’re going to notice a very elegant glass tile accent strip that we did floor to ceiling. This is a very unique piece. Each one of these is handmade and individually laid on the back to create the starburst pattern that you see here.”

This luxurious unit is truly a “you have to see it to believe it” kind of unit.