Nicola Fontanella, the British interior designer, whose glittering client roster includes names such as Madonna, Guy Ritchie, and Naomi Campbell, finds herself spending more time in Miami these days. As founder and CEO of Argent Design, Fontanella is the driving force behind a 50-person studio that designs ultra-luxe private homes, private jets, and yachts for its affluent and celebrity clients, as well as retail and hospitality spaces, and entire high-rise mixed-use developments for commercial real estate investment firms.
Argent projects, across all interior verticals, tend to mix classic European flair with Art Deco, resulting in spaces that are at once contemporary and timeless. The studio’s projects can be found on every continent, including in New York, Miami, London, St. Tropez, Melbourne, Beijing, and Hong Kong.
The studio doesn’t have a house style. Each project is inspired by its specific client brief. However, what they all share is impeccable space planning, incredible detailing, lavish craftsmanship, and customization of everything from ceilings and flooring to bespoke, one-of-a-kind, specially commissioned pieces, like Lalique antique crystal chandeliers and Lalique custom lighting.
Argent Design projects are difficult to replicate because of the studio’s extensive use of rare and special materials – not available in any catalog – which Fontanella sources from around the world.
In Miami, where Fontanella’s practice has grown to rival her original London base, the designer is known for end-to-end turnkey projects – ultra-luxurious, move-in-ready mansions. With projects like 2000 North Bay Road in Miami Beach, currently listed for $15 million, Fontanella typically oversees not only the interior decorating and final styling, but the external architecture and landscaping as well.
Earlier in April, Fontanella spoke with Upscale Living, giving us an inside look at what it takes to create the spaces of timeless elegance and sophistication that keep her ultra-high-net-worth and prominent clients beating a path to her door year after year.
When designing ultra-luxe mansions, how do you do what you do?
A chic, seamless, effortless look actually requires a lot of effort, with many factors going into the end result. Otherwise, everyone could do it. Fads and fashions come and go. The key is to carefully consider the architecture of the building, the location, and the various areas of the home, and juxtapose that with the “personas” of who will live there, how they will live there, and how versatile a space will need to be.
How do you choose the art that goes into a client’s home?
Art is a journey and one’s relationship with art is often personal and emotional. My clients tend to collect pieces throughout their lives. Elements of the interiors we commission on behalf of clients, like the lighting, or even intricate flooring, are meant to both complement a client’s art collection and to stand alone in its ability to create visual interest.
When people describe your projects as having a European essence, what do they mean?
Europe has spectacular old buildings, palaces, castles, you name it. I find myself influenced by European heritage sites – not just the ones in the United Kingdom where I’m from, but also those in Italy, France, and as far afield as St. Petersburg, Russia. On an Argent project, that influence can translate to cornice detailing or wall paneling.
People often notice the ceilings on the projects we complete in the United States because it’s a notable characteristic of traditional European architecture to pay attention to ceilings. Ceilings are not an afterthought. Think of the Sistine Chapel.
Our approach to ceiling design ensures that the whole ceiling is coordinated with the furniture layout, with an emphasis on aesthetics. No unsightly access panels or grills. By adopting a forward-thinking approach and innovative techniques, we make sure that smart-home features and even air conditioning installations are included in the ceiling but are completely hidden. We often specially commission our chandeliers, which become collectible pieces, as well as Lalique wall lighting, that functions as the jewelry of the home. The whole ceiling becomes a work of art.
We’ve talked about ceilings. Tell me about your approach to floors.
We take inspiration for our floors from the exterior detailing of buildings, ceilings, and other elements. This approach ensures that all the details within the building work together, with the exterior always connected to the interior. One of Argent Design’s specialties is our bespoke floors. We create intricate flooring patterns by combining a variety of materials like wood, marble onyx, and bronze insets. The craftsmanship required to make an Argent floor is what makes it exclusive and one-of-a-kind. No two floors are ever the same.
Seamlessly integrated indoor-outdoor living is de rigueur in Miami architecture and design. Tell me about your approach to this concept.
Yes, there’s an emphasis placed on this concept in South Florida, but we take this approach, on a more abstract level, on all our projects. Buildings have exteriors and interiors, and they must make a logical whole.
On a practical level, objects inside the home must be placed strategically to maximize views, taking into consideration where people will stand the most, sit the most, look out the most, and how certain areas and views will look during different times of day.
Argent Design also designs the interiors of yachts and jets, where efficient space planning is paramount. Tell me how you apply space planning to your practice as a whole, and how you design dressing rooms in particular.
It all comes down to a delicate balance of hiding what needs to be hidden and functionality, even when the home itself is extremely spacious. The homes I design for my HNW clients often have separate dressing rooms, with customized storage for suits, shoes, watches, jewelry, purses, sunglasses, and more. In addition to being functional, stand-out spaces, Argent Design dressing rooms have bespoke joinery, drawers, and shelving, to make sure everything has a place, and everything is in its place, in a way that appropriately matches the client’s lifestyle. Designing is all about trying to solve paradoxes. Argent homes with all their customized craftsmanship rise to the level of works of art – that’s what we strive for. At the same time, we always remember that these spaces are not galleries. They are working homes where people will actually live, so designing for functionality is imperative, and storage is a key tool for achieving functionality.
