WE FIRST featured the work of Madrid-based interior designer Isabel López-Quesada back in 2017, and we’ve never quite gotten over her wonderfully eclectic bohemian-romantic style. This place is more personal for the Spanish designer, for it is her own, one that she spotted years before, when she was only 19 and vowed to her then boyfriend (now husband) that she would live there one day. It took a long time, after the children had grown and moved on to lives of their own, before the designer’s dream would come true. The century-old colonia sits north of El Retiro park, Cruz del Rayo, and the two now have the entire three-story, 3,000-square-foot home on the outskirts of the city all to themselves.
The space features López-Quesada‘s free, unrestrained style that is yet somehow not completely without order. It is a style that blends elements from various sources, creating a unique and individualised aesthetic. There is a mix of vintage and modern pieces, bold patterns and textures, and a range of colours and materials (the living room walls are covered in tortoiseshell-patterned paneling created by Aldo Tura in the 1960s). Vintage furniture, antique pieces, and natural elements such as the many plants and flowers, as well as art and sculpture all intermingle harmoniously in the cheerful, elegant space. Where else would a gilded Gustavian banquette sit so perfectly on a large jute rug, while 1960s Italian armchairs and rattan baskets filled with firewood and a 1950s brass-and-marble cocktail table all fit so comfortably together? López-Quesada’s style, as always, emphasises her creativity, individuality, and personal expression.
