An Exuberant Miami Beach House Asks $8.5 Million – DIRT
In the northeast of the United States, people of a certain social ilk are accustomed to quiet and understated taste. But for those whose blood turns cold with yet another beige bathroom or staid greige living room, there’s sunny South Florida, where eccentric houses with lively color schemes are more in keeping with the area’s pulsating energy.
Dubbed Casa de las Fuentes and meticulously restored and updated as her personal escape by Ximena Caminos, who bills herself as a Cultural Entrepreneur and Cultural Place Maker, everything about this circa 1921 Mediterranean Revival residence in Miami Beach is over the top, from the verdant landscaping that sets off the bubblegum-pink mansion, to the plethora of richly hued wallpaper, to the enormous dressing room for the homeowner’s designer wardrobe. Caminos, previously married to international hotelier and developer Alan Faena, sold the 6,800-square-foot house about a year ago for $5.7 million to an LLC controlled by Mexican media executive Miguel Bracamontes Baz.
Vintage architecture and a palette of materials woven into South Florida’s established design lexicon are showcased in juxtaposition with custom murals and playful wallpaper that can be found in nearly every room. Wrought iron, intricate stonework, and pecky cypress wood are paired with authentic midcentury Sputnik chandeliers and a healthy splash of 1980s “Miami Vice.”
The living room, one of the home’s more muted spaces, includes a coffered ceiling, a pilaster-accented fireplace, and a lovely arcade, while the all-white eat-in kitchen, ready to keep kosher with double sinks, dual ovens, and two refrigerators, is jazzed up with four gleaming bronze light fixtures over the dining area along. Multicolored tiles on the risers of the rear staircase further zhuzh-up the stark space. Each of the bedrooms in the main house includes an eye-catching bathroom, while a glitzy powder room has a patterned floor and a patterned ceiling treatment that are reflected ad infinitum in the mirrored walls.
Other noteworthy features include a movie theater, a study/home office, and a separate guest house. There’s a four-car garage, plus impact-resistant windows and doors, necessary features in hurricane-prone South Florida.
Unsurprisingly, the exterior amenities are just as OTT as the indoors, with a one-of-a-kind pool and spa. Escape the sun and relax aprés-pool in the deep, arched loggia or the wide dining pergola that’s covered in lush vegetation.
Set on just over one-third of an acre — an ample plot for the neighborhood — and listed at $8.5 million, the unforgettable home is available through Liz Hogan and Nancy Batchelor with Compass.
