High End Handiwork Charms in Miami Condo

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When Amie Weitzman, a New York-based artist and interior designer and her husband, David Adler, contemplated purchasing a vacation home in Florida, they first turned their attention to Longboat Key off Sarasota, where Weitzman had vacationed as a child. During one of their real estate scouting missions, they flew through Miami and, on a rainy-day whim, decided to visit a handful of Miami properties as well. 

As consummate New Yorkers with adult children and an apartment in Greenwich Village, they were immediately drawn to Miami’s sophistication and diversity. The city offered them a familiar urban lifestyle with the additional luxury of wide beaches, turquoise waters, and the breezy winter climate that has lured so many northerners. As Sarasota receded from their minds, they purchased a three-bedroom apartment with over 1,000 feet of outdoor space in a boutique beachfront building in north Miami Beach. 

Adler, a real estate and finance executive, wanted new development, “a blank slate as opposed to a building where you’re replacing someone else’s old finishes or buying into new finishes even if they’re nice.” Weitzman approached the design of the 2,300-square-foot space with her customary modernist vision mixed with a handcrafted aesthetic. She says, “I’m also an artist and a painter. I love a mix of art and textiles. Sculptures. I love African art. Photography. Modernism mixed with handicraft. I’m looking for beautiful pieces of imperfection.”

In the primary bedroom, the print hanging above the bed is awash in blues that almost resemble watercolor. Weitzman had spied Meghann Riepenhoff’s cyanotype, Littoral Drift #1337, at Miami Art Basel a few years before. Riepenhoff uses a process by which she coats paper with photographic emulsion and introduces the paper into nature—in this specific case into the South Florida landscape. Elements such as water, wind, or sand become inscribed into the photochemistry. Weitzman kept a snapshot of the work in her phone for two years before finally purchasing it. The artwork became one of the inaugural elements in the apartment’s design, foregrounding the influence of blues and local craft that Weitzman would weave throughout the space.

For the living room and kitchen, Weitzman had customized rugs designed in shades of blue from Crosby Street Studios. She desired the visual effect to be “blue on the ground and blue on the elevation from the ocean.” While she traditionally prefers neutral tones, the apartment’s brighter color scheme seemed appropriate to Florida, almost as if the ocean and sky created their own neutral palette of blues and indigos. 

Another of Weitzman’s guiding design principles is the careful layering of textures to create softened, comfortable spaces with furniture such as a Ligne Roset’s sofa upholstered in cream chenille, a Danish chair draped in sheepskin, or woven accessories and exotic prints. The walls throughout the apartment are covered in natural grass cloth, which adds warmth to the sparse sheetrock. Weitzman prefers wood furniture with a carefully handcrafted feel and open grain. “Live wood that feels like it’s breathing,” she remarks. Live oak tables from Brooklyn-based Black Creek Mercantile & Trading Co. and bedroom furniture by Tucker Robbins reflect that bespoke ideal. 

As she describes the local provenance of certain pieces, Weitzman enthuses, “I have to buy things from local artisans. I try to do that in every job I do. Many of the accessories in that apartment were bought locally in Miami.” From an African wooden stool sourced from the Watchful Eye African Art Gallery in Antiques and Design Miami to a side table from Miami-based Brazilian designer Roberta Schilling to vintage linens she transformed into bed pillows, Weitzman enjoys scouring local venues for unique pieces. 

Weitzman and Adler say they have discovered a deep appreciation for Miami’s multi-faceted and vibrant ethos, especially as Weitzman adds more Miami projects to her design portfolio and discovers new sources of local artisanship. 

Story Credits: 

Designer Amie Weitzman assisted by Samantha Zarinsky, Amie Weitzman Design, New York, NY

Text by Diana Odasso

Photography by Mark Roskams, New York, NY 

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