Tour a Chic Miami Condo With Oceanfront Views and Dazzling Art

Escape the winter blues by taking a vicarious tour of this luxury Bal Harbour condo and pick up some design secrets from a show home pro.

January 19, 2021

By: Lauren Oster

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Photo By: Courtesy of Oceana Bal Harbour

Photo By: Mark Roskams

Photo By: Courtesy of Oceana Bal Harbour

Life as Art

At the northern tip of exclusive Miami Beach, Oceana Bal Harbour is paradise for art lovers. The tower’s residents share ownership of two showstopping Jeff Koons sculptures: Pluto and Proserpina (in the tower’s breezeway) and Seated Ballerina (perched between the pool and beachside gardens). Tasked with helping buyers (who can expect to pay between $3 million and $30 million for a condominium) imagine what living in the tower might feel like, Peruvian-born, Miami-based interior designer Deborah Wecselman created a show home that’s an elegant coastal escape awash in contemporary culture. And what does that look like, you ask? Consider Deborah your resident expert in the gorgeous condominium-as-gallery she created, and come on in.

Butterfly Effect

Deborah drew on the pastel hues in Argentinian artist Lucía Maman’s massive oil painting to complement the green and golden tones she’d selected to reflect Bal Harbour’s verdant coastal setting.

High Fashion

This space makes its glamorous goals known quickly: just beyond the front door, a pair of black and white images by fashion and celebrity photographer (and occasional Miami resident) Greg Lotus stop visitors in their tracks. “Every project we design must have a sense of place,” Deborah says. “This is no exception. It is Miami chic with a flair of international taste.”

See Here

The graphic, oil-and-graphite-on-canvas work above the glass console in the hallway (by Argentinian artist Kirin) is Deborah’s favorite piece in the space. She surrounded it with both smaller pieces that echo it (the dark, curvaceous vases and the book sculpture) and larger ones that recede against the wall and let it take center stage (the pair of ottomans and the console itself).

Float On

The condo’s layout “became the perfect canvas to create a cool and sophisticated Miami pied-à-terre,” Deborah says. Storage, then, is largely decorative rather than functional; barely-there shelves with decorative objects and design volumes like these add visual interest that doesn’t tip into visual clutter.

Work-Life Balance

Welcome to the den, which might also be Miami’s cleverest home office: clear the drop-down desk, remove the chair, rotate the mohair-covered Eames lounger 90 degrees counter clockwise, and the “millwork details” on the rear wall reveal themselves to be a Murphy bed. A convertible bed creates a cozy temporary guest room that doesn’t gobble up square footage 24/7.

Open Wide

“To enhance the size of the space, we used a large disk-like mirror to reflect the glass console on the opposite end of the dining room, creating balance and harmony,” Deborah says. The nearly invisible chandelier, in turn, offers unimpeded views from the kitchen out to the balcony.

Primary Texture

Each of the textiles that draws the eye in the living room — the mustard swivel chairs, the blush dining chairs, the accent pillows on the white sectional — has a deep, velvety texture. In other words, one is encouraged to linger in spots that are particularly opulent and comfortable.

In the Details

Vessels and curios from Arteriors add subtle interest to surfaces like the coffee table without competing with the art on the walls. Pieces like the trio of geometric white vases and the sculptural wooden pieces in the bowl hint at what’s to come in other spaces. Want to enhance the design "flow" in your own home? Give a sneak peek of a design feature in another room as Deborah has done here: the whimsical yellow billy buttons in the white vase both match the swivel chairs and anticipate the globe pendants in the bedroom.

Intracoastal Idyll

This Oceana balcony boasts both a bird’s-eye view of the waterway between Miami Beach and south Florida’s mainland and an elegant outdoor seating area. Like Koons’s ballerina, Deborah’s picks here are secret heavyweights: that refined rug is all-weather resistant polypropylene, the tables and seating are stone and powder-coated metal and the succulents are faux. True luxury, one might say, is having outdoor space that you can ignore completely if you like.

Spa Day Every Day

Deborah wasn’t tempted to sneak additional art into the condominium’s bathrooms. “Less is more,” she explains. “We wanted to create a Zen vibe.” She cultivated calm by paring this space down to a floating vanity with a pair of pedestal sinks, sleek chrome accents, a slab of marble and a single photograph.

Shapes and Structure

Sand-colored textiles, from the wallpaper to the bed linens down to the area rug, anchor the bedroom in plush, neutral comfort. Deborah used that nested-rectangular base to showcase strong forms: honeycomb mirrors reflect sunlight above the bed, and a pair of gleaming orb pendants add curves.

Elemental Simplicity

Deborah exercised restraint in styling the pale nightstands in the bedroom, limiting herself to a mostly neutral palette and rigidly graduated silhouettes. When approaching a space like this, “always make sure you choose objects in different heights and shapes,” she says. “Proportion is key: Not too small, not too large.” That consistency makes the shock of the orange pincushion proteas all the more dramatic.

Introductory Course

Interested in making an investment in artwork? “First do research; talk to established collectors and curators,” Deborah advises. “Then choose art pieces that speak to you — because most likely, if you’re buying as an investment, profits will not happen overnight.” Living in an art hub like Miami makes doing that leg work more straightforward, to be sure, but technology is your friend. It's easy now to buy high-end artwork online at sites like Artnet and Sotheby’s, says Deborah.

The Best of Two Worlds

Oceana partners with Maman Fine Art - Miami, a prestigious Design District gallery that specializes in modern and contemporary Latin American art. Accordingly, its common areas (and projects like Deborah’s) have the visual pyrotechnics of exhibition spaces. (Lest you feel concern for Koons’s delicate-looking piece beside Oceana’s Olympic-style lap pool, rest assured that she’s stainless steel, and tougher than she appears.)

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