The Rocca Sisters Blog

Looking for Inspiration for your home decor? Home By Design magazine brings an article this week showing Giana Allen Draws (designer) Inspiration from Multiple Regions for the Rustic Cabins at Pine Creek Sporting Club. Her technique resulted in a relaxed style that welcomes any visitor.

For designer Giana Allen, the inspirations for her design work throughout the country stem from her surroundings and experiences: travels to Switzerland and Belgium; summers in New England with family; buying trips to Africa, and hunting weekends in the Florida back country. So when she was tasked with designing the interior of all twenty-three cabins on Pine Creek Sporting Club’s property, she knew exactly where to look for inspiration.

For Cabin 7 at Pine Creek—located in Okeechobee, Florida—Allen approached the interior design by tapping into memories from her travels and experiences to create a seamless decor and color palette. “The home is a mix of Palm Beach [and] a more rustic, chic look . . . ” says Allen, who drew inspiration from her time spent living in Palm Beach, Florida for the cool, crisp beachy look of the cabin. The latter style stems from a trip to Europe where she once stayed in a Belgian farm house.

It’s a cross between an industrial Belgian farmhouse [and] the slight feel of a western home, she says.

Though the façade is unassuming and otherwise traditional, the interior is a slight departure with the coupling of the two wholly different looks. The kitchen showcases a layering of both aesthetics with the industrial concrete floor, sleek white cabinets, leather titanium granite, and hand-sawn wood beams on the ceiling. “Because the kitchen is such a large part of the great room, I chose to do the kitchen cabinets in almost the same color as the walls so it felt integrated and not [like] two separate rooms in one,” says Allen of the white, plastered walls in both spaces. A cutout utilized as a bar area is accentuated by dark wood paneling and granite counters, “to give it some texture and let it stand out.”

The great room serves as a resting and entertaining space. The high, twenty-foot vaulted ceiling provides an element of grandeur, while the horizontal barn wood paneling and stone fireplace are more inviting. “It gives a cozy space a large, grand feeling but keeps it intimate,” says Allen. The earth-tone color palette is worked into the decor via luxurious yet comfortable and practical Belgian linens on the sofas, couches, draperies, and pillows, while a custom Merida sisal rug provides an organic touch to the industrial look and feel of the concrete floors. A large, early 1900s western trunk-turned-coffee table that Allen found on a buying trip to Texas, anchors the conversation area. An oversize chandelier from Allen’s line of home furnishings, Giana Allen Homes, hangs above; always one to incorporate a vintage look, Allen affixed antique corbels to the top of the pendants on the iron chandelier.

Though the downstairs area is reserved for relaxing, entertaining, and conversation, the upstairs is home to three bedrooms, each boasting a unique take on the Belgian farmhouse theme. With two full beds, the main guest bedroom is inspired by a New England shooting ranch that Allen’s grandfather stayed in when she was a child. “I really went with the farmhouse look in this room,” says Allen, who brought in pops of color through the striped Dash & Albert rug and artwork by Maura Allen. Down the hallway is the bunk room, inspired by a vacation to a chalet in Switzerland, where Allen utilized dead space with two built-in bunks that are spacious enough for adults and kids.

The master bedroom, though, is the highlight of the overnight options. A tall, winged headboard swathed in Belgian linen serves as the focal point of the bedroom. Above, lanterns sit atop vintage corbels while wide white barn wood lines the back wall and ceiling giving texture to the space. A custom Merida sisal, and thick, heavy Belgian linen drapery, complete the farmhouse chic decor.

“My life really does inspire how I design,” says Allen, who borrowed bits and pieces of her world-wide travels to shape the design of Cabin 7. Her technique resulted in a relaxed style that welcomes any visitor.

Source: Home By Design