If a year spent at home has you longing for a voyage to a far-flung destination, Designing Paradise: Juan Montoya might be just the thing to satisfy your wanderlust. The A-list decorator’s new book features a collection of his luxurious projects in Punta Mita, Cap Cana, Miami Beach and more, where blue skies and ocean skies are de rigueur. Read on to get a peek into his high-style world via an introduction by beloved design editor Wendy Goodman.
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I started crying midway through looking at layouts for this book, and I didn’t stop until I got to the very end. What was happening? I’ve never cried looking at a design book. Was I having a breakdown due to the crises of our current times? Or was it that looking at so much beauty felt like a thing from the distant past—that I feared I would never again smell the sea or feel the ocean breeze? Add to that the heartbreakingly beautiful photographs of the lush interior and exterior landscapes that Juan Montoya is so famous for making.Although I had never visited any of these ravishing residential spaces, I could imagine the sensation of being in each and every extraordinary, luminous setting. The images alone conjure such a palpable sense of family and the abiding love that the best homes reflect, and that Montoya’s work has always embraced.
Since the beginning of my career as a design editor, before I even met Juan, I was deeply in awe of his legend; he was one of the greatest of the greats I had hoped to meet. Now that I have had the joy of getting to know him a little bit, that awe runs even deeper, with the understanding of how his interiors are designed to become such warm and embracing environments that illustrate the potential of what a home can be.
His rooms breathe the air of happiness, ready to welcome the best of times with friends and family; they invite gatherings just as much as they offer the delicious serenity of spending time alone in the refinement of their composition. Montoya’s personal elegance and warmth are always reflected in his work. His genius for being able to create magical interior worlds for his clients is grounded in his deep knowledge of history and art as well as in his respect for the precious skills of artisanal talent.
Designing Paradise is a book of Montoya’s houses built for pleasure, for relaxation, and for escape—a work that illustrates the dreams he has made come true for his very lucky clients. If ever we needed paradise, especially a paradise we can hold in our hands to revisit again and again, that time is now.
Adapted from Designing Paradise by Juan Montoya.
