Adventures in Barcelona: Meeting A Design Idol

{Lobby at the Hotel Pulitzer}

A few months ago, while still in the initial planning stages of our trip to Barcelona, I mentioned that we had chosen to stay at the Hotel Pulitzer. It is located right off of the Placa Catalunya, which is about as central as you can possibly get to all of the sights. The location was quite ideal and we read so many positive reviews about the hotel on Trip Advisor, which I check out before every trip. The hotel certainly lived up to the positive reviews. The service and concierge were excellent and extremely friendly and helpful. We were given several restaurant recommendations from the concierge that we just loved and they were incredibly thoughtful, sending up a bottle of Cava and chocolates to our room for our anniversary. However, the look of the hotel was just as (if not more) important to me as the location. I have loved the design of the Hotel Pulitzer for at least a couple of years now. It is chic, bold, timeless, and it was all designed by one of my top interior design idols, Lázaro Rosa Violán, whose work I have written about on several occasions.

 

{The Hotel Pulitzer Designed by Lázaro Rosa Violán}

{Lounge Area: How amazing is the abstract artwork?}

{The entire hotel has a mostly black, white, and grey palette with a few hints of red, such as these abstract paintings or the amazing Asian bar below.}

{The Fabulous Bar}

{Lounge/Library Area}

{The Chic Lounge Area}

{Original Artwork}

{I love the look of the dark wood paired with the white chairs and diaphanous drapes.}

{More Chic Seating}

{We stayed in a Superior Room, which we loved. It had super high ceilings and was quite spacious for a European hotel room.}

{Our room had three large abstract paintings like this one. I absolutely love that they are black and white and in gilded frames. The contrast looks fantastic. I wanted to take this gorgeous chair home with me. I love the contrast piping!}

{More Lovely Artwork}

{Our bathroom was sleek and modern.}

I had the enormous pleasure and honor of being invited to Lázaro Rosa Violán’s studio for a visit. It was one of my personal highlights from our trip to Barcelona. I have loved and admired Lázaro’s work for quite some time now for its beauty and originality. After chatting with him and learning more about his design process, I am even more impressed and in awe of his work than ever before. Scroll back up and look through my pictures of the hotel again. Just about everything in the space was designed by Lázaro. While most interior designers create a vision for a space and then select furniture, lighting, and art from various sources, Lázaro does it all himself. If it is not vintage or antique with an amazing story behind it, chances are, he has created it himself.

{Lázaro Rosa Violán and I}

{Most of the furniture, lighting, and artwork in Lázaro’s studio was designed by him. He was actually a painter before delving into interior design. The man is a true artist in every sense of the word.}

{It is difficult to tell in these images, but the studio is enormous as is the scale of most of the objects in it.}

{Lázaro’s space is filled with beautiful, interesting architectural salvage pieces, all of which have wonderful stories behind them.}

 

{The majority of the items in this image were designed by Lázaro. The Chesterfield sofas are enormous. My 6’2” husband was positively tiny in them!}

{Chairs Designed by Lázaro and a Workspace on the Right}

{A Vintage Chandelier and a Custom mirror made from Gilded Remnants from an Old Church Altar}

{Lázaro’s Contemporain Studio is housed in a former textile warehouse within a Modernista building from the early 1900s. These gorgeous herringbone floors are original to the space.}

{Lázaro is very humble and has a self-deprecating quality that is rather endearing. It was refreshing to meet a man with his caliber of talent who would critique his own amazing work.}

{The enormous main room, or salon is cleverly divided into three spaces, two seating areas and this work area.}

{A Fabulous Hallway}

{Lázaro’s Gorgeous Dining Room, which I wrote about here.}

 

{The amazing kitchen features an antique series of gilded Chinese panels and an island which originally held fabric samples when this was a textile mill over 100 years ago.}

{I did not take any photos outside, but Lázaro has an enormous, absolutely amazing terrace right outside of his kitchen.}

 

I have had the good fortune of meeting several prominent, inspiring designers, but I have never been so in awe of someone and their amazing work. Lázaro is a true designer and all around artist with such a vast knowledge of art and architecture and a veritable understanding of what it takes to design an original, vibrant space.

 

To see more images of Lázaro’s incredible studio, check out this feature from AD España.

 

Image Credit: Paloma Contreras for La Dolce Vita

Please do not use any of these images without my consent.