Years later, college and post-grad would take her on adventures around the country and abroad. First New Orleans and Philadelphia. Then Hispanic Studies and Art History at the storied University of Salamanca in Spain. La Tuna serenading her outside of her window in traditional university garb. Impromptu baile por sevillanas that awakened her formal ballet training. The salmon pink walls of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum… She always soaked in the culture and aesthetics around her: the music, the art, the architecture, the people. Later, she put her education to work at what was then known as the Miami Art Museum (today it’s been reimagined as Perez Art Museum Miami). It was a fitting post for someone who counts Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, Massimo Listri, and Peter Beard as some of her muses (as well as Flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes, poet Pablo Neruda, composer Antonio Jobim and, obviously, David Bowie). Working here gave her an up-close peek into the artist’s mind, which she has since carried with her into her interiors firm.

Carolina then took her love of travel, culture and art, and entered the world of interior design. After serving as a project manager for a Miami-based design firm, she decided to open her own interiors studio. In the years she’s been designing, her projects have run the gamut from a Tuscan-inspired estate in Coral Gables (with a regal English library and its requisite rolling ladder), to a modern twist on a family lodge in Kentucky, to the sexy new island-minded restaurant Mamey (complete with verdant hanging gardens and oversized beaded chandeliers), and a refreshing, airy cottage in Harbor Island. No matter the style, her interiors are always collected and always carefully curated. Her clients have all become close friends, and she always brings an entourage of skilled craftsmen in tow. 

But even with her creative upbringing, her museum background and the endless inspiration she’s garnered through traveling and immersing herself in the various places she’s called home, it’s perhaps the simple things that inspire Carolina more than anything. The way the morning light hits a room or how it changes shape in the evening. The architecture and landscape of the home and what they call for. The proportions of a piece of furniture, light fixture or work of art—how it fills a space and how it functions for the client. William Morris’s wise words always ring true for her: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." And, above all, the needs and wants of the homeowner—Carolina is most tender and thoughtful with these. A family heirloom, a keepsake from a honeymoon in Bali. Design is a matter of the heart after all; it should move you.

Portraits by Jessica Glynn