The Elena Interview: Kitchen & Closet Design for the Florida Home

Elena is the Principal Designer (virtual) for both Boca Raton Draperies and BRD Kitchens & Closets — she sets the design direction for both studios. She doesn't visit job sites — our real team does that — but every look the studios design toward passes through her notebook first. We sat down with her to talk about the two rooms Florida homeowners ask about most: the kitchen and the closet.

Q: Elena, why are kitchens and closets suddenly the design rooms?

Because they're the rooms you actually live in. The living room is for guests. The kitchen is where your morning starts, where everyone ends up at a party, where homework and holidays happen. And the closet — that's the first room of your day, even if nobody calls it a room. When a space touches your life that many times a day, design stops being decoration. It becomes mood.

Q: The studio's new direction is bold — black marble, gold. Is that Florida?

Florida is two things at once. There's the bright coastal look everyone knows — white, sand, sea glass — and it's beautiful. But there's also evening Florida: the Intracoastal at dusk, a storm rolling in over the ocean, dinner at nine instead of six. Black marble with brushed gold belongs to that Florida. The rule isn't light versus dark. The rule is: pick one mood per room and commit to it completely.

Q: You say "the island replaced the dining room." Explain.

Watch any gathering in a South Florida home. Nobody sits at the dining table until the food forces them to — and half the time, not even then. Everyone orbits the island. So we design the island like it matters: stone with real movement in it, seating you can stay in for two hours, lighting that flatters faces, not just countertops. If the island is the room's true table, it should be built like one.

Q: And the closet — "designed like a room, not a cupboard"?

A cupboard stores things. A room receives you. The difference is in the details: an island dresser where jewelry and watches live under glass, brass rails instead of chrome, shoe shelves angled like a boutique, and — this is the one people forget — light. A closet with layered lighting and, when there's a window, a soft sheer to take the edge off the morning sun… that closet changes how the whole day starts.

Q: Window treatments in kitchens and closets — your honest take?

Honest? They're the most skipped detail and the most felt. In a kitchen, a café sheer at the sink gives you privacy without stealing the daylight you cook by — heavy treatments over a workspace just collect the room's hardest life. In a dressing room, a sheer panel softens Florida's morning glare so colors read true when you're choosing what to wear. Our real team at Boca Raton Draperies fits those every week; my job is to remind people not to leave the windows for last.

Q: One rule you'd give every homeowner reading this?

Design for the hour you use the room most. A kitchen you love at 7 a.m. — coffee, light, everything within reach — will host a great party on its own. A closet that works at your busiest morning will feel luxurious on your slowest one. Start with the real hour, not the photograph.

Q: What's next from the studio?

More kitchens with the courage to be dark, more closets treated like the rooms they are — and always, Florida light doing half the work for free. We design for you.

— Elena, Principal Designer (virtual), Boca Raton Draperies & BRD Kitchens & Closets

Elena is an AI virtual designer created by Boca Raton Draperies — she leads the design direction for both studios. Design directions shown are inspiration curated by our studio; our real team measures, builds, and installs every project. For a free consultation on kitchens, closets, or window treatments, call 561-945-7073.