Designer and founder of Elisa Baran LLC, Elisa Baran truly has a unique style, citing brutalism & wabi-sabi as some of her main aesthetic influences. The NYC-based designer has clients from coast to coast and takes on only a select few projects each year because of her decision to remain exclusive and give all of her attention to the projects she chooses. Baran enjoys working with clients to come up with creative solutions for their homes and businesses that fit their everyday lives while offering timeless, comfortable design. Learn more about Elisa Baran in this week’s Designer Friday.
Elisa Baran’s weathered Tuscan aesthetic provides both texture and old world charm. The antique plastered walls warm this minimalist kitchen, while jet black saddle stools offer needed contrast to the room.
Andrew Joseph: Describe your design style as if you were explaining it to someone who cannot see.
Elisa Baran: Brutalism meets warmth. Picture an empty warehouse with steel windows and doors filled with 19th-century antiques, crisp, clean but cozy furniture, and a wood-burning fireplace.
AJ: If you could live in any home in a movie or television series, what would it be?
EB: Off the top of my head, the first homes that come to mind are Meryl Streep’s home in It’s Complicated or Ina Garten’s backyard in her herb garden on The Barefoot Contessa. Probably because both of these involve cooking food for the family. There is a sense of happiness and life-living that makes me want to jump into the screen and be a part of it. They are both also pristine and look so timeless and cozy.
The beige linen Roman shades let just enough light in to give this room a dramatic feel, while the upholstered bench covered in pillows make this corner feel cozy and inviting.
AJ: If you had a superpower, what would it be?
EB: Super speed. I do things very quickly but thoughtfully.
AJ: If you weren’t a designer, you’d be a ….?
EB: Archaeologist.
AJ: What’s one thing people don’t know about you?
EB: I’m an excellent football thrower and super athletic.
AJ: What’s something you always travel with?
EB: My tape measurer.
AJ: Style (or design) icon?
EB: Pernille Teisbaek.
A minimalist but refined dining room. See more of this Long Island home here.
AJ: What would your dream project or dream client be right now?
EB: Zendaya. I feel like she just gets it and seems extremely decisive.
AJ: How do you define beauty?
EB: Patience. With patience, you have time and aging. Time for things to live and breathe and go through the many obstacles of life, whether it be people or things. There is so much beauty in patience, especially in a world where there is so very little of it.
AJ: What do you find yourself daydreaming about most these days?
EB: Getting away with my fiancé to Italy and walking in the sun, meeting locals, and hearing their life stories, where they live and enjoying their home-cooked meals with a bottle of red. It’s all-consuming at the moment because it’s so very close! Our honeymoon is in early July in Puglia.
Photography by Jared Kuzia.
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