Celebrity Homes: The Miami Abode of Real Housewives’ Dr. Nicole Martin

Dr. Nicole Martin is a new addition to the recently revived show Real Housewives — a popular global television franchise that has amassed millions of fans over the years. Her Miami home has been described as a tranquil and freshly renovated waterfront estate in Coral Gables, Florida.

“It was really important that the house felt cozy and homey,” Dr. Martin tells Architectural Digest. She’s a Miami native whose medical career began and continues at the University of Miami, where she is an assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology. “Sometimes when you take on large scale renovations like this, the house could end up feeling cold. We didn’t want that.”

A gut renovation

The magnificent home is positioned right on the waterfront. To make the house their own, the couple chose a full renovation to make better use of the space. Together with her attorney husband, the pair spent over 12 months gut-renovating the 9,000-square-foot home. They subsequently relied on a superior team to make it happen too. As such, they employed Manny Angelo Varas, CEO and president of luxury home builder MV Group USA. He was tasked to work with interior designer Briggs Edward Solomon on the gut renovation of the 2.2-acre Florida property.

Notably, Solomon has designed interiors for a number of boldface names and created mesmerising high-end residential spaces in Miami. Some of his work was done for former Major League Baseball player Alex Rodriguez. Similarly, Varas too is no stranger to the stars. He has collaborated on luxury projects with global design stars such as Giorgio Armani.

A beautiful Med-styled retreat

Double-height ceilings inside the property are framed by large picture windows that allow sunlight to pour into the Mediterranean-style home, which is lined with European elkwood flooring throughout. In other areas of the home, a neutral palette with cream walls add a chilled ambience, like that in the living room. Here, white linen sofas serve as anchoring forces while leather Pierre Jeanneret lounge chairs, cast bronze side tables, and a midcentury Jean Prouvé daybed make for appealing accents. The furnishings sit atop a textured hemp rug by Woven Accents.

The primary bedroom includes painted white oak nightstands that frame a custom-made bed. The wool fabric ottoman is by Briggs & Co while an antique Doroksh rug and vintage bamboo standing lamp surround two Art Deco club chairs in white linen, also by Briggs & Co.

“The idea was to employ a very clean and contemporary atmosphere, but also to inject a classic, timeless theme throughout the home,” Solomon says.

An entertainer’s paradise

A home of this scale is definitely fit for entertaining. The design team ensured that every area was carefully planned to maximise the entertainment areas. Varas therefore installed a 3,000-bottle wine cellar with professional-grade temperature and humidity control. Moreso, the home boasts a plush, 20-seat movie theatre! Why go out when you can have your own movie nights in style at home!

The house also presents many beautiful artworks and pays homage to the couple’s love of art. This inevitably became the guiding force in the home’s design and renovation process. As lifelong collectors, they have amassed artworks by Cuban artists such as painter and sculptor René Portocarrero and Victor Manuel García Valdez, an early member of the Vanguardia movement of artists who utilized European concepts of Modern art to create distinctly Cuban aesthetics.

Nonetheless, for car afficionados, the best collection of works of art might just be Lopez’s growing car collection, which clocks in at 15 and includes a 1954 Porsche Speedster and a 1951 Jaguar. Clearly, even in the garage, the sky’s the limit at this Miami home when it comes to design.