Residential renovation
Casa 19
A designer’s own home, treated as a living study in art, material and everyday ritual.
A once-neutral house reshaped as a warmer, more personal reflection of the family within it.
A home shaped by character, not convention.
As Majo Martén’s own residence, Casa 19 offered an unusual degree of intimacy with the design process: ideas could be tested against real routines, revised through use and allowed to mature over time. What began as a neutral interior became something more personal—a layered record of its inhabitants, their rituals and an art collection built through years of looking and living.
The intervention
Change what matters. Preserve what works.
Seven years after its construction, necessary repairs opened the door to a broader renovation. The kitchen underwent the project’s most extensive intervention—a complete gut renovation—while the remaining rooms were approached with greater restraint. New timber doors between the kitchen and living room introduce depth and allow privacy when needed; elsewhere, carefully placed color separates and accents spaces without altering the existing architecture.
Built-ins were replaced only where necessary. Others were repaired and reimagined, including sun-damaged cabinetry beneath a window whose sound internal structure was retained, then given a new life through wallpaper and travertine. Value is not always created through replacement, but through knowing what deserves to remain.
Art and everyday ritual
Collected, lived in and always evolving.
Martén’s art collection gives the house its most intimate layer. Vintage furniture and contemporary works are not treated as a final decorative gesture, but as protagonists that continually reshape the rooms around them. Furniture and landscaping soften the threshold between inside and out, while outdoor-grade textiles, removable cushions and resilient surfaces support a household shaped equally by entertaining, companion animals and everyday use.
Photography — Juan Tribaldos
Styling — Daniella Muñoz and Majo Martén
Art direction and production — Martēn Design