Inside a Coral Gables Residence: Kitchen, Bar, and Closets Designed Together
By David Rousso Jr., Principal · Pedini by Daruso · October 2026
The short answer: in this Coral Gables residence the kitchen, a bar, and the walk in closets were designed as one project, in one Pedini collection, Moka, with two finishes listed for the whole house: a wood texture called Fittipaldi and a solid texture called Visone. Designed together does not mean identical. The kitchen puts the light solid finish on its tall walls of storage and the wood on the island and the band above the window; the bar is listed under the same two finishes, with no third added for it; the closets are lined in a wood finish with the light built into the shelves. What ties the three rooms together is a short list of decisions made once: where the wood goes, how the doors open, where the light sits, and how the cabinetry meets the floor.
In this article
Many homes that commission a kitchen also need more cabinetry: a bar, a closet, a wall in the living room. Usually those rooms are bought from different people at different times, and the house ends up with three woods, three kinds of handle, and three ideas of how a cabinet should meet the floor. This Coral Gables residence went the other way: its project record lists the kitchen, a bar, and the walk in closets as rooms we designed for the one house. This case study walks through what that produced, room by room, and what you can take from it if you are planning cabinetry for more than one room.
A note on how it is written. We do not publish our clients' briefs or drawings, so everything below comes from what is finished and on record: the project page for Coral Gables II, its finish list, and its photographs. Where the photographs show a decision, we explain why we would make it. Where they do not settle a detail, we say so.
It is a smaller version of the house wide commissions we described in what a whole home millwork package includes: three rooms rather than a whole house, built on the same idea of deciding the material language once.
What did this Coral Gables project include?
Short answer: three rooms in one residence: the kitchen, a bar, and the walk in closets. The cabinetry is Pedini's Moka collection, and the project record lists two finishes for all of it: Fittipaldi wood texture and Visone solid texture.
Room | What it holds | Finishes and details |
|---|---|---|
Kitchen | Tall units with built in ovens, a base run under a long window, wall cabinets above the window, and an island with seating for four and a glass front refrigerator | Visone on the tall units; Fittipaldi on the wall cabinets and the island; a black top on the island and a dark panel closing one end |
Bar | Listed in the project record as one of the three rooms | One of the project's two finishes; the record does not split the finishes by room |
Walk in closets | Hanging at two heights, open shelving, and a drawer stack facing the entrance | A wood finish throughout, with light built into the shelves; the record does not split the finishes by room |
Whole project | Moka collection, Coral Gables, Florida | Two finishes listed for three rooms |
Two finishes for three rooms is a short list, and it is not the only way to do it. Our project records split the finishes by room in three cases, Pinecrest VIII, Pinecrest VII, and Pinecrest I, and in all three the closet takes a different finish from the kitchen. The record for Coral Gables II lists its two finishes for the whole project, so for what sits where, the photographs do the rest of the work in this case study.
What does designed together mean in practice?
Short answer: decisions made once and carried through. One collection and its door system, one pair of finishes with a job each, the same recessed base under every kitchen run, and light built into the cabinetry rather than added afterward. It does not mean every room looks the same; it means no room contradicts another.
Rooms bought separately disagree in small ways that add up. A kitchen with an integrated grip sits beside a bar with bar handles. The plinth steps back in one room and sits flush in the next. Three different woods appear within sight of each other. None of these is a mistake on its own. Together they make a house read as a collection of purchases rather than one piece of design.
In this house the rules are visible in the photographs. Nothing on the kitchen fronts stands out as a handle. The base run under the window opens on a continuous grip channel set just below the countertop, the detail we explain in handleless kitchen cabinets and the gola profile, and Pedini describes the doors of the Moka kitchen as having a handle integrated into the door, in a titanium or a dark brown finish. Every kitchen run stands on a dark plinth set back from the fronts, so the tall units, the base run, and the island all appear to stop just above the floor. And the wood appears where you sit and work, while the solid finish takes the tall planes.
Designing rooms together has a practical side as well. The finishes are chosen once, recorded once, and drawn to one standard, so a room added later can be matched to the first order; we set out that sequence in the whole home millwork guide.
“Designing a house together does not mean one finish everywhere. It means the decisions are made once: where the wood goes, how the doors open, where the light sits. After that, every room is the same answer at a different size.” — David Rousso Jr., Principal, Pedini by Daruso
How is the kitchen laid out?
Short answer: around a back wall, a return wall, and an island. The back wall has tall units at each end and, between them, a long window at counter height with wood wall cabinets above it. The return wall is tall units from end to end, with the ovens built in at eye level. The island stands parallel to the back wall, in the same wood as the cabinets above the window.
The window is the decision the rest of the kitchen follows. A long window at counter height gives whoever is at the counter a view of the garden instead of a wall, but it takes away the place where most kitchens keep their wall cabinets, and the backsplash where most kitchens put their outlets. Here the storage moves to the tall units at each end and to a band of wood cabinets above the glass. If you plan a window like this, give the outlets a place before the cabinetry is drawn: in the countertop, in the side of a tall unit, or on the island, agreed between the electrician and the cabinetry drawing.
The tall units do the work that wall cabinets do in other kitchens. They run from the plinth to the ceiling in Visone, so both ends of the back wall and the whole return wall read as flat, quiet planes rather than as rows of cupboards. Two ovens sit one above the other inside the return wall, at a height you do not bend to reach, which is where tall units earn their place in a kitchen with a window where the wall cabinets would be. Appliances drawn into the cabinetry this way follow the same logic as the integrated refrigeration in what is a panel ready appliance: the cabinetry is drawn around the model, not the other way round.
The base run under the window keeps its fronts plain. Its continuous grip channel runs the length of the counter, so the long run carries no hardware at the height where the window draws the eye. The countertop and the island top are both dark, so the counters read as one level line across the room.
The kitchen is also open to the rest of the house. Sliding glass doors lead from the kitchen to a covered terrace and the garden, and the island faces the living space as much as the cooking wall. That is one reason the fronts stay so plain: a kitchen on view from the living room is furniture first.
Why two finishes, and where does each one go?
Short answer: because each one has a job. The light solid texture covers the largest surfaces, the tall units, so the walls of storage stay calm. The darker wood texture goes where the eye rests and the hands work: the band above the window and the island. The bar and the closets draw on the same short list. Two finishes are enough to separate the furniture from the walls without competing with the view.
Element | Finish | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Tall units, back and return walls | Visone solid texture (Visone UA94 ovatta in Pedini's range) | Reads as wall rather than furniture, and keeps the largest surfaces quiet |
Wall cabinets above the window | Fittipaldi wood texture (Fittipaldi LR29 sablè in Pedini's range) | Frames the window and carries the wood across the back wall |
Island | Fittipaldi wood texture, with a black top and a dark end panel | Makes the island the piece of furniture in the room |
Bar | One of the same two; the record does not say which | Keeps the bar inside the house's two finish list |
Plinth | Dark, set back from the fronts | Lets every run appear to stop just above the floor |
Notice what is not on the list: no accent color, and no third finish in the project record. A short list is easier to carry from room to room, and easier to match when a room is added years later.
The kind of finish matters here as much as the color. Both finishes come from the surface Pedini calls thermo structured (termostrutturato in Italian), a blend of wood fiber and melamine resin that Pedini describes as resistant to stains and scratches. Its finishes for Moka doors include one Fittipaldi and one Visone, listed in full as Fittipaldi LR29 sablè and Visone UA94 ovatta; those full names are the ones to record if you want a later room to match. Pedini's own Moka catalogue pairs the same two the other way round on one of its kitchens, with Visone on the base units and Fittipaldi LR29 on the tall units, which is a reminder that the pair is a palette rather than a layout. A wood texture is not veneer: the grain is part of a manufactured surface rather than cut from a log, so a later order is easier to match to the first than veneer, which comes from a different log each time. Real veneer has its own advantages, and we compare the families, room by room, in matte vs gloss kitchen cabinets.
What does the island do?
Short answer: it seats four on its long side, holds a glass front refrigerator at one end, and closes the other end with a dark panel that continues the line of the top. Its fronts are in the wood texture, so it reads as the one piece of furniture in a room of flat walls.
An island with seating, a refrigerator, and a finished end has to be planned from all four sides, because people approach it from all four. The stools need knee space and room to pass behind them; we give the clearances in how much space a kitchen island needs. The refrigerator at the end needs room for its door and a path for its air: undercounter refrigeration usually breathes through a grille at the toe kick, so the base in front of it has to stay open. And the end panel decides how the island meets the room. Here it is dark, like the top, so from the terrace doors the island reads as a dark frame around a block of wood.
The refrigerator in the island is a small decision with a large effect. Drinks and snacks come out of the island rather than the main refrigerator, so whoever is sitting at the island does not cross the cook's path to reach them. It is the same idea as the beverage stations in our bar guide, scaled down to one appliance.
How does the bar connect to the kitchen?
Short answer: through the decisions made before it was built. The project record lists the bar as one of three rooms in one collection, Moka, under the same two finishes as the kitchen, with no third finish added for it. The record does not say which of the two the bar takes, so this case study describes the bar no further than the record does.
A bar designed with the kitchen starts from the kitchen's decisions: the same collection and door system, and finishes drawn from the same short list. That is what the record shows here. Whatever the bar is made of, it is one of the two finishes the kitchen uses, which is the least a bar needs in order to read as part of the same house, and it is settled when the finishes are chosen, not when the bar is built.
Which of the two a bar takes is the question our wet bar vs dry bar guide leaves open at the end of its checklist: whether the bar should match the kitchen or the room it stands in. Our records show both answers. In Pinecrest VIII the bar follows the kitchen; in Pinecrest I the bar takes the wood of the closet and the bathroom, while the kitchen is in lacquer. Services are a separate question: a bar with a sink of its own is a wet bar, and needs a water supply, a drain with a trap, and a vent in the wall behind it, all decided before the walls close, as that guide sets out.
How were the walk in closets designed?
Short answer: as two facing runs of open wood compartments, each with hanging at two heights and a lit shelf above each rail, and a drawer stack at the end of the room, facing the entrance. The light is built into the shelves, so the clothes are lit from the front and the room needs little light of its own.
The closet in the photographs is a corridor. Both sides are divided into tall compartments, and each compartment holds two rails, one high and one at mid height, with a shelf above each. Strips of light run along the underside of the shelves, at the front, so the light falls on the clothes rather than in your eyes. At the far end, the drawer stack sits in the center of a unit with open shelving above it and narrow shelves on either side, where folded clothes and shoes usually go.
Look at the wood in the photograph and you will see it change. The side runs, lit by their own warm strips, read deeper and redder than the end unit, which sits in the room's overhead light. The project record does not say which finish each part of the closet uses, so we will not either, but the lesson holds for any closet: judge a finish under the light it will live with. A sample approved in a showroom can look a shade warmer or cooler under a closet's own lighting.
The closet is also where designing together pays off in the details nobody photographs: drawer runners, rail fixings, and the edges of the shelves. We list what to check in what makes a custom closet high quality, and how to choose who builds it in how to choose a custom closet company. Our walk in closets page shows more finished rooms.
What does a cabinetry project in Coral Gables involve?
Short answer: a city permit for the kitchen, but usually no design review for the cabinetry. Coral Gables issues its own permits, and its permit requirements list a kitchen remodel under a residential interior remodel permit, with plumbing and electrical permits under it. The Board of Architects, which Coral Gables is known for, reviews building applications such as new residences, pools, and building expansions; it is not among the approvals the city lists for a kitchen remodel, although a project that adds floor area goes to it. A house with a historic designation adds a historic review.
Coral Gables is its own municipality, so the permit for a kitchen goes to the city's Development Services Department, not to the county. The city's permit requirements group kitchens with bathrooms, flooring, and ceilings, and ask for drawings of the existing and proposed floor plans, a plumbing permit and an electrical permit under the main one, a mechanical permit where the work calls for one, and the homeowners association's approval of the scope of work where there is an association. The approvals listed are building, electrical, plumbing, public works, and mechanical, with structural and historic review where they apply.
The Board of Architects is what most people have heard of. Its members are local architects, at least seven, appointed by the City Manager and approved by the City Commission, and it reviews building and development applications such as new residences, new commercial structures, pools, pavement, signs, roof tiles, and all building expansions. The city's list of approvals for a kitchen remodel does not include it. A project that adds floor area is a different matter, because an expansion does go to the Board even when the kitchen inside it would not.
For the cabinetry, two things follow. The plan the city asks to see is the same plan the cabinetry is drawn on, so the cabinetry drawing should be settled before the permit set goes in, not after. And the plumbing and electrical permits are where a window backsplash, an island refrigerator, and a bar sink, where there is one, all show up: each one moves a service, and each one should be on the drawing. As we set out in the whole home guide, the licensed contractor pulls the permits and the trades make the connections; the cabinetry drawing shows them where. If your house is in an association or carries a historic designation, start those approvals early. And if the plan changes a window or an exterior door, as a window backsplash sometimes does, that is a different permit: the city's list for doors, skylights, and windows does list City Architect or Board of Architects review.
What do our Coral Gables projects show?
Short answer: that every Coral Gables project includes the kitchen, and that this one went furthest. Of the 35 project pages on our site, 5 are in Coral Gables. All five list a kitchen, two list a bar, one a living room, and only Coral Gables II lists closets; it is also the only one of the five with three rooms. Across all 35 pages, 6 list a kitchen, a bar, and a closet together. Counted October 15, 2026.
The five use three collections. Coral Gables is an Arke kitchen; Coral Gables II and Coral Gables III, a kitchen and a living room, are Moka; Coral Gables IV, a kitchen with a bar, and Coral Gables V are Quadra 10. One color name crosses two of them: Visone appears as a matte lacquer in the first Coral Gables kitchen and as a solid texture in Coral Gables II: the same color name in two different surfaces.
The six projects that list a kitchen, a bar, and a closet together are Pinecrest X, Pinecrest VIII, Pinecrest I, Island Estates, Manalapan, and Coral Gables II. Where their records split the finishes by room, the bar follows the kitchen in Pinecrest VIII and the closet in Pinecrest I. The figures come from the rooms and finishes listed on each page of our projects, counted in October 2026.
Planning several rooms together: the checklist
Before the drawings for a kitchen, a bar, and a closet are approved, every line below should have an answer.
Rooms. Every room the cabinetry will cover now, and the ones it might cover later.
Finishes. A short list, with a job for each: which finish takes the large planes and which the pieces you touch.
Records. The finish codes and the collection written down, so a later room can match the first.
Doors. One way of opening across the house: integrated grip, channel, or push to open.
Base. One plinth detail, recessed or flush, in every room.
Light. Where the light sits in each room, inside glass cabinets, under shelves, along closet rails, and wired before the walls close.
Windows. Where a window meets a counter, where the storage and the outlets go instead.
Appliances. Every appliance by model, including the small ones: an island refrigerator, a bar's wine refrigerator.
Bar services. Wet or dry; if wet, the drain, the trap, and the vent behind it.
Closet inventory. What hangs long, what hangs short, what folds, and how many pairs of shoes.
Permits. In Coral Gables, the kitchen remodel permit with its plumbing and electrical permits, plus association or historic approval where they apply.
Explore the collection used in this house on our Moka page.
Frequently asked questions
What cabinetry was used in this Coral Gables residence?
The project record lists Pedini's Moka collection, with two finishes for the whole project: Fittipaldi wood texture and Visone solid texture. The kitchen uses both, the bar is listed under the same two, and the walk in closets are lined in a wood finish with lighting built into the shelves.
What does it mean to design a kitchen, a bar, and a closet together?
It means the decisions that make a house feel consistent are made once and carried into every room: the collection and its door system, a short list of finishes with a job each, one plinth detail, and light built into the cabinetry. The rooms do not have to look alike; they should not contradict each other.
Should a home bar match the kitchen?
It should share something with it, and the finish is the easiest thing to share. In this house the bar is listed under the same two finishes as the kitchen, with no third finish added for it. Our records show both answers: in Pinecrest VIII the bar follows the kitchen, and in Pinecrest I it matches the closet and the bathroom instead, while the kitchen is in lacquer. Either works if the choice is deliberate.
Should a walk in closet match the kitchen?
Not necessarily. In the three project records on our site that split the finishes by room, the closet takes a different finish from the kitchen every time. What should match is the standard: the drawer hardware, the edges, and the lighting.
Can a window be the backsplash in a kitchen?
Yes, if the plan makes room for what the backsplash usually holds. The wall cabinets move above the window or into tall units at each end, and the outlets move to the countertop, the side of a tall unit, or the island. Settle both on the drawing before anything is ordered.
What is a wood texture finish?
A manufactured surface that reproduces the grain and color of wood. Pedini's version, thermo structured (termostrutturato), is a blend of wood fiber and melamine resin that Pedini describes as resistant to stains and scratches. Because the grain is part of the surface rather than cut from a log, a later order is easier to match to the first than real veneer.
Why does the same cabinet finish look different in different rooms?
Because the light is different, and a finish is only ever as good as the light on it. In this project's closet, the side runs, lit from the front by warm strips under the shelves, read deeper and redder in the photograph than the wood of the end unit under the room's overhead light. It is also why a sample approved under showroom lighting can look a shade warmer or cooler once it is installed. Take the sample into the room before the order goes in, hold it at the height it will sit, under the lighting that will actually be there, and judge it then.
Do I need a permit to remodel a kitchen in Coral Gables?
For a kitchen remodel, yes. The City of Coral Gables lists kitchens under its residential interior remodel permit, with plumbing and electrical permits under it, drawings of the existing and proposed floor plans, and association approval where there is an association. The list does not address replacing cabinet fronts alone, so confirm the scope with the city's Development Services Department.
Does the Coral Gables Board of Architects review kitchen cabinetry?
Not according to the city's permit requirements for a kitchen remodel, which list building, electrical, plumbing, public works, and mechanical approvals, with structural and historic review where they apply. The Board of Architects reviews applications such as new residences, pools, and all building expansions, so a project that adds floor area does go to it, and the city lists City Architect or Board of Architects review for window and door work.
How long does a project with several rooms take?
Our usual sequence is four to six weeks for design and specification and eight to eighteen weeks of production at the Pedini factory in Italy, with projects of several rooms toward the long end, and installation scheduled to the site. The full sequence is in how a bespoke Italian kitchen is made.
Can I add a bar or a closet after the kitchen is finished?
Yes. Keep the finish codes and the collection from the kitchen order, and the new room can be drawn to match. A texture finish is easier to match from one order to the next than real veneer, which comes from a different log each time.
Where can I see Pedini cabinetry in Coral Gables?
At our Coral Gables showroom, 250 Altara Ave, (786) 772-6770, and in the Coral Gables projects on our projects page.
Key takeaways
The record for this Coral Gables residence lists a kitchen, a bar, and walk in closets in one collection, Moka, with two finishes for the whole project.
Designed together means decisions made once: finishes with a job each, one way of opening the doors, one plinth, and light built into the cabinetry.
The light solid texture takes the tall planes; the wood texture takes the island and the band above the window; the bar draws on the same two finishes.
A window at counter height moves the storage into tall units and the outlets off the backsplash; plan both before ordering.
Judge a finish under the light it will live with, especially in a closet with its own lighting.
In Coral Gables, a kitchen remodel takes a city permit with plumbing and electrical permits under it; the Board of Architects is not on the list for the remodel itself, though a building expansion goes to it.
Bring the plans for every room
Bring the floor plan for the whole house, including the rooms you are not yet sure about, and we will show you which decisions to make once and how they carry from the kitchen to the bar and the closets. Visit us in Coral Gables at 250 Altara Ave, call (786) 772-6770, or in the Miami Design District at 3639 NE 1st Ave, Unit 135, call (305) 853-9598. Book a design consultation, see the Moka collection, or browse finished rooms on our projects page.
About the author. David Rousso Jr. is a Principal at Pedini by Daruso, where he leads kitchen and millwork projects across South Florida from showrooms in the Miami Design District and Coral Gables.
Sources (each checked October 2026):
Pedini by Daruso, Coral Gables II project page: Moka collection; Fittipaldi wood texture and Visone solid texture; kitchen, bar, and closets.
Pedini, Moka kitchen: doors with an integrated handle in a titanium or dark brown finish; thermo structured, HPL, and Fenix laminates among the materials.
Pedini, Thermo structured: a blend of natural wood fiber and melamine resin; resistant to stains and scratches; Fittipaldi LR29 sablè and Visone UA94 ovatta listed among the finishes for Aroma and Moka doors.
Pedini, Moka kitchen and living system catalogue (PDF): thermostructured doors in Visone and Fittipaldi LR29 on the Moka 01 kitchen; Fittipaldi LR29 sablè and Visone UA94 ovatta in the finishes list; integrated profile handle in titanium or dark brown.
City of Coral Gables, Development Services Department, Permit Requirements (April 16, 2025): kitchens under the residential interior remodel permit; plumbing and electrical permits required under it; existing and proposed floor plans; association approval; approvals including historic where applicable; City Architect / Board of Architects listed for doors, skylights, windows, and storefronts.
City of Coral Gables, Board of Architects: at least seven local architects appointed by the City Manager and approved by the City Commission; reviews applications such as new residences, new commercial structures, pools, pavement, signs, roof tiles, and all building expansions; hears appeals from the City Architect's decisions.
Last updated October 2026.
Comments