At Home in Madrid with Lorenzo Castillo

Well, welcome to my home in Madrid. It's a 17th century monastery, it was. And then in the 18th century, it was a very important private palace by the most famous architect of the king, Ventura Rodríguez, the architect of the Museo del Prado, the Prado Museum. As soon as you enter in the house, you can find the conservatory. That is, it has the original metals and glass ceiling. So it's a real conservatory full with trees and plants. And we use it, we use it in, especially in spring for small, quiet lunches and dinners. Then we go up through the original staircase that is incredible because it's an original neoclassic staircase, typical from the architect Ventura Rodríguez. The influence comes from England, from the George III style, that it was very, it was a strong influence in Spain during the 18th century. And I've been using part of my incredible collection of 18th century French, English and Spanish engravings with the original frames, of course. Something very useful in this house, thanks to it's so big, is like we have rooms for every different actions. So for example, we are coming into the gallery. We call it, it's like, we call it the winter garden or the Jardin d'Hiver. It's like, it's like a garden inside the house. That's the reason that I wanted to decorate it with one of my fabrics of my first designs of my brand, with that green Indian flowers upholstering the walls, but also all the furniture, very outdoors feeling, with the metal day beds, with the metal consoles, beautiful Art Deco consoles from Paris, but also the black and white marble floor. From the gallery, that is like the entrance, the entrance hall of the house, we go into the daily dining room. It's a beautiful space that we have changed the decoration with this incredible green, deep green lacquer, high gloss wall covering. And also I have one of my favorite pieces, like for example, the Italian tortoise shell dining table. And it's the place where I host dinner for no more than six people. So for from this dining room, we go into the formal dining room that we use it for more than 20 people. And it's also more at night. And it shares the space with the bar. The bar is the most popular space, of course, in my house. It's not right now, it's like the tequila bar, because the tequila is crazy. And it's a rock star, all of my friends want tequila, and it's the place to be during my parties. Well, lighting is the most important part of a decorating project. So that's the reason that I'm really in love with lamps, table lamps, or floor lamps, or also sometimes chandeliers. And the shades are very important. I like silk shades, because they are warm, they are bright, and you feel, I mean, you feel more beautiful with that kind of warm light. The reason why I fell in love with this house was the drawing room. It's an incredible space. It's more than 150 square meters. So it's so unusual to find such an incredible scale room in the center of Madrid, where I can put together all my highlights, my best objects, pieces, sculptures, and contemporary art, mixed also with portraits from the 18th century, or antique furniture. At the time, I was in a pink mood, and that's the reason that the whole space is covered with that incredible Pierre Frey powder pink fabric. Well, I'm not a real collector. I don't like to collect pieces, just feel like a collector. What I love is just beautiful things. So what I like is to arrange objects, like for example, for colors, or materials, for example, to put all my shells and coral trees together, or the lacquer box, the Japanese lacquer boxes all together, or for example, the silver, the bronzes. That's my only decorative recipe. Well, the guest room has the original decoration from 20 years ago, with a wallpaper that I've designed from a 1960s pattern. It's a mix of everything. It's a mix of all that kind of strange pieces that I love, you know, that, for example, the camelback sofa, with that 1960s wallpaper, or with a collection of 18th century portraits. So it's a mix of everything, and I really love it. I think it works. I think La Pièce de Résistance, this room, and it's the bed, because it's an Italian bamboo 1970s canopy bed, that I think is really shocking in contrast with a collection of portraits. Well, I love combining styles and periods, because it's so difficult to choose one of them. I'm really in love by contemporary art. My background was as an historian of art. It's like my love for antiques from different periods, not just 18th century, but also Spanish 17th century, or also Napoleon III, 19th century. I like to choose my favorite pieces from each period and to put all together, but it's very difficult to mix periods and styles, and I think the only tip to give is to educate your eye. I mean, the only thing you can do is to travel, to visit museums, art galleries, antique shops, and educate your eye to the beauty. And what is fun in the studio is that the entrance has a completely different decoration, because the studio is white, and it's more like a lab, but the entrance is totally upholstered with one of my most Baroque decorative fabrics, and it was especially done for Carolina Herrera, because I host a dinner party for her and for the designer, Wes Gordon, when they came to Madrid. So it was like a kind of gift, of a surprise, no? They were really in shock when they saw the entrance with all that tent, handmade, all embroidery, and it was a beautiful gift for that unbelievable night. Well, I'm very lucky, and it's very convenient for my work to have my studio, my private rooms, and also the staterooms that we call the upper floor, all in the same building, no? Because for me, I can take my clients to work, but also sometimes they come to have lunch, or we can do all in the same day. So it's really, really convenient, thanks to the size of this enormous house, no? But downstairs, I have also my warehouse, a warehouse where I keep antique furniture, all the lamps, silver, ceramic, pottery, and everything you need for your decorating projects. I love drawing since I was four, and something that I do is, the way that I show my projects to my clients is always drawing by hand, that is something very natural, very, very fast, but also my best friends, no? They want to, that I draw the invitation for their birthday parties. This, for example, this one that is very Art Deco style for Artauro, or my own invitation for my birthday next week. I'm 55, I'm gonna be 55, I'm gonna turn to 55, and this is the invitation full of flowers, because the dress code is wearing flowers and anything more than flowers. Don't miss another video visit. 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