CARLO Design designs each home around the taste, daily routines and belongings of the people who live in it. There is no CARLO Design house style that every client receives. That is why our projects look so different from one another: a Berlin apartment in midnight blue, rust and gold, two joined apartments in pastel colours, a loft in Palma with lime-washed walls and marès stone.

Some studios have a signature look you can recognise in any photograph. That is a deliberate choice, and if that look is what you are after, they are a good fit. With us, the style comes from the client. Architect Charlotte Wiessner founded CARLO Design in Berlin in 2015. Today we work from studios in Berlin and Palma de Mallorca and have completed more than 40 projects. This page explains how we find out what you like, what happens to the things you already own, and where we still speak up with our own view.

How we find out what you like

Every project starts with the Project Check. After a short exchange we come to your home. If you are not there yet, we talk online first. We do not bring a presentation. Most of the visit is spent walking through the rooms with you and listening.

We ask more about how you live than about style labels. How many people live here, and for how long? What does not work day to day? Which rooms do you hardly use, and why? How should the place feel when you come home in the evening? The design grows out of those answers. Pictures of rooms you like help as well, because they let us talk about taste even when the words are missing.

Most people also know very precisely what they dislike, and that is just as useful to us. Our guide to the first meeting with your architect explains how to prepare for this visit.

Stephanie M., whose review belongs to the A Japanese Penthouse project, wrote: “After speaking with them, I knew I didn’t need to look elsewhere.”

What happens to furniture, art and heirlooms you already own

When we furnish a home, the first question is what should stay. Heirlooms, vintage furniture and paintings you are attached to are part of the plan from the start, and they are often exactly the pieces that give a room its character. We put them into the furniture plan, have them restored or reupholstered where needed, and choose the new pieces to go with them. Our page on interior furnishing in Berlin has more detail.

Les Beaux Pastels in Prenzlauer Berg is a good example. The owner came with three inclinations: French vintage furniture, delicate colour schemes and a strong passion for music. Two separate apartments at Kollwitzplatz became one, and each room got its own pastel, a soft yellow, a powdery pink, a celadon green. A piano now shares the living room with a tufted green chair, and a guitar leans next to French vintage pieces. The review for this project, by Aline von D., reads: “They quickly grasped my taste, found the perfect products and arranged appointments.”

Why our projects look so different from each other

When every project starts from the people who will live in it, every project ends up looking different. Six examples from our portfolio:

  • Chez Michael, Berlin: a city apartment in midnight blue, rust and gold, with velvet on the sofa and the bed, monkeys on the bathroom wallpaper and a jungle of tigers and flamingos on the hallway bench. The name is French for “at Michael’s”.
  • Les Beaux Pastels, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg: two joined apartments, each room in its own pastel, with French vintage furniture and a piano.
  • A Japanese Penthouse, Berlin: the starting point was an aesthetic built on Japanese principles, with noble reduction, silk and paper, woodwork and ikebana. It turned into bespoke oak, a forest mural and a backlit round mirror in the main bathroom.
  • Arabic Loft, Palma: ceilings of almost five metres, lime-washed walls, marès stone, hand-glazed ceramics and oiled wood. The client wanted rooms that feel open and calm and suit the Mediterranean way of life.
  • An Earthy Cottage, Brandenburg: a former barn in the forest, now a cottage with wooden beams, woven textures and mint-green cabinetry that serves a family and also works as a rental retreat.
  • A Splash of Colour, Berlin: saturated jade green, velvet and modular Italian seating against pale natural stone.

Colours, materials and mood change from one project to the next. What connects them is the subject of the next section.

Where we bring our own view

You set the direction, and we still have opinions. Our studio page describes it like this: we have a handwriting, a way of choosing materials, composing rooms and treating detail, but the sentence we write with it is yours. In practice, we speak up in these areas:

  • Proportions and existing buildings. Most of our work is in existing buildings, in Berlin Altbau apartments and in Mallorcan houses. High ceilings, double doors, enfilades and herringbone parquet, for example, do not suit cabinets that stop halfway up the wall. We tell you things like this before anything is built.
  • Materials that age well. We recommend materials that take on patina and grow more beautiful over the years. Our article on materials that age beautifully explains why.
  • Technical limits and permits. If a wish runs into a load-bearing wall, a regulation or the budget, we say so as early as we can, even when the answer is unwelcome. In Berlin we handle the building application ourselves, and on Mallorca we work with a locally registered architect. We also produce full construction drawings, down to where the sockets sit and how two materials meet, so those decisions are not left to whoever happens to be on site.
  • An honest opinion when you ask. If you want to know what we would do in your place, you get a clear answer. The decision stays with you.

Charlotte Wiessner studied at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where architecture, interior design and art are treated as one discipline. That is why architects and interior designers at CARLO Design work on each project as one team, from the first sketch to the moment the last chair is placed. Michael R. wrote in his review of Chez Michael: “They gave us excellent advice and ensured smooth implementation with their craftsmen.”

What this means for the process

Our process has the same five phases in Berlin and on Mallorca: getting to know you and visiting the property, concept and design, detailed planning, realisation with construction management, and handover and styling. You notice that we start from your taste mostly in the first two.

After the Project Check you receive a design direction, a cost estimate and a timeline before you decide whether to work with us. The concept then sets out the layout, materials, colours and first visualisations. A moodboard is a proposal. We show it to you, you tell us what works and what does not, and we revise it until you can picture your daily life in it. We bring fabric and wood samples to your home so you see them in the light of your own rooms. Anything that does not suit, we swap, as long as nothing has been ordered.

This takes time, and we are happy to take it. A Japanese Penthouse involved eighteen months of close collaboration, material research and craft. How each phase works in detail is described in How an interior design project works.

FAQ

Does CARLO Design have its own style?

CARLO Design has no fixed look that every project receives. What stays the same is the way we work: a feel for materials and craft, carefully drawn details and materials that grow more beautiful with age. Colours, shapes and mood come from the taste and daily life of the people who live there. That is why a midnight blue apartment like Chez Michael looks nothing like the pastel rooms of Les Beaux Pastels.

Can I keep my own furniture?

Yes. At the start we agree on what should stay, and heirlooms, vintage furniture and paintings you are attached to are part of the plan from day one. We include them in the furniture plan, have them restored or reupholstered if needed and choose the new pieces to suit them. These are often the pieces that give a room its character.

What if I don’t know which style I like?

We hear this in almost every first meeting, and it is not a problem. Nearly everyone knows exactly what they dislike, and that gives us something to work with. A few sentences about your daily life and some pictures of rooms you like usually point to a direction. From there we put together proposals for you to choose between.

Does CARLO Design work the same way in Berlin and on Mallorca?

The process is the same in both places, with five phases from the first visit to handover, and every project draws on the whole team in both studios. On Mallorca we work with local craftspeople, regional materials and the island’s light and climate. Most of our clients there live abroad, so we coordinate remotely and are on site every week during construction.

What happens if I don’t like a design?

Then we change it. A concept or moodboard is a proposal: you tell us what works and what does not, and we revise it until you can picture your daily life in it. When we furnish, we swap pieces as long as nothing has been ordered yet.

Your next step

Tell us in a few sentences about your home and how you would like to live in it. Pictures of rooms you like are welcome. We will come back to you with a date for the Project Check.

To see how different our projects look, browse the overview of all projects.