A guest's entry via car into Vizcaya would take them through the
Entry Loggia and then into the Entry hall, seen in green on the floor plan below.
Chalfin decorated the space in strict Neoclassical style, as if the renaissance house had been renovated in the 18th century.
Wallpaper panels from Joseph Dufour, Paris painted in 1814 decorate the walls and elaborate plaster moldings echo the marble floors.
The space is small but makes QUITE the impression!
The delicate plaster work on the ceiling is like icing on the cake, literally!
Off to the sides of the window are seperate lady and gentleman's cloak and powder rooms.
This mixing of styles and the light color palette here is perfect for the Florida climate.
I loved these little mirrored sconces!
The painted finishes throughout are just phenomenal. On the opposite side of the reception room, seen above in blue- is the North hall and telephone booth.
The north hall has elaborate rusticated walls of local Florida limestone meant to look like Italian stonework.
A little telephone room also decorated in 18th century style seems like the height of luxury to me -especially in 1918!
Up next, the library and reception rooms!
Just beyond the Loggia from the living room is the small Music room, which acts as an anteroom to the Dining room; an impressive march from pre-dinner cocktails to the meal itself sure to impress the guests!
Continuing the total mix of styles, the music room is a cozy little room straight out of a Venetian palazzo from the mid 18th century, pure frivolity and mood.
The designer, Chalfin, was said of this mood "Some one seems to lurk here, wearing old creamy satin, looking into dim mirrors at strings of pearls and corals upon a narrow and corseted bosom, ready with facile musical sighs" A tad dramatic maybe but very evocative; it is after all a very dramatic space.
The walls are paneled with scenes painted on canvas and surrounded with gilded wood moldings, seashells, coral and 18th century Venetian blown glass flowers. 
Contemporary furnishings of the time period join a host of antiques including an Adam harp, a 17th century Italian spinet and a gilded Italian zither giving the music room its name. 
The 18th century Venetian chandelier adds some more frivolity to the space; talk about letting them eat cake! 
After the beautiful fluff of the music room, one moves into the rational of the Renaissance once again in the dining room,or as Chalfin liked to call it, the banquet hall. 
The decor dates to the mid 16th century and features Flemish tapestries from that time period, among the great treasures of the estate. Marble floors in the music room give way to staid Floridian terrazzo (admittedly still marble, but a different variation). 
Scavenged Roman columns again hold torchieres as in the Living room; I like the continuity.
The ceiling is a copy from the Palazzo Gonzaga in Mantua but the furniture is authentic; ranging from the 15th thru 17th centuries, much of it originating from monasteries.
While certainly impressive, it's not a very cozy or welcoming room and was rarely used. Rather, Deering preferred to eat al fesco in the courtyard or on the terrace.
The largest room at Vizcaya is the Living Room - 25' wide and 50' long with ceilings which soar to 20 feet high. This is nearly a double-cube which follows the Renaissance rules of porportioning. The ceilings again are imported from a 16th century Venetian Palazzo but are modified to fit the room. 
Chalfin decorated the room in French Renaissance style, perhaps not the most cozy of styles to select but appropriate for the collections.Originally the room also housed more 'modern' couches for comfort and was not as museum-like as it appears today. 
The tapestry decorates plain plaster walls and dates from the mid 16th century from Ferrara and depicts the labors of Hercules.
The fence you see helps to protect a valuable heraldic rug woven in the 15th century for the grandfather of King Ferdinand of Spain, an Admiral in the Spanish navy. The flooring underneath is dark terrazzo which is appropriate for the seaside setting.
The figural top is actually not original but was created by Chalfin's design staff as a sort of finial to complement the chimneypiece.
After leaving the living room one passes through the East Loggia which faces the bay, opposite the courtyard from the 
The highlight of the space is a 5' long model of a Spanish caravel. Imagine this ship swaying in the bayside breezes when the loggia was open.
The loggia was originally treated as the outdoor living room and was furnished with comfortable wicker furniture with brightly colored cushions. As it had one of the best views of Biscayne Bay in the house, it's not hard to imagine guests spending the majority of their time here.
"I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being — to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame." Acceptance speech for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993.
Good bye to a one of a kind beauty and phenomenal actress.
Chalfin abandoned the strict neoclassicism of the 
The wallcoverings, now reproductions from 1966, were originally embroidered Italian silk from the 18th century and appropriately featured palm trees with flying birds and butterflies.
Notice the bust of Marie Antoinette on the 18th century French marble mantelpiece.
The chandelier is not original. Instead a more fanciful Venetian one was in its place, see the image below.
The library, seen on the plan above in blue, also switches the French neoclassicism of the 
Even the colors used throughout denote English coziness: warm yellows and oranges with rich mahogany rather than austere marble finishes.
The side chairs reportedly belonged to Maria Pauline Borghese, although Chalfin was never interested in the history of any item but merely the way it looked and the feeling it would lend to a room.
The grand Sheraton bookcase hides a door into the reception room. These chandeliers and red shades are original to the room.
Deering's desk was purchased in Paris just shy of WWI and was originally an 18th century shop counter. Chalfin painted and applied Empire decorations to better fit in with the room.
The floor plan and historic photo of the Reception room come from the book 
Posts
.JPG)
