Bursts of Yellow and Indoor Gardens Are Just Two Reasons to Love This Home

Architect José Roberto Paredes’s signature structures connect people with their environments. For a seaside house at the northern end of El Salvador’s coast, the same holds true. Tasked with creating a simple, elegant retreat with a mix of aesthetic details, Paredes divided the 4,000-square-foot house into "islands of activity." He left the main living space—which has zones for cooking, dining, and lounging—open to the elements, an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean on one side, and a swimming pool on the other. Since his clients love to make meals together, Paredes placed the kitchen in the center of the room and outfitted it with a custom yellow hood and a prismatic wood sliding wall by the San Salvador–based designers Claudia & Harry Washington. Paredes interspersed interior gardens by the local firm Organika to further integrate the house into the surrounding landscape. "A home should not be invented entirely by one person," Paredes says. "It should be a collection of thoughts and experiences. Collaborating with different designers and artists is the perfect way to create this eclectic feeling."