PhpStorm won't open my laravel project

It's not the first time it happens - After generating a new laravel project using laravel new siteName and trying to Open Folder in PhpStorm, I get this blank screen -

I've been trying to understand some of the idea.log's last lines but it didn't really give me any clue.. I'll add them here so maybe can figure this bug out.

2018-03-04 12:01:30,621 [  54349]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - PhpStorm 2017.3  Build #PS-173.3727.138 
2018-03-04 12:01:30,621 [  54349]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - JDK: 1.8.0_152-release 

2018-03-04 12:01:30,621 [  54349]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 
2018-03-04 12:01:30,621 [  54349]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - Vendor: JetBrains s.r.o 
2018-03-04 12:01:30,621 [  54349]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - OS: Mac OS X 
2018-03-04 12:01:30,621 [  54349]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - Last Action: OpenDirectoryProject 
2018-03-04 12:02:05,662 [  89390]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - null 
java.security.PrivilegedActionException: java.security.PrivilegedActionException: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /Users/chavez/genlp/.idea
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:80)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:734)
    at com.intellij.ide.IdeEventQueue.c(IdeEventQueue.java:822)
    at com.intellij.ide.IdeEventQueue._dispatchEvent(IdeEventQueue.java:650)
    at com.intellij.ide.IdeEventQueue.dispatchEvent(IdeEventQueue.java:366)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)
Caused by: java.security.PrivilegedActionException: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /Users/chavez/genlp/.idea
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:80)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:90)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:737)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:735)
    ... 12 more
Caused by: java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /Users/chavez/genlp/.idea
    at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.translateToIOException(UnixException.java:84)
    at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:102)
    at sun.nio.fs.UnixException.rethrowAsIOException(UnixException.java:107)
    at sun.nio.fs.UnixFileSystemProvider.createDirectory(UnixFileSystemProvider.java:384)
    at java.nio.file.Files.createDirectory(Files.java:674)
    at com.intellij.util.io.PathKt.doCreateDirectories(path.kt:31)
    at com.intellij.util.io.PathKt.createDirectories(path.kt:20)
    at com.intellij.platform.PlatformProjectOpenProcessor.doOpenProject(PlatformProjectOpenProcessor.java:232)
    at com.intellij.platform.PlatformProjectOpenProcessor.doOpenProject(PlatformProjectOpenProcessor.java:104)
    at com.intellij.platform.OpenDirectoryProjectAction.a(OpenDirectoryProjectAction.java:39)
    at com.intellij.ui.mac.MacPathChooserDialog.choose(MacPathChooserDialog.java:174)
    at com.intellij.openapi.fileChooser.FileChooser.chooseFiles(FileChooser.java:114)
    at com.intellij.openapi.fileChooser.FileChooser.chooseFiles(FileChooser.java:91)
    at com.intellij.platform.OpenDirectoryProjectAction.actionPerformed(OpenDirectoryProjectAction.java:39)
    at com.intellij.openapi.actionSystem.ex.ActionUtil$1.run(ActionUtil.java:220)
    at com.intellij.openapi.actionSystem.ex.ActionUtil.performActionDumbAware(ActionUtil.java:237)
    at com.intellij.openapi.actionSystem.impl.ActionMenuItem$ActionTransmitter.a(ActionMenuItem.java:321)
    at com.intellij.openapi.wm.impl.FocusManagerImpl.runOnOwnContext(FocusManagerImpl.java:911)
    at com.intellij.openapi.wm.impl.IdeFocusManagerImpl.runOnOwnContext(IdeFocusManagerImpl.java:136)
    at com.intellij.openapi.actionSystem.impl.ActionMenuItem$ActionTransmitter.actionPerformed(ActionMenuItem.java:311)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2022)
    at com.intellij.openapi.actionSystem.impl.ActionMenuItem.a(ActionMenuItem.java:130)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.TransactionGuardImpl.a(TransactionGuardImpl.java:88)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.TransactionGuardImpl.a(TransactionGuardImpl.java:111)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.TransactionGuardImpl.submitTransaction(TransactionGuardImpl.java:120)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.TransactionGuard.submitTransaction(TransactionGuard.java:122)
    at com.intellij.openapi.actionSystem.impl.ActionMenuItem.fireActionPerformed(ActionMenuItem.java:130)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2348)
    at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402)
    at javax.swing.JToggleButton$ToggleButtonModel.setPressed(JToggleButton.java:308)
    at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:376)
    at com.apple.laf.ScreenMenuItemCheckbox.itemStateChanged(ScreenMenuItemCheckbox.java:193)
    at java.awt.CheckboxMenuItem.processItemEvent(CheckboxMenuItem.java:389)
    at java.awt.CheckboxMenuItem.processEvent(CheckboxMenuItem.java:357)
    at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEventImpl(MenuComponent.java:355)
    at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEvent(MenuComponent.java:343)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:767)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:98)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:715)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)
    ... 17 more
2018-03-04 12:02:05,663 [  89391]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - PhpStorm 2017.3  Build #PS-173.3727.138 
2018-03-04 12:02:05,663 [  89391]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - JDK: 1.8.0_152-release 
2018-03-04 12:02:05,663 [  89391]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 
2018-03-04 12:02:05,663 [  89391]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - Vendor: JetBrains s.r.o 
2018-03-04 12:02:05,664 [  89392]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - OS: Mac OS X 
2018-03-04 12:02:05,664 [  89392]  ERROR - llij.ide.plugins.PluginManager - Last Action: OpenDirectoryProject 
2018-03-04 12:03:37,228 [ 180956]   INFO - .script.IdeScriptEngineManager - javax.script.ScriptEngineManager initialized in 37 ms

Solution

Judging by the error log, I'd guess there is a file permissions issue.

java.nio.file.AccessDeniedException: /Users/chavez/genlp/.idea

Check the parent directories of /Users/chavez/genlp/.idea for proper read and write permissions.