A Southwest Florida Home Undergoes An Artful, Layered Renovation

Designer Robin Rains returned to a Southwest Florida home she had furnished 22 years ago and encountered a heartbreaking scene: Hurricane Ian had flooded the house, causing substantial damage. The owners wanted everything restored as before, but Rains—seeing an opportunity to update the early-2000s structure—gently coaxed them toward a contemporary renovation.

“The interior and exterior had a formal design,” she recalls, describing an open plan accented with columns and moldings. Rains envisioned sophisticated, layered spaces suited for entertaining, playing with grandchildren and aging in place, featuring focal points and intimate gathering areas.

Having completed nearly a dozen projects with the owners, the designer had garnered their deep trust—enough so that the clients left the direction of the abode in the hands of Rains and designer Jenna Crosbie Miller. With fresh eyes, the duo planned a look that is finely tailored and expertly curated. “We wanted the home to have character—a past, present and future,” Rains muses. With builder Laura Marzucco, they executed updates such as removing square columns, adding arches, simplifying ornate fireplaces, inserting wood beams and varying ceiling heights. Key to the refresh was a Marmorino plaster wall coating that envelops the rooms. “Unlike Venetian plaster, which has a high sheen, this one has a silk finish,” Marzucco explains. “It leaves the plaster in a more raw state.” Underfoot, the original creamy travertine floors were lovingly restored. “Before the first piece of furniture went in,” Rains says, “the house had a story.”

A significant gesture came from kitchen and bathroom designer Richard T. Anuszkiewicz, who proposed relocating the kitchen to the former den for improved circulation and ocean views. Now oriented toward the back grounds—significantly transformed with a new pool and ocean sight lines—the cook space boasts marble countertops, rift-cut German oak cabinetry, a plaster hood and immense storage. “All the forms are clean and monolithic with earthy materials,” observes Anuszkiewicz, who completed the work while at Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath Studio and has since launched Raith Design.

The seaside setting influenced the hard surfaces, which lean natural and weathered, rather than maritime or tropical. For instance, the breakfast bar’s onyx backsplash exhibits charcoals, grays and browns, while the textured marble countertop “is reminiscent of a beautiful, tumbled stone you’d find on the beach,” Anuszkiewicz reflects.

This framework establishes a quiet, tonal scheme of beige, alabaster and chocolate, with select blues and greens for a mélange of furnishings. “We wanted an organic, collected look—a mixture of antiques with modern pieces,” Rains says, noting primitive, burl wood, midcentury and artisanal items from destinations like France, Los Angeles and Nashville. “It’s not so much a style we were after but, rather, a feeling: an inspiring, well-lived home.” Their acquisitions resulted in compositions with unconventional shapes, such as an entertaining area with a round games table, rectangular settee and hide rug. “It’s not just a sofa and a pair of chairs,” Rains observes. “Some spaces, like this one, are more eclectically arranged for interest.”

Equally integral was the clients’ art collection, which blends new and vintage works, including black-and-white photography, abstract pieces and sculptures. A painting from the previous dining room now anchors the family room—and inspired a muted olive bouclé sectional—while above the living area fireplace, the designers commissioned plaster artwork that mimics a textile. “It looks like fabric moving,” Crosbie Miller describes. “We wanted it to be unexpected.”

The dining room art plays into the space’s monochromatic concept, including the geometric flooring. Similarly, the revamped primary bathroom displays a playful tile of curved lines in caramel and espresso. “It spoke to the idea of waves outside,” Anuszkiewicz explains. Continuing the rhythmic feel, the team curved a plaster wall around the oval tub, subtly echoing the shapes in the floor.

In the end, what began as devastation became a chance to reimagine a cherished abode. “This story is about rising up from the floodwaters,” Crosbie Miller says. “When you walk into the home, you feel engulfed in comfort,” Rains adds, reflecting on the tangible rebirth. “There is a magical, inspiring warmth.”