Views upon spectacular views. It’s what immediately sold a Dallas family on this ample waterfront residence in Naples’ Port Royal neighborhood, where dolphins frolic in the surf and there’s always a steady parade of boats. “The first thing you see when you walk in is this huge bay window that looks out over the water,” designer Kara Adam describes. “It’s a ‘wow’ moment.”
The Florida property would serve as a vacation home for the owners, longtime clients of Adam. Here, she wanted to honor their traditional style while creating a coastal haven prime for entertaining and relaxing. Doing so would require an extensive remodel, for which the designer collaborated with architect Jon Kukk and general contractor Joe Beauchamp.
As expected, those covetable bay window views drove many of the team’s decisions. To emphasize the sight line to the outdoors from the entry, for instance, they dramatically opened up the foyer by transforming the walls into graceful columns. But the most noticeable change took place on the lower level, which offered three living areas. Catering to the homeowners’ love for entertaining in a more functional way, the group carved out a wine room, lanai, and chic bar with a dramatic backsplash made of water-jet-cut blue-and-white marble. “It’s fully transformative,” Kukk says of the space. “We took a house that didn’t have a covered living area outside and created a usable indoor-outdoor retreat.” Further, new floor-to- ceiling glass doors fully open, allowing gatherings to spill onto the back grounds.
There, landscape architect Scott Windham lowered the waterline’s privacy hedges and added a splash of color using a purple bougainvillea that runs across a perimeter fence. “Although there’s interest,” he says, “it is meant to be a calm and cohesive area—much like the interior spaces.” The pool was also resurfaced with a glimmering gray-blue glass mosaic tile, and the structure’s exterior received a facelift with a coat of creamy-white paint, a taupe roof and Bahamian-style shutters.
This breezy scenery inspired Adam’s selections for the interiors. “We wanted to keep everything quiet and let the views shout,” she says. So the designer chose fabrics in natural tones, including cream-colored sofas and armchairs, pillows in varying prints, and off-white linen draperies with a blue trim. “I consider blue a neutral,” she explains, “so we used a lot of it, because blue blends with everything.” Clean-lined furnishings maintain the owners’ desired classic feel, and light wood accents impart a sense of airiness. Still, Adam thoughtfully welcomed occasional opportunities for lively patterns through wallcoverings, such as a blue floral print adorning a guest bathroom. She appointed the most dynamic motif for a chic statement in the kitchen: Amid the white cabinetry, the designer designated a backsplash using a glass-covered de Gournay wallpaper depicting colorful birds and fauna. “Because the kitchen is muted, this was a way to add some drama to the space,” she observes. “It becomes another ‘window’ to the outdoors.”
Other whimsical moments are sprinkled throughout the home from the couple’s prominent art collection, curated by advisor Lynsey Provost. An energetic pink painting by Günther Förg takes center stage in the family room, and a green arboreal scene by Harold Ancart is a commanding presence in the great room. The staircase, meanwhile, is illuminated by the neon tubes of the bold Mary Weatherford piece the owners pass while en route to their suite, an expansive oasis worthy of respite. In their bedroom, twin oversize club chairs face the water to encourage lingering with coffee, while another seating area near the fireplace is perfect for cuddling up. The room also leads to the husband’s and wife’s separate offices, each with its own distinct vibe. Hers is adorned with a feminine, pink-lacquered desk and geometric wallpaper, and his is sharply dressed in dark blue grass cloth and fixed with French doors that lead to a private patio.
Despite the home’s voluminous size and many gathering spaces, it maintains an intimate, inviting sensibility. “We’ve created all these different moments, but it still has a cozy feel,” Adam describes. “It’s a serene coastal retreat, yet it’s playful and fun, with touches of whimsy at every turn.”
