Home by the Beach

By Teresa Simon

Photography: Tim Street-Porter; courtesy the architects.

Seamless views, the colour white and illusory experiential design help create a beach-front haven for a passionate couple from Texas…

A retired couple from Texas purchased this existing ocean-front residence as a vacation home to escape the summers. As much as they wanted a ‘beach house’, they also wished to create a sophisticated urban retreat that expressed their love for contemporary art and colour.

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The architect, Jamie Bush, decided to throw open the home to the scenic view of the beach, ushering in the sea breeze and letting the home bask as much in natural sunshine as in the aura of the works of art, the couple cherished and wished to display.

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Stripping the house clean of the hitherto poorly designed interiors with their gloomy ambience and inexpensive finishes, Jamie and his team worked on creating a ‘gallery like’ setting, complete with white neutrals, which would only enhance the expansive views of the ocean. The couple were quite particular about what they wanted: cream and white neutrals with pops of orange, turquoise, green and purple mixed in every room; and what they did not: no natural wood surfaces at all.

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So the material palette was revisited with large cream marble tiles in a running bond pattern for the flooring indoors and stone for the deck and outdoors. On the main floor, all of the furnishings fronting the ocean side of the house were designed in white to blend into the architecture and not interrupt the view; while strategically, bold colours were added to the opposing walls of the kitchen and living room, to grab instantaneous attention and create the illusion of an even larger living area.

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Each room or suite of rooms had a main accent colour to work with: – turquoise for the master bedroom and bath; pink for the girl’s bedroom, green for the guest room and orange for the den.  The idea was to creatively vary the theme in all spaces as they seamlessly flow from one area into another.

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The highlight and main architectural feature of the house is a dramatic 3-story spiral stairwell capped with an oversized skylight that highlights 17 cascading transparent globe-like fixtures. In the evening when the view of the ocean recedes, these lights cast fantastic shadows all along the undulating walls and become the night stars of the show.

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