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REMARKABLE TRANSFORMATION
A FAMILY-FRIENDLY CONDO RENOVATION CREATES A VIBRANTLY COLORED, LUXURIOUS OASIS homeanddesign.net
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When the homeowners of this beachfront condo decided to purchase two separate, contiguous units in the same Admiralty Point building, they knew they’d need the help of an experienced builder to make their dreams of a shared, family-friendly unit a reality. They called on PBS Contractors for their experience working in this uniquely shaped building. “We’re somewhat experts on the building, having done so many renovation projects there,” states Daniel Thuman of PBS Contractors. “There were many tenant separation walls that needed to be refitted to make the two spaces into a single unit. For example, a former kitchen in one unit is now the dining room in the new home. All of the plumbing and electrical had to be removed or relocated to make that happen. But the biggest architectural and construction challenge with this home was the curved exterior walls of the building, which gave the two units a roughly trapezoidal interior shape,” says Thurman. u
Great Room (Previous Spread): With their love of nature, outdoor pursuits, and the Gulf views in their new home, the team’s clients put a priority on vibrant color. “Living with color is a very different experience than living without color,” Interior Designer David Dalton muses about the palette he worked with for the home’s design. “It’s more joyful. My favorite part of this project was the courage our clients showed in embracing the idea of living in a saturated color palette that reflected the outdoors.”
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Kitchen: The kitchen features Ann Sacks tile in a pale icy-blue with a reflective crystalline flecking from Ruben Sorhegui Tile paired with a natural quartzite stone on the counters. A custom-made hood marries the two metal colors in the room — the brass of the hardware and stainless appliances — together in one element. The planning, appliance selection, manufacturing, and installation in this space was a crucial task due to the complexity of the building’s shape and layout. Sitting Room: A bar in walnut veneer, a nod to boat interiors, graces one wall of the sitting room off the kitchen, while another Stark rug — echoing the one in the living room — grounds the furniture. “Normally, I wouldn’t repeat two rugs in the same space,” explains Dalton, “but these two areas bookend the kitchen and work within the same specific color scheme, so it seemed like the right thing to do to repeat the saturated aqua color.”
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Entry: A natural scene greets visitors in the entryway and introduces the home’s color palette of blues and greens. “The Iksel by Schumacher scenic wallpaper happened to fit the colorway we were working in and gives the entry a fun lift,” notes Dalton. Since the entry is open to the living room and dining room, its design had to interact with other finishes in both rooms. Neutral, large-format tile grounds the space.
Kitchen: “The cabinet installation phase is when all the hard work and effort put into the project up to that point starts to come together,” says Thuman. “The time frame we have to work with on projects like this is critical, and cabinetry usually has to be ordered before we have final dimensions for the space. When the cabinetry comes in and all fits together, that’s when we know the rest of the project will be smooth sailing.”
Hall Bathroom: In the second hall bathroom, a wallpaper by Paul Montgomery Studio depicts marsh grasses against a metallic background. “It felt right to bring the grassy marsh area outside the condo into the home somehow, which we did with this wallcovering. We tweaked the color a bit to make the green more vibrant and printed the design on a silver background,” Dalton explains. Another geometric mosaic tile draws attention to the striking wall pattern.
In addition to construction and architectural obstacles, the project faced interesting logistical and design concerns. “Admiralty Point is one of the only buildings that has sound restrictions, like requiring all the main areas of the home, except kitchens, bathrooms, and hallways, to have carpet to keep down noise between the floors,” Thuman adds. Every piece of construction material had to be brought up to the fourth-floor unit either via a three-foot by six-foot elevator, or lifted by a crane. Plus, it all had to be accomplished in a six-month window of time. u
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But the clients knew they had the right team to bring to life their idea of a luxurious hotel-like space that could accommodate up to twenty people at once, especially with the addition of Interior Designer David Dalton — known through a family connection. Dalton helped the clients create a luxurious feel while also keeping surfaces and furnishings extremely practical and functional — a priority for a space that had to be kid-friendly. “Every piece of stained wood is topped with glass, all the table tops are covered, all fabric is performance, we used hard surface tile flooring in high-traffic areas,” Dalton says about his design choices to enhance the condo’s durability. “Plus there’s lots of storage for things like beach and pool equipment and toys for the kids.” Dalton, who is based in Los Angeles, had no qualms about tackling a project on the other side of the country. “We do projects all over the world, and we’re very thorough about preparing sets of documents,” he explains. “They’re comprehensive enough that anyone can construct from them wherever they are without intervention from my office. For example, for this project, we did elevations of every single wall and surface with detailed specifications so PBS Contractors could follow them easily.” The result is a transformation remarkable for its seamless flow, stunning views, practicality, and successful project coordination — a testament to the collaboration between the homeowners, contractors, and design team. n
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Dining Room: The most striking feature of the dining room is the architectural wall panel painted with a coastal scene, a piece commissioned from artist Dominic Dettore. “We didn’t want to necessarily do another scenic landscape here or another large piece of art. There were plenty of walls with art and plenty of landscapes in the home,” explains Dalton. Instead, he chose to utilize the room’s board and batten paneling as a canvas to highlight the home’s color palette. Great Room: “Admiralty Point is an older building. The ceilings are concrete and not flat or level, plus we had the curved exterior to consider. As a result, there was little to no visual point of reference to follow in creating the lines of the interior,” Thuman says. The solution was to create pockets for drapery on the perimeter that are square to the interior, then the team worked backwards to create the ceiling squares from those.
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Primary Bedroom: Mirroring its attached bathroom, the walls of this primary suite boast grasscloth in a soothing green. “The client inherited all the provincial furniture with the unit,” says Dalton. “The pieces were solid and in good shape, so we had them lacquered in a bright white and replated the hardware in an antiqued brass.” The side tables boast alabaster and brass lamps by Visual Comfort, which introduce a seashell texture to the feel of the room. Primary Bathroom: Soothing green grasscloth and a vibrantly patterned Thibaut wallcovering work together to evoke a natural setting in this spa bathroom and continue the blue and green palette of the home. The shower wall is a mixed mother-of-pearl and Thassos marble mosaic, and Thassos again graces the crisp, white floor. More white quartzite on the countertops keeps the focus on the vibrant patterns, and a ceiling inset echoes the coffered design of the great room.
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Hall Bathroom: The custom floor mosaic in the hall bathroom is a combination of cut stone and an emerald glazed ceramic accent tile. The Schumacher wallcovering is made from real lotus leaves, dried and preserved, which were backed in order to be attached to the wall. “Using a vanity with a solid top but open legs is a design trick to allow small bathrooms to feel larger than they are,” says Dalton of the fixture.
Primary Bedroom: The home boasts two primary suites, both with optimal Gulf views and balcony access. The drapery, a client find, serves as the launching point for the room’s jewel tones. “We wanted to make all the bedrooms feel like luxurious hotel suites, with both privacy and a view, so we added window treatments that do double duty with a combination of solar screens and blackout drapery while framing the Gulf visible through the window,” adds Dalton.
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The story of this room begins with patterns in striking, bold colors and motifs. A vivid blue and orange chinoiserie sets the stage for this room’s bedding, accented by an electric tangerine trellis. “It’s fun to work with saturated color, so we created opportunities to feature color in the bedrooms, which is something the clients wanted,” Dalton elaborates, referring to the overall design strategy.
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Guest Bedroom (Above): Insets behind the beds in two guest bedrooms provided the opportunity for feature panels, similar to those in the dining room, and another chance to apply saturated color liberally. In this case, the panel is lined with an S. Harris textile, which Dalton had paperbacked using a laminating process to make it suitable as a wallcovering. A clever combination of natural and geometric patterns in the rest of the fabric adds subtle interest. Guest Bathroom: The same Thassos marble and mother-of-pearl mosaic tile used in one of the home’s primary bathrooms shimmers on the sink wall of this guest bathroom. In the shower, an Ann Sacks iridescent hexagonal tile adds another color story to the home, reflecting green and purple in homage to a beetle’s wings. The floating vanity creates a negative space near the floor that, along with the open-glass shower enclosure, helps make the small space feel larger.
Written by Shawna Hampton Photography by Blaine Johnathan Photography Luxury Home Builder:
Resources:
PBS Contractors 4395 Corporate Square Naples, FL 34104 239.643.6527 www.pbscontractors.com
Ruben Sorhegui Tile 3876 Mercantile Avenue Naples, FL 34104 239.643.2882 www.sorheguitile.com
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