CAPTURING THE NAPLES LIFESTYLE

Local designer Jeff Schreier took inspiration from a dock and boat to create a home that is reflective of his clients.

People design boats and jets to be as comfortable and detailed as a home—it’s usually not the other way around. But when Jeff Schreier met Steve and Cindy, who wanted to remodel their “Tuscan nightmare,” as Jeff calls it, he quickly got to know the couple and what’s important in their lives—two of those things being water and boating. “We are from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes,” Cindy says. “So, water is a big deal from our birthright.” After having the home on the water in Naples, FL, for more than 10 years, the couple realized they’d never brought the water indoors, which was important to them.

Initially, the couple wanted to do a refresh—upgrading the dated design but keeping many of the materials. After spending six weeks on the design, Jeff returned the couple’s retainer. His message was simple: Because of the dated materials and design elements, a refresh was not going to do the home justice. Unless they undertook a complete renovation, it would be a waste of money and time, and no one would be happy with the outcome. After further discussion, Steve refused to accept the retainer and told Jeff to work his magic. And magic he made.

In discussions with the clients, specifically with Cindy, Jeff discovered that the couple’s other homes are designed and filled with high-end furnishings. They wanted this home to be high-end as well, but very different from the others— completely custom. The couple didn’t

Jeff says he initially struggled with the redesign of the kitchen. “And then I had the idea to remove the crank-out windows and put the glass-backed art display in the bar area over those windows,” he says. “So the kitchen actually extended the entire space and created the everyday simplicity the client desired.” want to feel like they were in any other home; they wanted to feel like they were in Naples. Steve also loves blue, so Jeff selected shades of rich, stunning azure that hearkened to the water but didn’t feel like the typical coastal palette. Jeff took the opportunity to transform the home into an interpretation of water, a study in light and dark, and an expression of the Naples luxury boating lifestyle.

Playing With Shadows

Inside, Jeff started by gutting the house, removing a two-sided fireplace that disrupted the flow and openness of the main living areas, and eliminating the heavy shutters that had been on all the windows. Then he spent time in the house, morning and night, studying how the light falls through the windows, even marking the light patterns on the floors and walls. “I would go there in the morning with my coffee and my dog, and I would just sit and understand and study how the light would filter into this house in the morning,” he says. “I’d go back in the evening to understand how the light filtered in then. That became really artistic.” The information he gathered later translated into elements of the surfaces throughout the space. Today, Steve says one of his favorite things is the way the light comes into main living area. “I come downstairs and smile,” he says. “There’s such freshness, lightness and happiness in that space.”

Entering through the front door, you walk up a short flight of stairs to the family room, and you’re immediately met by the back of the large custom-designed sectional. Jeff chose an indoor-outdoor velvet—solid on the sitting areas, while a pattern on the back gives the feeling of waves. It immediately sets the tone for the home.

Derived from Jeff’s light study, two shades of blue repeat throughout the home. “It was a study to understand how the light works on this house that was never intended to be a design element,” he says. “But if you look at all the designs, the kitchen back-painted glass has a split on color where the top is darker, and the bottom is lighter, and the carpets in the living room have a split.” He repeated the same design on the carpets in the primary bedroom and the staircase. “Those splits between the two colors were derived from how the sun filtered into the house day and night. I ended up taking the darker shade to fill in the night shade, and the lighter ones to fill in the day shade. And that design became the pattern in the house.”

Dockside Design

“Steve has this huge, beautiful boat, and he put a lot of mental energy into this amazing dock system, which is attached to the house,” Jeff says. So he took his furniture design cues from the boat and the pier, which has posts with a battened look. Each piece of furniture is custom-designed, and they include luxu -

Because he didn’t want to over-furnish the sleek, modern-styled home, Jeff used the same chair design for the dining room and dinette eating area. “There are eight of them, but we positioned them as three at the dinette and five in the dining room,” he says. “They can be wheeled into the living room, they can be pushed anywhere, and it’s a perfect environment.” rious blue velvet with dark, cerused wood with warm ash-toned wood. Many pieces also feature a unique design element using dark bronzed leather specially molded to follow the grooved wood, creating a battened look like the pier posts. The dining table, for example, features a heavy battened base, and through the glass—or water-like—top, the “posts” protrude in both battened and smooth designs. It is the interior translation of the beloved boat dock. To provide additional flexibility, and at the

Cindy’s request, Jeff designed the top pieces of the “posts” to be separate from the table so they can be removed, rearranged or used in other areas, such as the kitchen island.

The battened design element appears in the dining chairs, custom sofa, side tables and more. Other features that hearken back to the boating lifestyle include the dining and living room light fixtures, which resemble collections of barnacles you might see on a dock, and sea-inspired artwork throughout the home. Jeff worked with Miami artist Alex Turco to commission a backlit reproduction of an egret image by one of the homeowner’s favorite photographers, and used one of his other pieces with jellyfish in the dining room. For a sea turtle sculpture, Jeff designed an angled wall-mounted cabinet with an antiqued blue mirrored top and back, specifically to highlight the homes’ angles and intricate detail of the underside of the sculpture.

In the office, Steve’s desk features a battened base and glass top in a shape that mimics the bow of a boat, and on the wall is a nautical chart of Florida’s western coast. Jeff wanted, once again, to capture the homeowner’s love of boating and create something memorable for the client. He originally thought about designing a bespoke wallcovering on which the homeowner could use tacks and strings to delineate his favorite fishing spots, but Steve ultimately decided he could not punch holes in his beautiful new walls, so Jeff reconceptualized his designs. “This is a map of the entire area, including where his house and favorite fishing spots are,” Jeff says. “I talked with our manufacturers and found one that would produce a very high-quality, beautiful wallpaper that was magnetic.” In the end, however, Steve decided to abandon the magnetic wallpaper concept and go with a metallic finished varnished wallcovering. The end result is a stunning focal point of the room.

The primary bedroom incorporates blue and wood tones. The battened pattern is turned horizontal in the massive bed-toceiling headboard treatment. Italian-made glass slabs with warm silver- and gold-leaf patterns fit between the headboard and custom cabinets, reflecting the soft light of the wall sconces. Jeff suggested eliminating the visual clutter of double doors leading into the bathroom and leaving it open like a suite. The bathroom cabinetry and countertops are the same as those in the kitchen and follow a similar angular contour. The shapely bathtub, with its delicate lines, sits in a niche surrounded by the same glass panels and custom sconces that are in the bedroom. The makeup table chair boasts a design similar to that of the dining chairs; the repetition of patterns and materials again creates a calm serenity that echoes throughout the entire home.

An Entertaining Aspect

Although this home design is incredibly personal, the couple wanted a comfortable and inviting place for entertaining. Jeff reimagined the layout of the kitchen to open what was once a compartmentalized space into one with a unique layout and gracious flow to the adjoining areas. The dark cabinetry recedes, even obfuscating the blue doors. And Jeff’s study of light translated into the angular pattern of dark versus light blue on the glass doors—so much so you might think they’re just reflections, which is precisely what Jeff was going for. The space is so arresting in its simplicity and form that it’s a lovely backdrop for the open floor plan dining and living spaces.

Views from the public areas of the home inspired the exterior treatments. Jeff opted to keep the architectural elements but give the house an updated palette. “I do think there’s such an opportunity with this architecture, and I’m not a fan of always just scraping and starting over,” he says. “I think that’s kind of the easy way out on design. I don’t necessarily like that.” So he whitewashed the terra-cotta tones. To create an interior-exterior connection, he highlighted the architectural features with a dark bronzed caviar color, which repeats in the furnishings inside the home. He also replaced the brick staircase with shell-stone slabs. The existing modern-design iron railings took on a new feel with a coat of white paint. Jeff made it a priority to highlight the water views that are beautifully framed by palm trees; strategically placed lighting on the trees did exactly that.

“With any design project, we insert the clients’ personalities, and in a remodel like this one, it’s especially rewarding because we are able to turn a structure they already love into something even greater,” Jeff says. “That’s what it is: taking the space and turning it into a reflection of the client. There’s an art to that.”

Because the furnishings are all custom throughout the home, they all have a built-in feel, including the bed, bench, nightstands and cabinetry in the primary bedroom. Here, as well as in other areas of the home, power outlets and all the technology gadgets are hidden inside drawers or under cabinets to keep the look clean and clutter-free.

Having a statement bathtub in the primary bathroom was important to Cindy. The original architecture with the angled niche was the perfect attention-getting spot for it, and surrounding it with glass panels in warm metallic tones provides a soothing background.

Resource:

Interior Design - Jeff Schreier - Schreier Interior Custom upholstery, lighting, wallcoverings - Jeff Schreier 26th Tenth Street South Naples, Fl 34102 651.442.6879 schreierinterior.com