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Home of the Month: A Stunning Presence

At once coastal-contemporary, transitional and British West Indies, this Old Naples home reflects remarkable design both inside and out.

BY November 26, 2018

Let me ask you a question: Is this home coastal-contemporary, transitional or British West Indies? They answer is an unequivocal yes. It is each and every one of them—beautifully.

This wonderful two-story Old Naples home, designed by Greg Weber of South Florida Design and built by Big Island Builders, has presence inside and out. And in that neighborhood, presence matters. The four-bedroom, six-bathroom (four full, two half), 4,747-square-foot home was designed for entertaining, and, though it sits on a fairly small lot, it takes full advantage of its southern exposure.

“The lots in Old Naples are sometimes on the skinny side, so what you try to do is put thought into how we get a view of the pool from the master, get good natural light, and get the garage on the alley but also be connected to the house,” says Jay Bowerman of Big Island Builders.

Mission accomplished. The home fires on all cylinders.

With 12-foot ceilings and some coffered insets soaring to 14 feet, the space is grand, yet proportionally appropriate. The design was well-thought-out. For example, one of the challenges of two-story homes is that you want the residence to have a really impressive foyer, but you also want to capture the square footage above if possible. And this home has a unique feature in that it has a great vaulted ceiling with tongue-and-groove paneling and beams in the foyer, and yet above it there’s a raised library/loft, where you step up into a fully functional space. It’s like having your cake and eating it, too. Or perhaps a drink, as the home contains a wine room under the stairs that features a travertine wall up to a church ceiling.

And when we talk about proportions, you need only step into the kitchen to realize size matters. The cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling. Again, that’s a 12-foot ceiling. If you need to reach those top shelves (which are behind glass doors that look almost like clerestory), there’s a ladder hidden in the pantry. That pantry is also hidden—built into the cabinetry between the kitchen and dining room. Wide-plank European oak flooring from Legno Bastone flows seamlessly from room to room.

But it’s how the home allows the outside to feel a part of the inside that makes the effort of placement for that southern exposure even more important. With corner pocket doors fully retracted, the great room opens onto a gorgeous outdoor living space with vaulted cypress ceilings (straight from the West Indies), a fireplace, and views of the pool and spa. The area also spills into the outdoor kitchen and dining area, which resides under more warm cypress.

The pool features a 360-degree spillover spa. “And when we designed the steps going into the pool, the second step we created a bench,” Bowerman says. “We realized the second step is the perfect height for sitting in the water—the water comes up to chest level. We wrapped it like a horseshoe so you can have two or three people on both sides just sitting and cooling off in the water.”

The home seems to check off a lot of boxes. And style is just one of them.

 

BUILDER: Big Island Builders

ARCHITECT: South Florida Design

 

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