If your decorative taste runs French, or if Italianate is your style, or even if the American West Coast is your preferred interior milieu, you and designer Gil Walsh of Gil Walsh Interiors may have a lot in common. Which is to say: Walsh is a master at mashing up design elements in a way that allows each piece to have its say. “As if the client has traveled the world,” Walsh explains.
Nowhere is Walsh’s amalgam of looks—what she calls “Santa Barbara style”—more evident than in this elegant Naples home. Situated in prestigious Port Royal, it was built six years ago in the then-popular Mediterranean mode. “The woodwork was beautiful, but dark and heavy,” Walsh says of the home’s before look. “There were heavy brick vaulted ceilings in the kitchen, and much use of iron in the balustrades,” she recalls. “It was a mannish house, which we wanted to soften.”
Walsh was already familiar with the homeowners’ tastes after previously partnering with them on the design of a home in Pennsylvania. Working off that experience, Walsh filled their 10,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath Florida home with celadon greens, soft blues, and gentle peach hues, merging textures, patterns (and, seemingly, continents) into a home full of comfort and warmth.
Through double entry doors, the home’s soaring, circular foyer is ringed with stained oak and Colombian ironwork that coils upward to a vaulted cupola ceiling. A three-tiered custom chandelier lights the space below. Walsh says that despite the perceived weight of the materials, the wrought iron balconies take on an ephemeral feel when paired with her more delicate, spring-like palette.
A large part of the home’s grandeur comes in the form of the paintings—murals and framed artwork—of Bob Christian. Found in the dining room, the master bedroom and its adjoining bath, the powder room, and the gallery, Christian’s work ties the home’s former Mediterranean theme to a sunny Neapolitan lifestyle.
The master bedroom’s walls are finished in a blue Venetian plaster adorned with a pale tree-of-life pattern created by Christian, striking the careful balance between heavy and light that is Walsh’s signature. “The same balance is important in the juxtaposition of the draperies’ small designs and the larger ones of rugs and pillows,” she says. For some designers, placing a French Country bed next to a white Chippendale desk chair, or topping faux marble bedside tables with washed pine lamps might be unorthodox. For Walsh, they’re the very interactions that enliven a room.
With the master suite and one guest bedroom downstairs and three additional guest suites upstairs, the homeowners wanted a respite from entertaining when guests are visiting. Walsh gave them just the spot in a private sitting room. Adjoining the master bedroom, it offers views across the pool and toward an inland waterway and a nature preserve beyond.
Whether relaxing by the pool, playing billiards in the game room, dining alfresco on the veranda, or gazing at nature from the expansive balconies, this former “heavy” house now offers ethereal pleasures warmed by the light of Naples sunshine.
Story Credits:
Interior Design by Gil Walsh with Lauryl Guse and Michelle Scott, Gil Walsh Interiors, West Palm Beach, FL
Text by Marina Brown
Photography by Jerry Rabinowitz, Greenacres, FL
Open to see Interior Design Sources:
Sources
Living Room
White sofa – Alfonso Marina, B. Peterson, Design Institute, West Palm Beach, FL
Fabric – F. Schumacher & Co., DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Green sofa – Dennis & Leen, Jerry Pair, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Fabric – Lee Jofa, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Blue club chairs – Jan Showers, Dallas, TX
Fabric – Designers Guild, Ammon Hickson, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Blue armchairs – William Switzer, City of Industry, CA
Fabric – Fatto A Mano, B. Peterson, Design Institute, West Palm Beach, FL
Nesting table and round tables – Theodore Alexander, theodorealexander.com
Decorative table – Dennis & Leen, Jerry Pair, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Square side tables – J. Alexander, Los Angeles, CA
Marble round side tables – Rose Tarlow, Jerry Pair, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Gold drink tables – Made Goods, City of Industry, CA
Chandelier – Wired Custom Lighting, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Area rug – Patterson Flynn Martin, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Dining Room
Table and chairs – Jerry Pair, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Chair fabric – Fortuny, B. Peterson, Design Institute, West Palm Beach, FL
Chandelier – Artemest, Milan, Italy
Candle holders – Vintage, Mary Mahoney, Palm Beach, FL
Powder Room
Counter designed by Gil Walsh Interiors, West Palm Beach, FL
Vessel sink – Kohler, Wool Supply of Tampa, Tampa, FL
Mirror – Ambella Home Collection, Dallas, TX
Flower sconce – Visual Comfort, Houston, TX
Master Bedroom
Bed designed by Gil Walsh Interiors, West Palm Beach, FL
Fabricated by Rose Tarlow, Jerry Pair, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Side tables – Niermann Weeks, Michael Taylor Designs, Downey, CA
Decorative stool at foot of bed – Oomph, Greenwich, CT
Fabric – Manuel Canovas, Cowtan & Tout, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Desk – J. Alexander, Los Angeles, CA
Desk chair – Hickory Chair, Hickory, NC
Chandelier – Julie Neill Designs, New Orleans, LA
Drapery fabric – Manuel Canovas, Cowtan & Tout, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Area rug – Stark Carpet, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Master Bedroom Seating Vignette
Sofa – Lee Jofa Furniture, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Side chair – William Switzer, J. Nelson, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Cocktail table – Century, Hickory, NC
Demilune console table and mirror – Vintage, James & Jeffrey Antiques, West Palm Beach, FL
Floor lamp – Galerie des Lampes, John Rosselli & Associates, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Master Bedroom Living Area
Sofa – Alfonso Marina, B. Peterson, Design Institute, West Palm Beach, FL
Club chairs – Kravet Furniture, kravet.com
Cocktail table – Woodland Furniture, Idaho Falls, ID
Area rug – Patterson Flynn Martin, DCOTA, Dania Beach, FL
Back Exterior
Lounge and seating – Formations, Jerry Pair, SFDP, Hollywood, FL
Side table – Client’s Collection
Throughout
Decorative and wall concepts designed by Gil Walsh Interiors, West Palm Beach, FL
Decorative painting by Bob Christian Artistic Design, Savannah, GA
Wall surfaces created and fabricated by Dimensions
International, West Palm Beach, FL in collaboration with O’Guin Decorative Finishes, Naples, FL
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