Jupiter Home Reimagines Waterfront Living

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When interior designer Allison Paladino and Zita Rudd initially saw the sprawling house their clients had purchased, they were both excited and, well — very excited! “Although the thick ceiling beams and heavy columns would have to go, and it would take a complete renovation, the architecture was all there,” Paladino says. And with the complete trust and participation of the owners, the design team set out to transform the dated house into an organically tactile sanctum where “outside” and “in” would become merely illusory.

Facing Admiral’s Cove, an inlet off the Intercoastal Waterway near Jupiter, the house was initially 8,500 square feet. But immediately, Paladino and Rudd began moving ceilings and walls. A two-story library was now transformed into a master office, an upstairs media room and a guest room. Soon they had reconfigured the home — actually adding 1,500 square feet of living space without an addition to the house.

As if pulling colors from a sunset and the sea, the great room stretches across the width of the pool and sprawling loggia. In rectangles and squares, color blocks and panels of warm walnut tie living spaces together and define their perimeters. Overhead, the designers introduce what became a unifying theme throughout — the expansive use of warm walnut. Backlit by soft LED illumination, the overhead panel glows as it defines the great room.

The kitchen surfaces subtly repeat a watery motif which Paladino incorporated into the pillows’ pattern, a resin side table, and the quartzite grain of the kitchen island. A draped wave of pendant lighting by Ochre repeats the motion.

With the owner’s purchase of “the perfect painting,” the dining room’s brightly colored chairs seem to sing. Arranged around Hellman Chang’s table, and beneath a classic chandelier from Luxe Lighting, the polished chrome and crystal sets the dining alcove asparkle. A single wall of limestone tiles ties the room to the entry beyond.

It is in the entry that the drama occurs. “It took one month to create this complicated stairway,” Paladino says. Known for her signature chests and tables made of stacked wood, she decided that the massive space could use a “piece of sculpture,” and it would be her interpretation in wood, more than doubling the size of the original stairway. Escher-like, the treads rise up beneath the 20-foot-high ceiling where Paladino’s custom “Rain” chandelier cascades through thin air. The smooth metal of a corner sculpture adds to the unplanned feng shui. It is here that natural wood vies for the eye, while the movement of the hand-set limestone wall directs the line of vision as it flows seamlessly from the entry. Paladino’s custom console using rosewood, zebra wood, magnolia, walnut and Wenge to create a whimsical, organic homage is an immediate head-turner.

Framed by walnut panels and continuing the love affair with wood and nature, the breakfast area looks out over sparkling water views. A Japanese-like atrium is an oasis of tranquility with its water elements and babbling pond that shape a private courtyard. Lounge chairs from Clima Outdoor circle the firepit that sits just outside the wine room. Holly Hunt’s sectional and chairs draw the room together, while a patterned area rug from Perennials and warm cushions harmonize with the walnut paneling in tones of sienna.

Almost like a child’s “door in the wall” revealing a secret room, the designers “removed” a two-story library and created a new space, the office, and overhead, a private media room and guest room. Taking visual charge, a dramatic stairway spirals beside the desk of washed oak, and behind it sits a comfortable chair from Herman Miller.

In a design coop, the hall to the master suite is dressed, ceiling to floor, in walnut paneling, where step by step, one seems to enter another dimension. But before bed, the owners can take in the vast panorama from their loggia, snack from the outdoor kitchen beneath the metallic pergola or snuggle beneath the cantilevered overhang — the perfect place to dream their Florida dream.

Story Credits:

Interior Design by Allison Paladino and Zita Rudd, Allison Paladino Interior Design and Collections, Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Architecture by Spencer Castro, Affinity Architects, Boca Raton, FL

Builder Blake Johnson and Paul Maloney, AMC Custom Builders, Lake Park, FL

Landscape Architecture by Don Skowron, Don Skowron, Inc., West Palm Beach, FL

Text by Marina Brown

Photography by Kim Sargent, West Palm Beach, FL

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