Palm Beach Home is a Splendid Bermuda-Style Jewel

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Chance meetings can spark everlasting friendships. This familiar scenario certainly holds true for a New York interior designer who met her future clients when they were neighbors in the same apartment building. Fast forward to her fourth collaboration with these friends—this time in Palm Beach—and designer Liliane Hart continues to enjoy working with this family throughout their many life phases.

“The owners are originally from Connecticut and love coming to Palm Beach several times a year,” says Hart. “The wife would visit her grandparents’ Palm Beach home as a child, so this area holds a lot of memories and offers them a special place to gather with lifelong friends and family.”

Nestled along a tree-lined street in Palm Beach proper, their new 5,000-square-foot house sits within walking distance of the area’s shops, restaurants, and sandy beaches. Developed by custom home builder Dunworth Construction and Development, the bespoke dwelling evolved as a brilliant collaboration between the owners, their interior designer, architect Gregory Palmer of Harrison Design, and M2B Homes, which was responsible for the many architectural finishes, tiles, and plumbing fixtures. Palmer’s architectural plan, inspired by exquisite island homes he had visited in Bermuda, incorporates a structural compression as you enter the front door and then expands as you approach an airy stairwell foyer. “With an axial view to the family room and its fireplace, we connected the cabana with a breezeway to break down the mass of the house and to allow direct access for guests to the pool area,” notes the architect. “We placed the primary bedroom on the main level and adjacent to the pool and gardens to provide easy access for outdoor living.” Palmer also side-loaded the garage to limit the hardscape adjacent to the street and added a pedestrian gate to help enclose the entry garden.

Taking design cues directly from nature, the home’s circular entrance and elegant staircase mimic the curves of a seashell. Using that as their primary source of inspiration, the design team decided to amplify the theme through patterns, colors, and textural materials. “The walls are plastered in the softest, shimmery—almost iridescent—pink, inspired by the inside of a shell,” notes Hart, “and many of the brown hues and wallpapers draw inspiration from coconuts. In the powder room, a gorgeous wallcovering emulating a coral reef envelops the entire space.”

Aside from the den’s electrifying teal hues and the dining room’s wow-inducing tropical grass cloth wallcovering, the interior palette leans toward subdued natural tones of pink, white, brown, green, and sand. Organically shaped furniture anchors over a luxurious palm-patterned rug in the living room, while a luminous backlit onyx bar creates a glamorous accent. Designed without delineation between the interiors and exteriors, the home effortlessly welcomes the gardens inside. The beauty of the dwelling comes to life in a seamless flow of spaces for entertaining and relaxing, where the family and all their friends gather. The privacy of the pool house offers a particularly fun spot for the kids.

“Our goal was to create a modern version of a playfully patterned and layered classic Palm Beach home,” says Hart. “Because the clients and I knew each other well, it was satisfying to collaborate again. We have a creative shorthand established that enabled us to enjoy endless fun while creating this joyful jewel box of a house.”

Story Credits:

Interior Design by Liliane Hart, Liliane Hart Interiors, New York, NY

Architecture by Gregory Palmer, Harrison Design, Naples, FL

Interior Architecture M2B Homes, Atlanta, GA

Builder Dunworth Construction and Development, Hobe Sound, FL

Landscape Architecture by Steve West, Parker-Yannette Design Group, Jupiter Island, FL

Text by Jeanne de Lathouder

Photography by Mark Roskams, New York, NY

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