When the owners of this 8,000-square-foot Regent at Park Shore condo in Naples, hired interior designer Edward Gary Shanabarger to stage their dining room for a dinner party, he artfully arranged a transparent all-glass tableau with vases full of vibrant flowers the colors of a sunset in front of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The owners’ friends have not stopped talking about that dinner party. “It was a magical evening,” Shanabarger says. “The couple fell in love with the idea of making some minor changes … purchasing a few new art pieces and freshening things up.”
The designer woke the clients’ passion with his vision — a culmination of several years spent merchandising displays in stores like Macy’s and Bloomingdales, and orchestrating events in Naples. The condo, round with stunning panoramic water views, feels like it’s floating in space. “At night you see the moon and stars, and in the daytime you’re seeing the light and play with water,” Shanabarger says. The use of celestial elements continue throughout.
Creating vistas and vignettes in the main salon, and the encore objective reprised from his first project — seating 22 guests for dinner — were criteria numbers one and two. A third: the clients’ attraction to iconic images of hands and spheres is boldly curated throughout the room in sculpted furnishings like Pedro Friedeberg’s vintage Lucite hand chair, and eclectic accessories such as hand-painted enamel “Shades of Blue” ostrich eggs and milky glass spheres on the dining table.
When entering the foyer, the wife wanted to open the door and “see white.” To satisfy her request, the designer created a Milky Way of white on white — polished glass and glossy Lucite furnishings that float above diamond white marble flooring. Celestial nighttime sights and an ever-changing sky are reflected in Shanabarger’s choice of white linen over a mylar-backed, silvery wallcovering.
Elegant shimmering furnishings and finishes aside, some of the condominium’s infrastructure required retro fits to modernize it. Architect Rob Herscoe was already acquainted with the high rise when he was invited into the project. “The building is probably about 20 years old. It is contemporary but the interiors are very traditional, Mediterranean,” he says. Herscoe consulted on the unique, reimagined monochromatic black-on-white kitchen, where he designed a floating island to anchor the space. Cabinetry, refaced with glass doors and trimmed in chrome, rests against a textured wallcovering.
In one of the dining areas, a centerpiece of pink roses adds subtle color to E.G. Cody’s round glass pedestal table that is circled by Luminaire’s molded dining chairs comprised of 900 PVC bristle tubes.
A guest bedroom with angled gulf views was repurposed as the husband’s study. Book-matched slabs of Silver Wave marble and graphite mirrors accent interior walls, and a vintage modern chandelier cascades light above Allan Knight’s acrylic desk. Cabinets display the owner’s large collection of fountain pens — some used to sign historic documents. A cowhide area rug branded with tractor tire treads lends a feel that is masculine yet refined.
The opulent master bedroom suite features the “radiant orchid” and deep purple palette found in Romo’s Zari Clematis bedding. York’s organic grass wall covering is the texture of striated parchment over a metallic backing. Azar’s shaggy silk area rug grounds the room in luxurious comfort.
The husband’s master bath is simply furnished with a polished nickel bench clad in black hide, and accessorized with a silver-leaf enhanced cowhide area rug. Architecturally, the space was carved out from one of several hallway galleries. Works of black-on-black origami and a fine art painting of an open car door can be viewed through the central glass-enclosed shower.
Lighter in feel, the wife’s master bath features soft lighting with an array of LED moonbeams. To echo the elliptical lines of the new Caicos stone resin tub, a section of the ceiling was recessed to install Pelle Designs’ bubble chandelier composed of polished nickel, blown glass globes and white leather coils.
Outdoors, the curved lines of the stylishly furnished terrace are mimicked by Vondom’s Op Art “Twist and Shout” area rug designed by Karim Rashid. This home’s spectacular makeover, which happened over the course of two years, is truly heavenly.
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