Location, location, location … despite opportunities to purchase or build their new home anywhere, the owners of what would become a 7,000-square-foot contemporary showplace knew just where they wanted to live. And it’s right where they had spent many a winter — in the exclusive gated community of Boca Raton’s Polo Club, where they had owned a nearby seasonal home for several years. So, when the opportune availability of a large property on the lake presented itself, the couple commissioned a dynamic team to bring their new vision to life.
Enter architects Mark Muir and Jay Colestock, builder Terry Cudmore, and interior designer Susan Lachance, who have worked together on more than 30 previous projects. With such a spirited collaboration, the owners say that their dream of “a wine room for entertaining, a couple of offices, an exercise room, media room and a really nice place for the Ferrari,” was brought to fruition with warmth and sophistication, and in record time. But there were a few challenges.
“The oversized lot offers a multi-faceted presentation along the curved street,” Colestock says. “I designed the home on a radial to the lake creating three distinct frontages.” Using a series of elevated “pods,” the front elevation suggests a two-story home. Inside, the feeling is pure, expansive freedom. The great room, family room, and master bedroom ceilings tower upward to 20 feet, encircled by a “ribbon of light” from clerestory, transom-like windows. Lachance complements the height while ensuring a “human scale” experience with mid-height bands of warm walnut and texture-varied walls.
In the great room, Lachance surrounded the fireplace with a wall of walnut wood. The rectangular window shapes are echoed in space-dividers, and found in trim and furniture details. “These are my Frank Lloyd Wright influences,” she says. “These are the threads that subtly mimic each other and tie things together.”
Set on a curving pie-shaped lot, Colestock arranged for all rooms to have perfectly designed lake views. The resulting entry hallway provides an ideal locale for art collected by the owners. One of the “bays” off the hallway is the dining room, replete with its own ceiling elevation. Lachance collaborated in each detail of the ceiling’s meticulously designed look. In a dazzling series of levels, cached and indirect lighting is tucked into soffits and trays that rival everything below. Still, Romo’s luxurious grasscloth against which a Jamali oil painting hangs, and the stainless-touched table and chairs from Italy do their best to compete.
From the large-volume social spaces to the more private family room, the transition feels seamless. Surrounded by walls wrapped in faux cowhide from Elitis, the owners’ mirrored wine room holds 400 bottles of collectable vintage. “Glittering like a piece of jewelry — the wine room is to be admired,” Lachance says.
Just steps away, the bar shaped in marble and styled with “checker-mounted” limestone glows with sparkling crystal on display and a backsplash of shimmering, gold mosaic tiles. Lachance is fearless combining various textures, patterns, and materials, especially if they are natural. The effect, as in nature itself, is a kind of diverse unity that exudes warmth.
In shades of white and ebony, the kitchen and breakfast area bask in the poolside’s glow. With white cabinetry and quartzite counters, Lachance created a streamlined kitchen of sophistication framed by the drama of walnut.
Yet whimsy has its place. The master bath’s fun faux-fur fabric brightens any mood. “And yes, Lucite is back,” Lachance laughs. Nearby, soft pewter and gray hues seem a prescription for tranquility in the master bedroom with its headboard wall dressed in leather and framed with walnut. “We didn’t know exactly what we wanted until the team created it,” the wife says. “Now it reflects us and our lifestyle perfectly.”
Though never easy coordinating a large project, the entire team agrees with Cudmore’s succinct appraisal, “Any problems? No, none. Any issues? No, not a one.” Better still — the orchestrated whole is in just the right location.
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