Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: A Breezy Vacation Home in Blue and White
A couple host extended family in their elegant but comfortable Naples, Florida, home
When a couple of empty-nesters living in Illinois decided to purchase a Naples, Florida, vacation home, they wanted to make sure everyone in the family — from married kids to grandchildren to great-grandparents — felt welcome. So they brought in self-described maximalist interior designer Summer Thornton from Chicago to create a comfortable home with an elegant aesthetic that’s freshened up with a lively blue-and-white palette.
The foyer opens into the great room with its 20-foot-high ceilings, where Thornton chose Benjamin Moore’s Alabaster paint for the walls. Then, she says, “I had to ask myself, ‘What will be our main contrast color?’ ” She selected indigo, to further establish the blue first hinted at in the foyer, and a warm orange for extra pizzazz. The ottomans are covered in that shade of silk. The cream-colored sofa is from Restoration Hardware; the jute rug is from Stark; the teak coffee table is from Jayson Home.
In the great room, the curved archways help set a Mediterranean tone. Because the homeowners love watching the long-legged wading birds common in the area, Thornton added a series of Audubon prints, which are flanked by the archways and bamboo chairs and hang over an indigo-washed bureau from Anthropologie.
“The dining area is in the great room, which is also open to the kitchen,” Thornton explains. “So it was tricky to create clear, demarcated spaces within the open plan.” Again blending the casual and the elegant, she placed wicker dining chairs around a Henredon Veneto table, anchoring the dining space. “The slight slope of the chair arms gives them a touch of elegance, which sets them apart from outdoor wicker furniture.” The blue-and-white rug is a vintage Indian dhurrie from Madeline Weinrib.
The kitchen’s exposed wood beams add a casual touch and help separate the kitchen and dining zones from the great room.
The kitchen’s exposed wood beams add a casual touch and help separate the kitchen and dining zones from the great room.
The blue-and-white palette continues in the kitchen, where open shelves, a plaster hood and casual seating at the island create a more informal setting.
The butler’s pantry next to the kitchen includes a display of Chinese plates. Beadboard walls and an integrated paneled refrigerator are in the foreground.
In the powder room are more Audubon bird prints grouped as a gallery wall opposite the vintage mirror, surrounded by Java Grande wallpaper from China Seas above a Gramercy Glass pedestal sink from Restoration Hardware.
The den includes a pullout sofa opposite a built-in media cabinet and daybed. The orange grasscloth walls bring the home’s lively accent color into the room, echoed in the pillows and tables.
The blue-and-white theme is found in the rug and table lamps in the master bedroom, where the accent color has been muted to pink. The zebra-print bed, pink grasscloth walls and creamy pink drapes over arched windows blend a spirit of fun with a sense of serenity.
The master bath is clad in marble and includes a free-standing tub beneath another arch, with windows bringing in the breeze and offering views to the outdoors.
The bath also features symmetrical vanity sinks. French doors in the bedroom open out to the pool.
In the guest bedroom, which opens to the patio, cream linen drapery panels surround the four-poster canopy bed from S&L Designs. The blue-and-white patterned window treatments bring the home’s primary color palette into the room, while the orange accent enters via Williams-Sonoma Home’s Chippendale bench. The cream grasscloth wallpaper is Primitive Weave from Kneedler Fauchère.
An outdoor daybed provides a spot for lounging by the pool. The blue-and-white patterned pillows and garden stool bring the home’s interior palette outside.
A Naples vacation home isn’t complete without a tropical patio overlooking the pool.
Why cook or lunch inside when a lanai and outdoor kitchen, with blue-and-white Calais tile backsplash from Granada Tile, offers everything the family needs for casual dining? The wicker furniture is from Kingsley Bate. The cushions are Perennials’ Rough ’n Rowdy fabric. The entire house reaches its apotheosis here, in an outdoor living space that’s welcoming to all.
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A vacationing couple and their family
Location: Naples, Florida
Size: 3,500 square feet (325 square meters)
Designer: Summer Thornton Design
Thornton came up with a fresh, breezy palette of blue and white to create the ideal balance of casual and elegant, with welcoming furnishings that are stylish yet comfortable. In the home’s foyer, she commissioned custom floral and bird panels by Allison Cosmos and grouped blue-and-white Chinese ginger jar pottery on an 1880s console.