There’s one thing that never changes in Palm Beach—its light. So abundant and glorious is the sunshine that it’s something worth celebrating even when you are indoors. Interior designer Dominick Rotondi is based in New York, but he knows Palm Beach so well that he understands how to translate its various hues into room colors. When creating the interiors for this new home for a retired, but active, couple that also spend much of their time in New York, Rotondi based the colors of the rooms on the movements of the sun throughout the day.
“I created a palette that references the morning, the noon, dinner time and moonlight,” he says, “and each has its own distinctive character.” The homeowner concurs by adding, “Dominick was literally our guiding light on this project.”
In acknowledging that special quality of light that defines Palm Beach, especially in neighborhoods close to the ocean, Rotondi chose evocative hues. The walls of the formal dining room wear what he calls an “early evening blue,” which he found replicated in a Farrow & Ball striated wallpaper.
The entry and elaborate millwork that defines the main staircase remain bright white, but punctuated by splashes of color—a multihued mirror from France, soft and warm shades of wood, the ocean blues that appear in a rug and bench upholstery. Rotondi has, to date, designed two New York apartments for the couple, so he knows their aesthetic—a penchant for clean lines, unfussy interiors, but an overall elegance and comfort. “They wanted color, but to have it quietly layered into rooms.”
A Stark Tibetan wool rug was the starting element for the foyer.
A Carla Long bench, upholstered with Kravet fabric, is positioned at the stairway.
The soft hues of a Farrow & Ball wallpaper set the tone and mood for the dining room, with a Visual Comfort chandelier adding a burst of dazzle.
A new house in Palm Beach features outdoor seating areas furnished with chairs upholstered in Scalamandre’s Cabana Stripe Indigo.
Yet another gathering space is equipped with a Saarinen 42-inch table at which Niels Otto Moller chairs are set, all from Design Within Reach.
A fountain element on the grounds assumes both a visual and audible effect.
As for the ocean that lines Palm Beach, its colors and mood work their way throughout the home.
Meanwhile, the TV den/office uses a color that Rotondi says “is that of the height of day, noontime.” A rosy hue imbues the room with a sense of calm, accomplished with Rotondi’s choice of a grass cloth wallcovering from Vonn Lighting. “The textured quality gives the room intimacy,” he says, “and the geometric pattern on the Roman shades keeps it animated.” The husband refers to the room as his “cave,” where he retreats to watch TV and read—though often in the company of his wife. “It’s my favorite room and every time I walk in it feels new, as if it keeps refreshing itself.”
For the primary bedroom’s walls, Rotondi selected what he calls “a sage blue, since it replicates, as best as I could do, the light that filters through the palm trees. You’d think the light would be green through the fronds, but it’s actually more this calming color.”
The homeowners had been living in a barrier-island beach house in North Carolina. As the husband says, “Living on a beach looks good, feels good, even smells good, but it’s not good for maintaining a house.” Plus, according to Rotondi, who has become close friends with the couple, visiting them often in New York and in Palm Beach, where he, too, has a secondary residence, the couple is very sociable. “They like to entertain family and friends and she’s a great cook, and because I like to cook, too, that’s another reason we’ve bonded. They chose this house in Palm Beach because they wanted more of a ‘town vibe’ than they had been getting in the other locale.”
Although the house has been finished for some time, the homeowners have yet to become jaded to the experience of it. “Because we go back and forth from New York, it’s like a shot of adrenaline every time we walk back inside.” And another reason the project turned out so well for both the homeowners and Rotondi is because, as he says, “We simply all had a good time putting this together.”
