Should you happen to be in Palm Beach when Suzanne Kasler is there, you’ll likely see her somewhere in town. She’s one of those people who is everywhere—ambling along the beach or strolling Worth Avenue, taking in the sight of the docked boats at the harbor, or you might even spot her reading or entertaining in her glass-enclosed loggia in her apartment a few stories up from the street.
“During the six years since my husband and I bought this apartment, I have continued to love seeing the way Palm Beach has been evolving,” says Kasler, whose main home and design business is in Atlanta. “What I love about the community is the care that the residents, and those at ARCOM, the town’s Architectural Commission, have shown in keeping Palm Beach special, with building restrictions kept in place and a desire to preserve the beauty of this place.” Kasler has been coming to town for far longer than that, though—for decades, in fact, first with her parents who introduced her to the wonders of the town, and, now, as a frequent inhabitant of a chic, six-story 1967 building. “Palm Beach has always been a part of my life,” she emphasizes, “and I think that’s why I was particularly attracted to this older,
Although the layout of the two-bedroom apartment couldn’t be reconfigured given structural constraints, Kasler did take the unit, as she says, “down to its core, until we reached the concrete shell.” After installing up-to-date electrical and mechanical systems, Kasler was ready to do what she knows how to do best—transform empty, white spaces into deeply atmospheric rooms. “I love the color white, so I had a glossy paint applied to the walls and ceilings to create a pure architectural envelope.” As a result, whatever colors, patterns, or artworks she introduces make conspicuous statements. In the enclosed loggia, for instance, a space that melds with the living area, she filled one end with a inviting pink settee and a mirror subtly outlined in pink seashells, all backdropped by a de Gournay tropical-motif paper. “When you use pink, even just as accents, you see how much the color resonates in an otherwise all-white space. You think there’s more pink than there really is.”
Given that the apartment is bathed all day in natural light from both sides, what is captured in those views—swaying palms, manicured grounds of the Everglades Club, blues of the ocean and Intracoastal—serve as welcome additional hues in the interiors. Kasler installed coral stone floors throughout, interspersing areas with sisal rugs. “Coral stone has little seashells in it, and I love being able to incorporate elements indigenous to the area,” she says.
Indicative of Kasler’s uncanny talent for introducing just enough pattern and color, the dining chairs wear a bold, edgy Pierre Frey fabric. “That pattern makes the whole room look so much more colorful than it really is,” she points out. “The table, the chairs, the windowed banquette are all part of one big open space, and I just love the geometric sensibility of the fabric mixed in with an all- white, timeless apartment.”
Kasler has an ability, too, to create striking vignettes throughout. Against one wall of the loggia, a wicker console, with inlay detailing, is topped with a period Slim Aarons Polaroid all set against a de Gournay floral. Elsewhere, a guest bath’s Schumacher wallcovering makes the room appear shellacked in seashells. “The coloring of that wallpaper is so quiet, and the scale of its pattern makes everything seem, well, just amazingly perfect!”
Of her finished home, Kasler says, “The moment I saw this apartment, I could see how it represented the authenticity of Palm Beach and all that I have always loved—and continue to love about the place.”
