If ever there was a house that begged to be embraced, it is the unassuming cottage on a small coastal pond in Edgartown, on the southern edge of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Measuring just 1,700 square feet, the three-bedroom house, situated on a compact piece of property, is a year-round refuge that demonstrates how carefully rendered principles of art and science can converge to give homeowners everything they need, while showcasing spectacular views, rugged natural materials, local artisanry, and sustainability.

Finding the right partner to realize the homeowner’s vision was effortless. “They knew about us and followed our work, so they just approached us and announced, ‘We’re ready to do our house,’” recalls Gregory Ehrman, partner at Hutker Architects. “It was the most natural pairing ever.”

Ehrman and Sean Dougherty, principal at Hutker Architects, saw both the beauty and the challenges of the site right away. Where a small decaying house had stood, they knew it would be paramount to weave the design with the natural setting and the Vineyard’s artistic culture to create a house that matched the homeowners’ vision. Today, the property is a joy: at once simple, dramatic, and right at home.

Approaching the residence from the parking court, a ramp gently slopes upward to take visitors to the glass front entry. The door reveals the first scenic look of the pond and ocean, which appear through generous windows on the water side of the house. The structure’s core, topped by a gabled copper roof, is its sturdy center. Adjoining are five flat-roofed cubes, built on helical piers, that appear to float on seagrass. The cubes house the more personal spaces, including a bedroom and bath and an office, appearing to float on seagrass. Says Dougherty, “The home is very simply settled on the land.” The easygoing comfort of the exterior belies the exacting science that went into its design.

“Behind the challenges of the design are very familiar forms,” Dougherty explains. “The center gable is classic New England style while the more contemporary structures are clad in shingles.” At the heart of the design are sustainability principles, where much of Doughtery’s work continues to be focused at Hutker Architects. Because of its proximity to the water, the size of the house was contained to a point just beyond the previous home’s footprint. The upward-sloping walkway that leads to the raised entrance and dwelling is carefully lined with gardens, creating the subtle elevation necessary for rising sea levels.

With a primary focus on resiliency, Dougherty pushed the envelope to create a certified passive, net-zero–energy building by PHIUS + Source Zero. The home generates more energy than it consumes. The foundation and landscape elements are encased in Cor-Ten steel, which has a naturally weathered patina that grows more striking through the years.

Inside, rooms are filled with natural materials and personal artistic stamps of the homeowners, who are longtime islanders and involved in the arts. The central cathedral space, with an exposed structural steel frame and white oak ceiling, defines the dining area and the interior circulation that connects the primary social space with the private, more contemporary spaces. The more modern elements radiate from the central gable form and are tied together with a white oak floor, which changes slightly in pattern where the two types of spaces meet.

Rich details abound. On the side of the kitchen island are symbols dear to the homeowners, cut from a sheet of bronze. The leftover sheet hangs in the breakfast bar. A hutch in the dining area is topped with a wave pattern by Hutker and is reminiscent of a quilting pattern designed by one of the homeowners. Kitchen cabinets are clad in rough-sawn wood.

The work of local artisans and artists appears in almost every room, including work by the artist Allen Whiting. “The origin of the house and all that is within was inspired by our sense of place,” says Dougherty, who lives in Oak Bluffs.

Dougherty and Ehrman reveled in bringing the house to life, especially its sensibility and scale. “It was a wonderful project,” Dougherty says. “The clients are lovely people who are immersed in the local culture. It’s fitting that their home be an heirloom that will be enjoyed for generations.”

This home is featured in Hutker Architects’ latest book, New England Coastal: Homes that Tell a Story, which will be released June 12.

“New England Coastal: Homes That Tell a Story”

Hutker Architects is presenting this spring the firm’s third book, New England Coastal: Homes That Tell a Story. The book, including 200 original photographs, will be released June 12.

“Every house in this book is a residential heirloom,” says Mark Hutker, the founder of Hutker Architects, an award-winning firm in Falmouth, Mass. “Each design is deeply rooted in New England vernacular but with a modern sensibility.”

Several of the 13 houses that appear in the book have been covered in publications, including Ocean Home, Architectural Digest, and Veranda. Others have not been previously published.

New England Coastal: Homes That Tell a Story is available for preorder on Amazon. A collector’s edition will be available for purchase at book signings scheduled to begin in May and run through September. For event dates, visit hutkerarchitects.com.

Set majestically in the seaport, The St. Regis Residences, Boston, is one of the city’s most luxurious developments. Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, the towering glass structure, which opened in 2023 and houses 114 condos on 22 floors, looks like a boat afloat with sails fully unfurled in the wind.

With units starting at $1.85 million, the development offers everything residents desire: a health club, a lounge and library, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a business center, a spa. And a model unit by Boston-based Eric Roseff Designs that embraces and elevates the architecture’s aesthetics and showcases the spectacular views center stage.

“Most model units are neutral and vanilla white,” says Roseff. “I wanted people who see it to feel like it’s someone’s home done thoughtfully over time. I’ve added a lot of personalized pieces to make it cross the finish line.”

The resident he envisioned, well-traveled and sophisticated, enjoys entertaining, collecting art and dining out. “I thought of the owner as a couple or a single person who had left a larger home in the suburbs and really embraced city living,” Roseff says. “That’s why the dining area is small, and there’s only one TV.”

Although the developers gave him carte blanche, there were inherent restrictions. Because of the building’s shape, every unit has a different, unconventional configuration.

“With many angles, simply lining a piece of furniture up along a wall creates a challenge,” he says of the 2,589-square-foot unit that has three bedrooms and 3.5 baths. “It took a lot of custom engineering to design everything, including custom window shades and draperies. And because this is a model unit, I couldn’t add built-ins or change any major components in the kitchen or baths.”

To accentuate the unit’s sharp angles, Roseff selected furnishings that are soft and sculptural and upholstered them in neutral fabrics so they don’t distract from the views.

“The visual interest comes from texture and shape, not color,” he says, adding that the ceilings are mirror-like Venetian plaster, a reflective treatment that subtly merges indoor and outdoor spaces. “The color comes from the artwork and curated accessories, including pillows and glass vases. When you walk in, your eye goes where it should—straight to the outside scenery.”

Roseff boldly throws his first curve in the entry, where a large circular artwork by Shay Kun dominates. It’s a preview of the main living space, which is defined by an irregularly shaped custom rug, designed by Roseff, that resembles ocean waves. The room is appointed with a pair of 1970s Vladimir Kagan sofas that look as though they want to embrace each other and a pair of similar- vintage chairs whose wing-like arms conjure images of seagulls in flight. The center coffee/cocktail table is equally dynamic: Its two pieces pull apart, creating separate servers as needed.

Next to this grouping, Roseff created a conversational setting by pairing two 1970s swivel chairs, upholstered in velvet, and a swiveling mushroom ottoman from the same time period.

“A majority of the upholstery throughout the unit is solid-color fabric instead of patterned,” he says. “The fabrics are textural, and some of them, such as that on the swivel chairs, have a sheen that looks different in different light as you walk around them.”

The curvaceous theme continues in the adjoining dining area, where four round-back chairs and a custom dining banquette cozy up to an oval-shaped Italian marble table, another vintage piece. The wall, papered in the same ombre silver silk and metallic leaf mural that runs from the foyer to the windows, shimmers in the glow of the globes of a pair of floor lamps.

Roseff reserves deeper colors for the more private spaces. In the den, for instance, dark-teal drapes, offset by a virtually invisible Lucite desk in the window, create a cozy setting. The guest room pays homage to the water: Its deep blue painted walls match the drapes, creating a cocoon complete with a daybed that overlooks the seaport.

Artwork that looks like a changing, curated collection ties everything together. “I chose many pieces that people maybe haven’t seen before,” Roseff says, adding that the work over the bed in the primary suite is by Damien Hirst. “Or artists people may not be familiar with.”

(He counts himself in the latter category: He created the eight circular paintings that line the hallway.)

From the circular coin-painting in the kitchen and the round portraits in the hallway to the sphere-like globes of the ceiling fixture in the primary bedroom, every aspect of the unit becomes one great big design loop that amplifies the illusion of a place that’s well loved and well lived in.

“Several people who have toured the unit have asked who lives here,” Roseff says. “That’s the greatest compliment.”

It was the views of Long Island Sound that seduced them.

The New York City couple had come to Larchmont, New York, looking for a place to rent that was an easy commute to their Manhattan jobs. Their plan was to test the waters to see whether they liked the community enough to buy. But the minute they stepped through the front door of the 1910 Spanish Colonial house, they knew that it would be the perfect place to raise their two young sons.

“When we saw the sea, it was clear that this was a special property,” says the husband.

“The view,” the wife adds, “is expansive.”

Because they had never owned a house before, they really didn’t know what they were getting into. But it didn’t matter because they were smitten. They moved in immediately and hired Charles Hilton Architects, which is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, to restore, renovate, and reshape the house to suit their lifestyle.

The house, which is in a historic district, did, indeed, need work. The floors sagged, the walls lacked insulation, and demolition revealed unanticipated water damage and rot. The Spanish-tile roof, the exterior stucco façade, and all the windows, doors, millwork, and trim had to be replaced as did the outdated mechanicals, the electrical system, and the decades-old kitchen and baths.

What’s more, the unstable sunroom was demolished and reconstructed, and the two original first-floor bay windows and two second-floor bay windows, which were later additions, were replaced with larger windows to bring the light—-and the view of the Sound that so enchanted the owners—into the family room, living room, primary bedroom suite, and boys’ study. 

“We took the lead from the house’s century-old architecture and enhanced it,” says architect Chuck Hilton, adding that the stucco façade and wood trim were replaced with more durable PVC that looks like the real thing. “At the same time, we took the opportunity to rework the circulation of the floor plans for the first and second floors to be more efficient and better meet the owners’ needs.”

To that end, the kitchen, pantry, and mudroom were reconfigured, and the dining room was converted into a family room. Dining now takes place in what was the old study.

Perhaps the most significant alteration was the removal of a chimney and its three fireplaces, creating a different configuration in the core of the house that allowed for a more generous closet and bath in the primary suite and a larger playroom for the boys. Original details, including the exposed ceiling beams in the living room, entry hall, and family room, were preserved and paired with new built-in cabinetry and a new fireplace surround whose design reflects the style of the house.

“We kept asking ourselves what the house wanted to be,” says Charles Hilton Architects project manager Jason Wyman. “The house reflects the personality of the owners.”

That personality—colorful, exuberant and multicultural—is echoed in the décor by Jenny Wolfe Interiors of New York City.

“We didn’t want a traditional or modern style,” the wife says, adding that they selected a palette of “pleasing watery blues and greens that transition from room to room. We wanted everything to be transitional and to pay homage to our heritage—I’m from India, and my husband is from Spain.”

It is the extensive use of wallpaper, by request of the homeowners, that defines the interior spaces. Enormous white cranes wing their way across the dining room, cheetahs leap playfully around the formal powder room, and a map of the world in the boys’ bedroom opens their eager eyes to endless possibilities.

One of the wife’s favorite spaces, an office in the sitting area of the primary suite, features a mural of a scene from her native India.

“It’s a work of art in and of itself,” the husband says.

The new-old house is designed to last for generations, and the couple feels so at home that they cannot imagine living anywhere else.

“We’re a five-minute walk from the park,” the husband says. “We love the community.”

And, the wife adds, “every room is so special that I can’t choose a favorite—I love them all.”

Calm drifts through the newly rebuilt house like sunshine on a cloudless day. The two-story midcentury-style getaway home is in perfect harmony with its setting on Eastern Bay, a tributary of Maryland’s majestic estuary, Chesapeake Bay, offering views and access to the surrounding waters and supreme indoor comfort.

A big part of the home’s sensory experience is the view of the Wye River, within sight through tall windows facing the back property. On the front side, there is a stirring view of the bay.

But also key to the successful rebuild is the uncannily similar views of the designer and the architect who brought it to fruition. Colleen Healey of Colleen Healey Architecture and Kate Ballou of Hendrick Interiors, both located in Washington, DC, sensed the potential for the home’s alluring peaceful feeling, and both were delighted to see that they were of like mind.

It was truly a “full-house rebirth,” architect Healey says. “The existing home was so well built that we really didn’t have to change structural parts or do a utility upgrade. That freed up the budget, so we were able to focus on quality detailing, material modifications, and integrated LED lighting. We really raised the efficiency of the house without a full-scale gut. I’m very proud of that.”  

From the outside, the original house had a simple beachy look. But inside, it was stuffy and a bit overdone, with French country-style ironwork, saturated woods, and dark cherry trim. The new owners, attorneys with children at home, bought the house as a place they could escape to on weekends from their Washington, DC townhouse.

Most of the work, Ballou and Healey say, was reimagining details and creating a framework for the homeowners’ collection of midcentury modern Danish pieces. “We wanted it to be bright and airy, richer wood with a matte finish,” says Healey. “It gives a totally different feel.”

The homeowners were totally on board – especially considering the couple’s Danish furniture, a collection which they have been cultivating for years. As the homeowner says, “my husband and I had a goal, to combine beautiful, clean lines with comfortable, functional pieces. The midcentury modern style of much of the interior pieces enabled us to achieve that combination.”

Before broaching details, Healey focused on architecturally modifying four main areas: the stair hall, kitchen, living room, and primary bath with closet suite. Healey’s namesake business is a full-service architectural firm, and working with her staff – including staff designer Casey Meyer – she chose tiles, lighting fixtures, cabinetry, countertops, and many finishes.

One of designer Ballou’s biggest focal points was providing certain pieces of furniture to complement the couple’s Scandinavian collection. In the kitchen, a group of Series 7 chairs at the breakfast table are a common item in Denmark. They are paired with a special PP75 Stayed table. In the dining room, three walls covered in dark blue grass cloth surrender the spotlight to a beautiful silver coin table by Finn Juhl and a traditional area rug underneath.  

Danish furniture is Ballou’s specialty and a personal love: “I love the organic shapes and forms, use of materials, solid woods, and environmentally friendly finishes. I love its integrity, it’s very honest.” In the living room, an upholstered sofa by Denmark’s Radio House, set with a blue pouf, is a cozy spot. The nearby black stone fireplace was pared back to a simple profile and clad in stone slabs.

Another delicate architectural touch is a modern glass railing on the staircase, with refined treads for a softer Scandinavian feel. Balusters are of sculpted bronze, continuously looped, with glass panes sliding through.

Perhaps the most stunning transformation is the first-floor primary bathroom, an unusually long, narrow space. The original primary suite lacked cohesion and access to sunlight, and a big shower jutted awkwardly into the space. (Two other bedrooms are upstairs.) The team reinforced the bathroom’s length with doors and panels. “Just to clean it up and give it rhythm,” Ballou says. Bronze, glass, and warm wood tones shine with sun coming from larger windows that also allow views of the water and marshes. The room, as most of the rest of the interiors, is painted white. “We wanted the palette to be simple, connected, cohesive,” Ballou says.

With new interiors and beautiful views, the owners have found their home away from home. As the homeowner says, “the house is calm and uncluttered, it feels like a refuge whenever we walk into it.”

Using nature as her guide, designer Monica Slodarz created interiors for a waterfront condo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that drink in the views, breathe in the gentle ocean breezes, and reflect the blue-hued beauty of the softly lapping ocean waves.

The condo, for a family with three young and vivacious children, is meant to be a lively yet tranquil retreat as well as a repository for a substantial collection of colorful and edgy contemporary art. To give the art top billing, Slodarz, the principal of Miami-based The Art of Design, created a neutral backdrop that showcases the works as if they are on display in an avant-garde gallery.

“Our sources of inspiration were deeply rooted in the coastal surroundings and the desire to create a haven of serenity and understated luxury,” Slodarz says. “The fluidity of the ocean influenced the use of organic shapes and textures in the home, such as the gently curved furniture, seashell-inspired décor, and driftwood accents.”

The subtle color palette—whites, creams, and soft greys—was selected to amplify and reflect the natural light, making the scenery center stage.

“In a beachfront setting, where sunlight is abundant, these colors make the interior spaces feel brighter, more welcoming, and reduce the need for artificial light during daylight hours,” she says. “The palette also creates a sense of openness that complements the wide, unobstructed vistas of the sea and sky.”

She adds that the “interior becomes a canvas that accentuates, rather than competes with, the outdoor views.”

Those views led Slodarz to overlay a palette of soft blues, sandy neutrals, and hints of seafoam green to the spaces. “The azure waters and the rhythm of the waves served as a constant muse,” she says. “The palette reflects and complements the beauty of the surroundings.”

The materials, too, were selected to accentuate the indoor-outdoor flow of the spaces, creating what Slodarz calls the look and feel of “timeless elegance.” She used a variety of natural materials, including stone, to bring pattern, texture and a sense of luxurious ease to the spaces. The floors, cabinetry, and furniture are made of warm-toned woods, including oak and teak; the draperies, upholstery, and bedding are linen and cotton; and wicker and rattan pieces add a touch of coastal charm.  

The organic nature of the décor is aptly illustrated in the main living space, where a wall of windows highlights a curvaceous sofa whose bulbous white boucle upholstery is as luscious as a marshmallow. Its sultry shape is echoed in the circular coffee table, whose wedged pie-like leaves are clad in natural rattan, another nod to nature. The opposite wall is dominated by two large artworks that bring pops of color to the serene setting.

In the dining room, the curves continue. The dining table, topped by a slab of white marble that matches that of the adjoining kitchen island, is circular. The chairs, upholstered in the same white boucle as the living room sofa, have back rests that look like soft clouds of cotton. The scene is illuminated by a Calder-style mobile pendant, a dynamic piece that sways slightly to catch the eye.

The kitchen, elegant and efficient, is a study in white that’s punctuated by subtle accents of black in the sleek bar stools and the veins of the marble.

The most challenging part of the project, Slodarz says, was “finding the right balance between providing privacy, blocking the view of an old building next door to the south of the apartment, and maximizing the natural light coming from the exterior wall that was all glass. This required thoughtful spatial planning, the strategic placement of custom built-in furniture, and the use of innovative shading solutions that could be adjusted according to the time of day and privacy requirements.”

For a family of four from Manhattan, the lure of true indoor-outdoor living proved too much to resist during the pandemic, and they found exactly that lifestyle in Palm Beach, Florida, in a beautiful home located just steps from the ocean.

“They literally are across the street from the beach,” says Jennifer Mehditash, principal and owner of the New York- and Newport Beach, California-based Mehditash Design.

The house presented some initial challenges in the form of its layout, with features like a too-large entryway with lots of unusable space and a small living room that was cut off from the kitchen. So the clients tapped Mehditash, along with Jupiter, Florida-based architecture and construction firm Thomas Melhorn and Palm Beach-based landscape architect Environment Design Group, to reimagine the home inside and out. 

Clever transformations

The team transformed the front entryway and stairwell from a space that was “sort of empty and not very welcoming” into one that not only made an architectural statement with the reconfigured stairs, but also added storage and functionality with vestibule-style laundry room and powder room and did so with incredible style.

Mehditash loves the powder room’s geometric, black, white, and gray tiles that cover the floor and the bottom half of the walls, as well as the “surprise” of custom glitter grout. Those same black-and-white geometric materials repeat in the family room on the coffee table and the marble sideboard that was custom made in Portugal.

Throughout the downstairs Venetian plaster on the walls gives a beautiful, textured finish. A too-small TV and fireplace wall and oddly configured entryway from the living room to the main bedroom were reworked by creating vestibules on either side of the TV and fireplace that are camouflaged with wide, shiplap-planked doors.

When the doors are closed, it gives the feeling of a single, wide wall, but each door opens to something different: the main bedroom on one side with a more private entrance, and a pretty, “jewel box” home office on the other.

Maximize Space 

In addition to maximizing space in the entryway and living room, the team also opened up the space between the kitchen and living room areas, allowing for a customized kitchen island and bar area, as well as a custom built-in banquette wall dining space.

The kitchen is bright and clean, with a large, custom walnut and marble island and cabinetry that extends to the ceiling, along with pops of interest from large gold-accented globe pendants hanging over the island; a coffee bar in a black metal finish; bursts of color from vintage Murano glass pieces; and a zinc table that’s not only beautiful but sturdy, letting the family’s kids “live their best life on it,” Mehditash says.

Throughout the house, more color and visual interest come from pieces from artists like James Perkins, Sarah Meyohas, Paul Kneale, and Rachel Lee Hovnanian from Voltz Clarke Gallery in New York and County Gallery in Palm Beach.

Indoor-outdoor living 

Part of Palm Beach’s appeal is its indoor-outdoor lifestyle, and the team wanted to create those moments wherever they could throughout the house. “We really wanted there to be that indoor-outdoor living experience,” Mehditash says.

In addition to enlarging the pool and making improvements to the outdoor lounge and loggia dining space, the team used large, windowed doors from the company Brombal that swing wide open onto the pool from the living room, kitchen, and main bedroom and that Mehditash calls a “key feature.”

“The most important thing was opening up the windows and having those windows be stackable,” Mehditash says. “All those back sliding doors open up and stack and so you really do feel like you’re in the outside when you’re in the living room.”

Those touches of the outdoors are echoed in other ways, too, from the natural, cool-toned European oak flooring; to the main bathroom’s rainfall shower; to wallpaper in the bedrooms (think green palm fronds and blue-and-white wave pattern); to the surfboards that not only stand in as décor but that the family really uses; to the performance fabrics that won’t be ruined if someone sits down with a damp bathing suit. “It’s definitely a put-your-feet-up kind of house, while still looking very chic and elevated,” Mehditash says.

Tara Cain’s clients so enjoyed their three-month winter escape to Naples, Florida, that by the time they headed back to their Minnesota home on Lake Minnetonka, they had a contract for a 2,600-square-foot condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. Construction began within months, and by Christmas the couple, who have two twenty-something kids, were again soaking in the sun. “We touched every space to make it feel more elevated,” Cain says.

The designer encouraged the couple to fashion the getaway in a style different from their traditional Twin Cities home. The condo is open and airy with a coastal vibe and ocean views at every turn. “It feels more SoCal than Florida,” Cain says. “The spaces are neutral, textural, airy, and layered with natural materials and finishes.”

Entry is into a tiny space that Cain defined with a trio of Allied Maker grooved wooden flush-mount light fixtures that have presence overhead. White oak flooring installed in a herringbone pattern spreads underfoot throughout, for a sophisticated but not formal or fussy look. The walls are painted Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace, making the entire space bright, white, and light.

Although the team removed the wall between the kitchen and living area to create a unified great room, there is a 32-inch-wide portion that provides some separation between the entry and the main event. As such, rather than declaring its presence full force up front, the ocean view is partially obscured, resulting in a more gradual unfolding. That small slice of the bright-blue view pulls you in. “You naturally gravitate toward the windows and sliders to the lanai,” Cain explains.

The wall, which Cain paneled along with other walls for a cohesive, elevated effect, presents the first opportunity for artwork: a whitewashed pine sculpture by Caprice Pierucci. The elongated, three-dimensional, lacy twist of wood has the look of a vertebra that might have washed up on the beach. “As you walk around it, you see different shapes and shadows depending on where you stand and the time of day,” says Kathy Ganley, who leads the Midwest office of Mason Lane Art Advisory.

A comfy sectional in chalk-colored performance fabric sits atop a Stark rug made from natural fibers, hugging a pair of faux bois resin coffee tables with fossilized shell tops. The juxtaposition of forms and finishes renders the monochromatic area interesting. A skinny, white oak floating console with caned insets inconspicuously anchors the television on the main wall, to which Cain also added paneling. White pleated linen sconces subtly dress up the vignette and hint at the finely reeded white oak wet bar beside it.

The kitchen and dining areas stretch along the wall behind the sectional. Cain nestled into the corner a U-shaped banquette sporting marine-grade faux leather cushions with channeled backs. While the side wall boasts a picture window with an unobstructed ocean view, the back wall is held by a quietly compelling artwork by Lilian Crum. The piece features calligraphic markings made with sumi ink on paper that floats in a white wood frame. “The organic marks mimic the movement of the water outside,” Ganley observes.

To the left, a custom steel and glass shelf bridges the banquette with the kitchen, providing graphic contrast and display space without heaviness. White cabinetry does its job without encroaching upon the space visually; the quartzite countertops invigorate and tie it to the wet bar. Rattan pendants and leather stools at the island enhance the coastal tableau. “That things are durable and hardworking is especially important in a vacation home,” Cain says. “Leather looks even better as it patinas.”

A small abstract painting with a muted palette by Joanna Cutri is an intimate touch at the island, best taken in up close. “The owner was intrigued by Cutri’s work, so we found a spot for this,” Ganley shares. “She wanted work by female artists; this is a conversation piece that fits in well with the collection.”

Three bedrooms with king-sized beds, en suite baths, and a shared lanai ensure comfort for friends and family. The primary suite, with its commanding view and spa-like bath—now suffused with light thanks to a second set of doors from the bedroom—provides respite for the owners.

The home’s sole spot of color, an artwork of tinted polymer poured on aluminum panel by Susan English, hangs over the bed. “The husband asked for some color in the bedroom, so we gave it to him in ocean hues,” Ganley says. In talking about the procurement of art pieces, she and Cain note that the clear vision and collaboration contributed to the project’s success. “I like to bring the right people together to make the magic,” Cain concludes.

Learn more about the project team

Interior design: Tara Cain Design
Art advisor: Mason Lane Art Advisory

“Designing, for me, is an emotional process,” says Rosemary Hallgarten. “It’s all about feeling.”

That’s a very astute comment considering that the British-born designer’s rugs and textiles are so tactile and textural that you can’t help but reach out and touch them, even if you view them only in photographs in the pages of a magazine.

Hallgarten, who established her eponymous company a little over two decades ago, creates two collections each year. Her to-the-trade designs are sold in showrooms around the country.

Her newest launch, which she christened Aurora after the Roman goddess of the dawn, in comfort-cocoon hues of chocolate, cognac, blue-gray, and olive-green, draws its inspiration from summer’s waning light, the Baroque era, and the cathedral-like domed ceilings that held her eye during a recent trip to Puglia in Italy’s high-heeled boot.

“I always like to combine the ancient with the new,” she says, adding that Aurora “bumps up the sense of texture, warmth, and coziness.”

When you see Aurora, which Hallgarten says “speaks to a sense of Italy and its rich decorative history,” you can’t help but feel transported to the ancient towns of Puglia, where sunlight plays hide-and-seek in the arch of every wall and the curve of every doorway.

Hallgarten’s Ombre Glacier rug, whose organic pattern appears to cascade over its wool base, features what she calls a “shimmer” of gold highlighting the high-pile silk that mimics the light. The contrast of flat wool and high-pile silk in the Glacier series becomes a warm embrace that invites you to wrap yourself in luxury. “That’s the feeling I want to create—they are soft and comfortable enough to wear,” she says.Her Ombre Arch rugs, designed to complement curved furniture, are defined by a subtle, oh-so-soft-to-the-touch arch pattern.

Some of Hallgarten’s designs, such as Shiitake, skillfully create textural landscapes through the gradation of a single solid color.

When she’s designing, Hallgarten always starts with contrasting textures and materials—undyed alpaca fibers, sheep shearling, and brushed baby alpaca fibers—and builds her big ideas upon “little thoughts.” She makes sketches, and then produces samples until “everything comes together,” a process she likens to blending all the ingredients together much as a pastry chef does when baking a complex cake.

Long before sustainability was de rigueur in the fashion and design worlds, Hallgarten embraced it, commissioning craftspeople from Peru, Nepal, Brazil, and Turkey to bring her creations to life.

“When I started my company in 2001, I wasn’t thinking about sustainability per se,” she says. “I wanted to do something that no one else was doing. I fell in love with Peru and its history and its rich traditions. I saw it as a challenge to take the skills of these craftspeople, who were making traditional-style products for tourists, and translate their skills and designs to create a wider audience to keep them working.”

Feeling the hand of the artisan at work is what makes Hallgarten’s designs so special. It is, she says, “the difference between an oil or acrylic painting and a print—the print doesn’t have soul.”

In addition to supporting indigenous cultures, Hallgarten uses sustainable materials, including Peruvian alpaca fibers (the fleece has many colors), Tibetan wool (Himalayan sheep grow one of the more luxurious wools in the world), Tibetan cactus, nettles, and hemp (featured in her Botanical Collection), and Brazilian cotton, wool, rustic silk, banana, leather, jute, and sisal (no Amazon rainforests were harmed).

Hallgarten is a second-generation craftsperson. Her mother, Gloria Finn, turned the paintings of Milton Avery, Theodoros Stamos, Hans Mueller, and Anni Albers into floor coverings.

Early in her career, Hallgarten focused on jewelry; her first rugs, Falling Leaf, were inspired by her original creations. “Jewelry and rugs and textiles all have texture,” she says. “I’ve always loved chain mail, and it led me to jewelry. But I wanted to design something softer and to play with color.”Hallgarten, who is based in Connecticut, keeps in close contact with the artisans in her fold, visiting them often; she’s worked with many of them for decades.

“Everything I do comes from passion,” she says, adding that she creates designs that “are what I want in my own home. I feel lucky that I can keep on doing it.”

rosemaryhallgarten.com

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a day meant to honor the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The world of design has been enormously impacted by the contributions of smart, creative, and innovative women. And to illustrate that influence, here are six women-led brands and collections that are bringing energy, color, and functionality into our homes with their bold and personal visions.

Ashley Stark Home

Les by Ashley Stark Kenner, the company offers a selection that juxtaposes classic style with modern colors and shapes for tableware, rugs, lighting, and more that is fresh and compelling in any home.

ashleystarkhome.com

Folk and Flora by Carmen Nash for Troy Lighting

For her lighting line, designer Carmen Nash of decor brand Loft and Thought draws inspiration from folks stories and Black writers and artists like Zora Neale Hurston and Bill Traylor. The result is a high-personality collection of lamps featuring bold shapes, organic materials, and joyful details.

hvlgroup.com/Products/Designer/LoftandThought

Mustard Made

Sisters Becca and Jess Stern launched their line of colorful, versatile lockers in 2018, and have found success with an audience that appreciates their nostalgic value, functional value, and playful appeal.

mustardmade.com

Eny Lee Parker for Mitzi

Designer and artist Eny Lee Parker grounds her work in traditional ideas of slow-paced, intentional craftsmanship (craftswomanship?). In her collaboration with lighting brand Mitzi, she has created lamps, sconces, and ceiling lights that combine soft, natural shapes and neutral palettes for striking pieces that can work in many homes.

enyleeparker.com

SSS Design for Lulu and Georgia

Inspired by the patterns, textures, and patina of nature, Sarah Sherman Samuel has partnered with Lulu and Georgia on a line of outdoor furnishings that combine luscious curves, wood grains, and handwoven textiles to channel the lush and breezy Italian summer.

luluandgeorgia.com/pages/sarah-sherman-samuel

Élan Byrd for Lulu and Georgia

In her second collaboration with Lulu and Georgia, artist and textile designer Élan Byrd creates a collection of richly tactile and strikingly graphic rugs, wallpaper, pillows, and lighting that just beg to be touched.

luluandgeorgia.com/pages/elan-byrd-collection

Halfway between Los Cabos and Cabos San Lucas, atop a four-story residential building peering out to Santa Maria Cove, lies a portable jewel-box paradise.

Not that the penthouse itself can be moved, of course. No this is a 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom idyll that heartily embraces the Italian concept of mobili. That is, its walls stand still, but its high-style furnishings are flexible. They’re ready to move at the drop of a hat.

“It cultivates a sense of looseness and ease, but it’s still elegant,” says architect Abigail Turin, cofounder of the international firm of Kallos Turin. “It fits with coastal living because it gives you the feeling of being easy and relaxed, not formal.”

Turin and her cofounder Stephania Kallos met while working in the London office of rockstar architect David Chipperfield. From him, they learned how to collaborate with architects around the globe. “His model was to work all over the world, but without offices all over the world,” she says. “That became our model. We’ve worked in Austria, France, and South America with architects of record who’ve become our collaborators.”

After a year with Chipperfield, Turin moved to New York and remodeled four floors of Gordon Bunshaft’s groundbreaking 1952 Lever House, while Kallos remained in London. They formed their own firm in 2003; Turin is now based in San Francisco, and Kallos remains in England.

“We started out by faxing sketches back and forth, when that wasn’t being done much—it was before the pandemic,” Turin says. “Today, Stephania is still in London, and we work remotely.”

The firm’s Cabo penthouse is the product of a wide and deep understanding of the minimalism the firm embraces. Here, Turin worked overtime to blend modern and local languages in a way that’s fresh, elegant, and spirited. It is at once of its place, and new in its presentation.

She started with her own take on what it really means to have a vacation house at the tip of the Baja peninsula. Her first statement came from Le Corbusier’s Tabouret Wood Boxes from the 1940s, the Swiss architect’s definition of flexibility itself. “There are little handles on two sides so you can pick them up and move them,” she says. “They can be used as side tables or benches or stools and can be easily reassembled.”

In pursuit of chic and simple versatility, Turin then took aim at other furnishings that could be easily moved and realigned, for the feeling of freedom that’s inherent with travel and a laid-back sentiment. The best case in point might be a bar in the living area that’s actually a Poltrona Frau steamer trunk in disguise. “It’s an elegant but informal reconfiguration,” she says.

Her eclectic material palette reflects a near-genius sense of possibilities, with help from artisans who ply the craftsmanship of the region. A low table in the living area came from a slab of wood salvaged from a tree that fell nearby. Terracotta planters were traditional and locally sourced, handmade rugs were woven at a nearby mill, and handcrafted furnishings were created by local makers.

A mosaic of handmade tiles on the wall of the dining area came from Fireclay Tile in California. Floors are all travertine marble, and the woods for the living area are a mix of raw, natural, and ebonized oak, along with walnut. “The entry hall wall is terracotta-colored, with hat hooks that are all different kinds of woods,” she says.

Besides breathtaking views of Santa Maria Cove above unseen single family homes below, the penthouse looks out also to the desert and hills of Baja’s wilderness. Other developments there—erected behind gates and walls—seek to create a lush, non-native tropical environment that’s essentially a wannabe reality.

But here, the developers and their architects wanted to preserve, protect and promote the existing landscape, like cacti and succulents, rather than look to foreign plant materials that gobble up precious water. So the color palette at Maraville Resort is olive green and terracotta from the nearby flora, with pops of red from cactus flowers.

“The color palette works well there; it plays around with vibrant jolts,” Turin says. “It’s the same as the artisanal work, with hot shots of color.”

It’s a motif and a melody that extend even to the open-air deck that overlooks the cove, where sea and sky merge into shades of blue. “It’s a stone’s throw from the water, but way above it,” Turin says.

Inside, it may be portable, but outside this penthouse is at one with nature.

kallosturin.com