open house: gulf getaway

This is another entry in a series of posts titled “open house” in which we offer photographic tours of selected projects.

With the first hint of summer season in the air, our sails naturally lilt toward the call of the sea. Salt air tickles the senses and flashbacks of the annual sweaty, sandy visits of our childhood conjure remembrances of all things coastal. We’ve been honored with a number of commissions of beach sidled second homes. These are always fun projects; carefully constructed egos are left in town with the dress clothes and casual finds its way, not only on the body, but in the architecture.

This particular house, built in the bucolic town of Rosemary Beach, Florida is one of those dressed-down designs. Built by Benecki Homes and featuring slip-covered bleached-out interiors by the talented Melanie Turner, the house presents a fairly stoic face to the street. One enters the house, Charleston-style, through a solid gate and underneath the shade of an overhanging second floor loggia. The house immediately opens onto a courtyard, featuring a cooling dip pool and landscaped oasis. A good house is like a good person, you really don’t get to know their character until you are fully invited in.

I’ve never understood the trend to decorate beach houses in hot, bright colors. This house appropriately goes in the opposite direction. Once inside, the seemingly serendipitous interior is draped all in blanched white, like a summer house where sheets covering furniture have yet to be removed for the upcoming season. Touches of pale, pale blue recall the azure sky and gulf just outside. Cordially welcoming the unshod and un-showered, this family beach retreat seems to emotionally abate the heat and offers refreshing shelter to visiting vacationers.