Old Florida Meets Modern Luxury: Inside a Stunning Bird Key Waterfront Retreat
Noubikko - Lifestyle Moderator 
On the Florida barrier island of Bird Key, there’s a new vacation home that lives to invite the outdoors in. The owners, a family based in Ohio, bought the property in the luxury gated community, and replace the old house on the site with a light, bright residence that serves as a retreat for their extended family, which includes numerous grandchildren. To create their dream house, the couple brought together a collaborative team led by Ricky Perrone, president of Sarasota-based Perrone Construction, that included the architectural firm Geoff Chick & Associates and Allyson Runnels Interiors.
“The client had been to the Panhandle and fell in love with the native-style architecture of Old Florida,” says architect Geoff Chick, AIA, whose eponymous firm is based in Freeport. “I merged that style with the white concrete of St. Augustine, the state’s oldest city. It’s different from anything else in the area.” The nearly 8,000-sqaure-foot H-shaped house, made of smooth sand stucco with shell tabby and coral stone accents, has subtle blue siding on its upper level that references the water.
It’s a study in thirds: The larger main section, which is defined by columns that support an upper porch, is set back, opening the space for a pair of wings that house a trio of garages on their lower levels that are topped by utilitarian rooms, including a gym and a laundry and a bunk room for sometime sleepovers by the grandkids. The design was dictated, in large part, by flood-zone regulations that require living spaces to be raised seven feet above ground level and by height restrictions. Chick used these metrics to good measure, designing a large house that spans the width of the lot but that doesn’t overwhelm the space.
“The tiered terraces create an uninterrupted panorama of the bay – an ingenious composition that conjures the serene sensation of standing on the deck of a boat, surrounded by endless water and sky,” says Perrone, whose company helped the clients in their property search. The required elevated living spaces, Chick adds, “are an asset. It gives better views of the water, and we used terraces without rails to transition to the lap pool in back, which looks like it’s part of the waterfront.”
The house is made of state-of-the-art durable materials, including fiber-cement Nichiha siding, which is moisture resistant and looks like natural wood, and Boral trim that’s weather resistant and easy to maintain. Its standing-seam aluminum roof includes solar panels discreetly placed over the rear porch, and its intricate architectural elements, which Chick says “celebrate the heritage of wood-frame architecture,” are made of weather-resistant PVC.
A quartet of palm trees frames the front of the house, which is reached via a circular paved motor court. The garage—two on one wing, one on the othe—are cleverly concealed; additional parking is on swaths of grass bordered by lines of pavers. The palms appear again in the back, creating a layer of privacy and enhancing the home’s embrace of the waterfront. One of the more unusual features is the upper-level swimming pool, which was designed for the smaller children to take a dip in. It flows down a story to the lap pool.
The dock, too, is unique. It includes a flat platform that serves as a play area for the children and that lowers to launch kayaks and paddleboards. To convey the feeling of Old Florida style with a contemporary twist, interior designer Allyson Runnels added blue and teal accent pieces to the white walls, a technique that makes the water the center of attention. “The clients have a real connection to color,” she says. “And they know color and wanted to incorporate it.”
The hues and floral patterns selected were inspired by a blouse that the wife wore to one of the initial meetings. (A pair of chairs in the living room is clad in a blue-green floral pattern.) The main living spaces—kitchen, dining room and living room—are in an open layout set against a wall of glass that’s softened by sheer floor-to-ceiling draperies. Their subtle stripe, a coral motif, conjures the beach, and a single painting, hung from brass chains, floats in space. “The drapes have lots of detail, but they don’t stop your eye,” Runnels says. “You still look past them to see the view of the palm trees and water.”
The effect is repeated in the primary suite with sheer white bed curtains that speak of softness. The antique brick of the fireplace surround and the antiqued console and chest of drawers convey a sense of classic style, which is a reflection of the wife’s taste. Because the grandchildren are frequent visitors, everything had to be functional. The furnishings are clad in slipcovers or upholstered in indoor-outdoor fabrics.
“The interior design embraces a vibrant Floridian spirit,” Perrone says. “It’s a kaleidoscope of celadon, seafoam, citrus and sun-washed blues balanced by crisp white millwork and coffered, limewashed pecky cypress ceilings.” At a party to celebrate the completion of the house, the owners invited the design teams to spend the night. “We hung out in the dipping pool after dinner and ate in the breakfast nook,” Chick says. “We don’t usually get the opportunity to live in the house.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
Allyson Runnels Interiors;
Landscape Design: Michael A. Gilkey Inc.
Pool Contractor: Water Designs of Sarasota
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