This Sprawling Tropical Villa Is Basically a Slim Aarons Photo Come to Life
When asked to update her client’s sun-drenched historic Palm Beach estate, Kemble Interiors designer Lori Deeds knew she needed to make this colorful transformation count. “It’s a home he lived in with his first wife—an actress—who passed away,” she says of the homeowner. “But now he was dating a woman and they were deeply in love, so we agreed some spaces needed updating.”
At first, it was a very small list and slow to start, but things soon ramped up—and that list got a lot bigger. “In April 2020 I got the phone call that he proposed, and the [now] fiancé said they wanted to move forward with a full redo!”
And with a “very nice” budget and healthy scope of work, the couple asked if she could meet a relatively tight Christmas deadline, so it could be completed by the time they wed. “I didn’t know if I could, given that the world was shut down [due to the pandemic],” recalls Deeds. “But I was there every day and put my head down and did it.”
With her clients splitting time between their Manhattan and Martha’s Vineyard homes, Deeds was in touch by Zoom daily as she made headway on the 1925 Spanish Revival situated on 1.75 acres dotted with lush green gardens. In the style of famed Palm Beach architect Maurice Fatio, the property—including a 6-bedroom, 7½-bathroom, 8,000-square-foot main house, a 1,200-square-foot guesthouse, and a slightly more modest 800-square-foot cottage—presented the designer an opportunity to give the century-old home a more youthful feel. “Palm Beach has really embraced an elevated casual vibe—people are more chill now, so [design] isn’t so stuffy or formal anymore.”
From a coat of white paint and custom upholstery in a parrot-themed sunroom to a pattern-perfect guest suite with a connection to Winston Churchill, this warm weather retreat is ready for its next chapter.
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