Go With The Flow

For those who love to entertain, a home with an open, flexible layout is the perfect backdrop for creating memorable moments. 

So, the easy flow of the house in Delray Beach’s Delaire Country Club was hugely appealing to the two buyers. They also loved the organic feel, neutral palette and mixed media of textures that interior designer Jill Jones of Brown in Boca Raton had incorporated into the 5,007-square-foot spec home, which they purchased at the drywall stage in 2017. 

“They were spot-on [in agreement] with everything we had done,” Jones says of the homeowners, who then hired her to help with final finishes and selecting furnishings.

The homeowners, who moved from another country club community in Boca Raton, desired both style and comfort, preferring that every room be livable, inviting, and conducive to formal and informal entertaining. The open floor plan of the one-level home, comprising four bedrooms and five-and-a-half baths, perfectly fit the bill.

“This house flowed very nicely from room to room,” Jones says. 

The interior design project took about nine months to complete. The couple was open to Jones’ ideas and gave her full rein to use her creativity, she says. For the furnishings, Jones came in “at or slightly under budget,” she says.

The neutral color palette enhances the visual flow of the home, beginning with the floors. White porcelain tile – with hatch marks that make it nonslip and provide texture – covers all the floors except the master bedroom, which is tiled in a wood-grain porcelain. The paint color in most areas is Sherwin Williams City Loft, a light taupe; in the master bedroom, Jones used Sherwin Williams Shoji White, a warm white with beige undertones.

Other than soft hints of sage green, the main pops of color in the otherwise neutral color scheme come from the bold, primary hues of the couple’s art collection, including works by Brazilian pop artist Romero Britto. Jones had the art reframed in a more transitional style, which gave the works a completely different look that fit beautifully with the new design, she says. 

Continuing the trend of multiple finishes and a streamlined aesthetic, the kitchen showcases a walnut island with stainless-steel uprights, a neutral quartzite top, walnut and stainless-steel bar stools, and quartzite countertops. The cabinetry is white high-gloss wood, with stainless steel, walnut and frosted glass accents as well as some open shelving. 

Because the kitchen flows into the family room, Jones used the same walnut in the back detail of the sofa and the wall unit. The homeowner wanted a fireplace for ambiance, and the 72-inch electric fireplace from Modern Flame is fitted into the walnut console on a raised stainless-steel base. Linen wallpaper provides textural interest behind the console and wall unit. Twogray velvet chairs swivel to face views of the golf course, the covered patio and the summer kitchen.

For entertaining convenience, the living room features a bar with a double-waterfall quartzite top and a wall unit with twin vertical wine coolers on either side of a wall-mounted TV and beverage drawers underneath. The wallpaper is a bronze grass cloth.

The mixed media of textures is also present in the dining room. The Century Furniture table, in a finish called smoke, extends to seat 10. The chairs feature a linen-textured cloth with metallic thread and wood detailing that matches the finish on the table.

In a niche behind the table, a custom-designed mirror was installed atop custom cabinetry. The glass element continues in a slim, rectangular chandelier with acrylic teardrops over the dining table and three arched glass candleholders. 

The couple has his and hers offices that reflect their personalities, Jones says. They converted one of the guest bedrooms into an office “man cave,” from which the male homeowner conducts his business. The room has complete black-out shades, a large TV and three fully reclining seats.

The sleek powder room, which Jones calls her “gem,” features a custom asymmetrical vanity top with a waterfall edge, a glossy walnut apron and a gray acrylic sink. The wall behind the vanity is tiled in metallic porcelain; on either side of that are chrome and acrylic wall sconces and porcelain tile resembling slate. The other walls in the powder room are covered with silk-textured wallpaper.

Serene neutrals and muted metallics make the master bedroom a private oasis. The silver detail of the wallpaper is echoed in the linens of the fully upholstered channel bed with a 78-inch-high headboard. The drawer faces of the night tables are linen-textured with “a neutral metallic flair,” Jones says. A silk area rug provides sheen and texture while a champagne-toned acrylic chandelier casts a soft glow.

His and hers bathrooms allow separate personal spaces but connect with a common shower. The neutral palette continues here via white tile with champagne veining, quartzite vanity tops and soft metallic facing on cabinetry. 

The sole challenge Jones faced in the project was making adjustments for the harsh morning sun coming in through the home’s large windows. Originally, she put motorized screen shades only in the family room. 

“We were hoping we would not have to cover the windows,” she says.

But they soon realized that shades were needed on the entire back of the house. The solution was “clean and simple,” Jones says: She hid the screen shades behind a 1-by-12-inch board at the ceiling line, painted to match the walls, from one end of the house to the other.

“I’ve been in the business for over 32 years – 17 for Brown,” she says. “It has been an absolute pleasure to do this project alongside the builder and homeowners, especially seeing how happy they are in the house. It is one of the easiest jobs in my career that I have had the privilege to work on.” O