South Florida condos often adhere to a familiar aesthetic: glassy, pristine, and anonymous, with gleaming white walls and plenty of polished marble. For a recent project in West Palm Beach, AD PRO Directory designer Louis Lin chose not to lean into the cliché. Rather than echo the stark brilliance of the sun, he drew on its warmth, creating an interior defined by rich textures, natural materials, and a palette of sunbaked hues for a couple’s new vacation home.
The open floor plan of the 4,000-square-foot condo required some clever problem-solving to create spaces for the clients, who are in their 60s, and their grown family to dine, play, and relax together. But obscuring the panoramic views of the Atlantic “would be a crime,” laughs Lin, who had previously designed the clients’ Upper East Side home base. “This is a couple that are used to the fast-paced sort of lifestyle, concrete-jungle environment in the city,” he says. In the vacation home, he aimed to “bring the relaxed lifestyle, the nature of Florida, and a different pace of life into the new residence while keeping their ritual and daily rhythms of the lifestyle they’re used to.”
Lin terms his approach “interior landscaping,” using plants and nature-inflected pieces as key tools for shaping space in the glass-wrapped penthouse on the 16th floor. Consider the living area, where custom reclaimed-chestnut consoles behind the L-shaped Montauk Mary Jane sofas hold a Dracaena Marginata and a banyan bonsai that read like art, while delineating a conversation zone in the otherwise wall-free room. Sebastian Herkner’s walnut Veo screen continues the theme with its organic curves. Brazilian architect Lia Siqueira’s coffee tables feature carved cellular forms, and a custom terrazzo block by Studio Hoon Kim incorporates fragments of foraged wood embedded within its surface. Outside, on the 1,000-square-foot terrace, potted palms echo the specimen trees and plants used inside, creating a natural extension of the living space.
The ferocity of the sun served as another inspiration for Lin. “It’s very bright and it’s intense, and that inspires my color palette.” In the main living space, the spectrum of West Palm Beach’s “golden, sometimes reddish” light is reflected in the ombré velvet on the sofas and cushions. Lime-plastered walls and ceilings create a soft, continuous envelope throughout the penthouse. The result is a space that feels serene, not cartoonishly coastal. “You really don’t feel boundaries,” he reflects of the aerie. “I hope you just feel like you’re part of nature.”
Originally published in Architectural Digest
Text by Katherine Burns Olson
Photos by William Jess Laird
