Sabal Palm Lane
The Project
Design and building of a 5,400 sq ft luxury house in Vero Beach, Florida.
What the client liked
The plot location for a lakefront house that would overlook the golf course in an up-market gated golf community. The view from the West facing garden that allows to take full advantage or the spectacular Floridian sunsets.
The pool with views onto the golf course
The Brief
Design a house that will be full of light, with high ceilings, lots of windows and French doors that open onto the lush garden, the patio, the pool and the views, whilst allowing for the breeze to keep the house cool. The house would loosely be divided in 2 main areas: the masters’ living area - to include family room, kitchen and Master bedroom – and the guests’ area with formal reception, dining and guest bedrooms. The client was also a car enthusiast and wanted a 4 car garage. The house style was to stay in line with the community guidelines. This included a one floor only layout.
The reflecting pool
The Design
The light and breezy objective could only be achieved by having every room in the house open to at least two sides. To do this, we organised the whole house to be U-shaped around a courtyard that we landscaped with a reflecting pool and tropical vegetation.
The new living area
The kitchen and family rooms have large windows and are designed for casual indoor/outdoor living, opening onto a large loggia and the swimming pool area. The formal reception and dining rooms both open onto the courtyard that becomes an extension to both for elegant entertaining and to take advantage of the evening cooler air.
The sizeable master bedroom boasts magnificent lake and golf course views and comes complete with his and hers dressing rooms and his and hers bathrooms. The four guest bedrooms all have a degree of privacy with en-suite bathrooms and a separate breakfast area.
The house sits on a plot at a street corner, which allowed us to create two entrances/accesses to the house – one formal for guests, leading to the foyer and reception room and one to be used daily by the owners, bringing their cars to the garages and off-loading any shopping near the kitchen.
An outdoor seating area by the swimming pool
"Gerard used his unique ability to see the extraordinary potential of the plot’s location to create a house that affords both privacy, light, and stunning views of the lake and golf course. Despite its original design, the house offers great practicality and blends well with the neighborhood "
-Michael, client
The dining room
Landscaping was an integral part of the project and included creating areas of privacy, whilst promoting and enhancing the magnificent views towards the lake and the golf course. In the process, we re-located half a dozen centenarian green oak trees to lend the house the feeling it had always been there, protected by these giants.
The oaks' new position
The green oaks were moved by a crane
The Floor Plan
The Finished Project
Building the house was an ambitious project in the middle of the real estate crisis of the late noughties. The result, however, was so spectacular that to this date, the house is still seen as an example of creativity in the community. High specifications materials and appliances were used throughout. Light, breezy and taking full advantage of the magnificent tropical setting, it offers the owners the flexibility of a holiday home that can be used by the couple a lot of the time, using their “masters’ area”, whilst providing plenty of room and comfort for friends, children and grandchildren who often come and visit this beautiful part of Florida.
