Ocean Reef apartment

This apartment at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida was designed to create an ambiance of "zen with zing”, says Interior Designer Phyllis Taylor. She had previously worked with the clients, a prominent Midwestern family, on a Palm Beach-style vacation home in the same resort community. As the years went on, the family found they needed more space to accommodate an ever-expanding brood. With no acreage to build a guest cottage, the couple jumped at the opportunity to purchase in a new development just a quick golf cart ride away. The wife’s love of the color blue was expressed through the use of antique indigo fabrics and the Japanese respect for natural materials. The new construction apartment was turned over to the owner with prominent sharp angles and a challenging floor plan. The Taylor & Taylor team embraced the unit’s bones and brought order to the layout by employing the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi. Derived from Buddhist teachings, the school of thought embraces imperfection and draws inspiration from the ever changing harmony of nature. Through each room, Indigo fragments are sewn into throw pillows, framed as wall art and gracefully draped across furnishings, establishing a color narrative that carries across the hallway rug and powder bath detailing. Japanese references continue with details like the glass and rope pendants in the kitchen, inspired by the culture’s rope and knot art, and in the use of woven textures throughout, such as a living area armchair that nods to traditional basket weaving.

 Interior Architecture by Maria Rignack

Interiors by Phyllis Taylor

Photos by Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn