BY SEARLINA BODDEN

A New Classic

80 | InsideOut Autumn 2016

[ INSIDE OUT | HOMES ]

CAYMAN COASTAL LIVING GETS A LUXE UPGRADE VIA A NEW PRIVATE RESIDENCE IN SOUTH SOUND THAT BALANCES ULTRA-MODERN DECOR AND CLASSICALLY EXECUTED DESIGN.

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Amongst Cayman’s crop of well-heeled property

developers and interior designers, there

seems to be a baseline standard of beautiful,

contemporary homes. Tour luxury homes from district-

to-district and you will likely feel hard-pressed to find

one that you did not think was, at the very least, grand.

Such was my thinking when I toured a “modern” new

home in South Sound that I was told was unlike anything

in Cayman. Modern, well, that could mean anything, but

it takes a certain level of intention and execution to be

“modern” enough to make news.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Christina Hefner is an interior designer at Bronte

Property Group, a boutique property development firm

in Grand Cayman. She worked on the design team for

Seascape, a 9,500-square-foot home on the ocean in

South Sound.

“The clients love modern design and wanted to

create a home that was architecturally unique to

Cayman,” says Christina, recipient of a 2015 Governor’s

Award for Design and Construction Excellence in the

Cayman Islands.

“A lot of front-end design work was put into the

conceptualizing of unique architectural elements for

the project and ensuring the finished product was very

strong visually.”

“THE CLIENTS LOVE MODERN DESIGN AND WANTED TO CREATE A HOME THAT WAS

ARCHITECTURALLY UNIQUE TO CAYMAN.”

The clients chose contemporary furniture that doubled as artwork.

Wood accents like these bannisters run through Seascape in European White Oak.

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Custom millwork in mixed materials of high gloss white and satin white, with hidden finger drawer pulls, create a seamless look in the kitchen.

“Unique architectural elements” is an

understatement when you are standing in front

of Seascape. The main building’s shape is a

conversation starter in itself, with a simple square

shape coated in a soft, rendered white. The house

stands apart from its neighbors not only because

of its generous proportions, grand drive and

sophisticated slickness, but also because it feels

surprisingly like it belongs there.

“We created balance to the exterior with the

mix of materials and textures and also a beautiful

use of landscaping,” says Christina, highlighting

the building’s harmony against the Cayman

coastal landscape. “Simple details, like the use of

herringbone pattern on the driveway, gave the home

a subtle, but warmer entry.”

Even with strong exterior design elements like a

slate-gray ledgestone tiled feature wall creating a

bold facade, Seascape manages to be both visually

striking and softly inviting.

JuxtapositionSuffice it to say, Seascape more than defied

my expectation of being just another modern,

luxury home. Two years in the making and on

special commission by a private owner, the house

is simultaneously ultra-modern and classically

executed.

“The architecture style is very modern, with hard

lines and strong attention paid to creating different

depths to the spaces which creates a very visually and

aesthetically pleasing building,” Christina explains.

“We minimized our color palette to very clean

whites, blacks, and grays, which keeps your focus

drawn to the architectural details, and the beauty of

the simplicity of those elements.”

The restraint in the design’s base color palette

created breadth for Christina’s imagination, as she

started to build an interior design concept for the

home’s eventual owners.

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Strong featuresFor an exercise in modern minimalism,

Seascape is decidedly lacking in beige, predictable interior décor. What it delivers in spades is full-on glamour and an elegantly simple, function-driven design.

From the “infinity kitchen” which opens onto both an oceanfront dining room and vanishing edge pool to the expanses of hidden pantry and shelving wrapped in glittering high-gloss white paint, the home’s flow and ease is undeniable.

The biggest departure from Seascape’s understated elegance is the home’s furnishings. The pieces were sourced through a distributor in New York City and were meant to introduce an element of art into the highly-functional and multi-purpose space.

“Many of the feature furniture items within the home are conversation pieces in that they are mechanized, or they rotate, or they move and change shapes,” she says, referencing pieces such as a dining room table custom-cut in glass, which can be expanded or collapsed in size by the touch of a button.

Artwork plays a large role in the Seascape design and thus bold colors such as turquoise, apple green and deep red create rhythm from room to room. Even as new motifs are introduced via color and pattern, there is a feeling of synergy throughout the entire house.

Bold colors like turquoise, deep red and apple green make the furniture ‘pop.’

‘Picture windows’ frame views from every room, hallway or space in the home.

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Dining with a view.

There are several mechanized pieces of furniture at Seascape including this motorized,

expanding-leaf dining table.

bone structureAs modern as it may be, Seascape is much

more about luxury and function than it is about its interior design.

“If you take away the furniture and artwork from the space and think about the bones of the interior, interior and exterior have a perfect harmony with the balance of minimalism, luxury, and strong features,” Christina says.

“The idea behind the interiors was to provide the clients, and any potential homeowner with these beautiful bones, and simplistic style, so that whatever furniture and décor style they used to fill the space, those pieces would ‘pop’ and become a feature,” she says.

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