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Do you believe in manifestation? I certainly do, thanks to one particular house in Palm Beach that stands as material proof.
As a child, I had no idea I wanted to be a decorator—I just loved beautiful things, and I suppose the golden age of Hollywood is to blame. Movies like Top Hat, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and, of course, The Palm Beach Story fueled my imagination, exposing me to dramatic, fantastical interiors with curious room arrangements and Technicolor palettes. While they hardly taught me the nuts and bolts of decorating, these films certainly did cement a lifelong bent toward a certain style.
The “draped” plaster wall treatment by Agustin Hurtado provides the backdrop for a custom curved Anthony Lawrence-Belfair console and antique chair in black horsehair.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip Berdek
In the adjoining hallway, Jansen-inspired plaster palms pop against Benjamin Moore’s Spring Sky.
Carmel BrantleyDecades later, during interviews or design-related conversations, the question of a dream project would often arise. Without hesitation, I always responded: a Regency pavilion in Palm Beach. So when a couple asked me to rehabilitate a dilapidated 1980s Palm Beach manse with Regency bones during the quiet early days of the pandemic, it felt like the universe had conspired to deliver this long-held vision.
Miles Redd scoured auction houses including Doyle and Stair in New York for blue-and-white china to fill the dining room. The custom Matthew Steel dining table, painted in a faux-bois finish, is surrounded by horsehair-covered mahogany dining chairs. Rug, Patterson Flynn.
Carmel Brantley
The custom Renzo Mongiardino–inspired blockprint ceiling light shades by Bhon Bhon are lined in white eyelet.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip Berdek
In the butler’s pantry’s hidden powder room, custom faux-tile trompe–l’œil wallpaper by Iksel surrounds a Bories & Shearron-designed sink with Waterworks fittings. Sconces, Visual Comfort.
Carmel BrantleyFor my dream project, I was able to assemble a dream team of co-creators who could truly understand and execute a home of cinematic fervor. The architectural firm Bories & Shearron immediately came to the minds of myself and my business partner, David Kaihoi. A longtime friend, James Shearron was similarly captivated by many of the same classic films that I was. Growing up together in the industry, he and I have always shared a similar idea about what constitutes timeless elegance. His partner, Dick Bories, brought extraordinary precision and knowledge of classical proportions to the project and, together, they began a remarkable transformation.
Intricately carved pecky cypress millwork designed by Bories & Shearron creates a fabulous frame for the library’s coromandel lacquered relief panels, painted by Agustin Hurtado. The skirted table is covered in a hand-blocked Studio Four fabric and trimmed in a Samuel & Sons bullion fringe. A Chinese export lacquer chair that once belonged to Annette de la Renta sits alongside an 18th-century French gilt table. The custom Turkish sofa is by Fine Arts Furniture.
Carmel Brantley
A jib door, disguised with vintage book spines, leads to the primary suite; above it is a painting by Ryan McMenamy. The wingback chair was re-covered in a combination of Prelle silk velvet and Brunschwig & Fils horsehair.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip Berdek
In the family room, pecky cypress paneled walls set a more laid-back tone for nature-inspired furnishings like a pressed botanical specimen by William Stuart Thornton and skirted table in a verdant Jasper fabric.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip BerdekWhat was essentially a shell of a house—it had been neglected for years before my client purchased it—was stripped down to its cinder-block footprint and rearranged to create soigné rotundas (later swagged in white plaster relief by the brilliant decorative artist Agustin Hurtado), graceful galleries (lined in an allée of plaster palms against pale blue lacquer), and perfect Regency details (keystones, busts, and pediments) that honored the home’s historical inspiration while making it suitable for contemporary living. Pecky cypress and coromandel lacquer relief (again realized by Hurtado) wrap the library walls, while terrazzo floors inspired by Marella Agnelli’s estate at Villar Perosa lead visitors through the halls to the primary suite and a sleek 1930s-style mirror-and-marble bath.
In the enchanting guest sitting room, soothing shades of green envelop the space, from the Japanese Cranes scenic wallpaper from Iksel to the custom sofa upholstered in Mali Stripe from Jasper. Low vellum coffee table and Danish rococo gilt mirror, both from Stair Galleries.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip BerdekOutside, the client’s longtime friends, landscape architects Fernando Wong and Tim Johnson, turned a barren dirt lot into a rich paradise that feels like a quiet oasis in a famously buzzy town. They approached the neglected backyard with visionary confidence, turning it into a park of rills and reflecting pools that perfectly complements the cinematic quality of the house, extending its elegant interior language into the landscape itself.
All-out opulence reigns in the primary bathroom, which is covered in antiqued mirror paneling and trimmed in unlacquered brass. An Italian polychrome marble bust of Augustus purchased at Christie’s rests on a scagliola pedestal.
Carmel Brantley“Manifestation isn’t just wishful thinking—it’s the persistence of the right vision combined with the right collaborators at the right moment.”
MILES REDD
The primary bedroom is wrapped in Iksel’s Governor’s Visit wallpaper panels (available through Schumacher). An 18th-century George III carved giltwood mirror hangs above the Louis XV commode, both from Sotheby’s.
Carmel Brantley
Antiqued mirror trim ups the glamour quotient in the bedroom. The gilt-metal and ebonized recamier is upholstered in silk taffeta and Schumacher’s Venetian Silk Velvet.
Carmel BrantleyWhat makes this entire project particularly meaningful is its astounding materialization during the uncertainty of the pandemic. While the world stood still for over a year, our collaboration flourished. The limitations of that period—restricted travel, supply chain challenges, reduced working hours—actually forced a kind of focus and ingenuity that might not have emerged in healthier times. There’s something poetic about a dream home taking shape during a time when we were all confined to our own isolated spaces.
The owner enlisted Fernando Wong and Tim Johnson to transform the surrounding landscape from a dirt-covered lot into a lushly planted Palm Beach oasis.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip Berdek
The custom tufted sofa by Luther Quintana and Billy Baldwin slipper chair are accented with cushions in the same Jasper floral. Iron chairs from The Heveningham Collection provide patio seating outside.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip Berdek
Bories & Shearron added Regency-style ironwork to create an airy, elegant loggia. Chairs, The Heveningham Collection.
Carmel Brantley
Standing in the completed home now, with sunlight from the gardens streaming through perfectly proportioned windows onto classical moldings, I’m reminded that manifestation isn’t just wishful thinking—it’s the persistence of the right vision combined with the right collaborators at the right moment. This Palm Beach restoration stands as testament to what can happen when dreams are given the space, time, and talent to become reality.
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In a corner of the living room set up for games, a George II–style card table found at Doyle was painted chalky white by Agustin Hurtado and is surrounded by Chippendale dining chairs upholstered in a Lisa Fine Textiles stripe with flirty pleated skirts. Nineteenth-century French Directoire mahogany bookcase from Newel Gallery.
Carmel Brantley -
Pressed botanical herbariums found on Etsy are framed with French mats from Tresorie to create a charming garden-like feel in this study.
Ori Harpaz; Styled by Filip Berdek -
In the primary bedroom, a pagoda-shaped canopy, unexpected in rattan (custom-made by Walter’s Wicker), is even more captivating lined with a Bennison stripe on the interior. The silk matka curtains are appliquéd with Decor de Paris serpentine trim. Gilt metal and coromandel side tables from Doyle.
Carmel Brantley
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 17 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
