Classic Florida Style

Book excerpt: The Miami Beach-based architecture and interior design firm presents luxurious private residences from Orlando to Key West, reinterpreting Florida styles from Mediterranean to Art Deco. Though the husband-and-wife team of Taylor & Taylor travel widely to find design inspiration in the U.S., Europe, South and Central America, and the Caribbean—they always retain their first love: the historic architecture of Florida itself and its blend of rustic and romantic, from Italianate palazzos to Art Deco hotels and Key West’s bungalows. Classic Florida Style presents ten coastal residences in resplendent photography to match the tropical hues and lush natural surroundings of the sunshine state. Design lovers will see not only homes that integrate orange groves and sunsets reflecting off Biscayne Bay, but also gorgeous interiors that take full advantage of Florida’s crystalline light—superbly crafted spaces in which the ocean breezes can almost be felt ruffling the curtains. Locales range from a private island near Key West, to Coral Gables, Fisher Island, and Lake Thonotosassa, northeast of Tampa—even the South Carolina home of one Florida-minded football giant, a former quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. Whether drawing on the architecture of British Colonial Bermuda, or the Spanish-inspired designs of George Washington Smith and Wallace Neff in California, each home takes full advantage of glamorous indoor-outdoor living and a seamless blend of native Florida materials and singular antiques.