DESIGN by K+CO LIVING – INTERIORS BY KAREN B WOLF
PHOTOGRAPHY by JACOB SNAVELY
TEXT by DONNA ROLANDO
For their New Jersey shore retreat, a Maryland family wanted a distinctive touch, and that meant engaging their designer early on to breathe a fresh air of individuality into their builder’s speculative home.
Typically, “spec” houses depict the developer’s view of what will attract most buyers. But Amanda Gallagher Whetzel and her husband Ben wanted to steer far from cookie-cutter. Just two blocks from the beach and bay in Avalon, their six-bedroom coastal colonial had all the makings of the ideal getaway for the couple and their three school-age boys. But a designer’s touch was critical for this home away from home, so they wasted no time in hiring Karen B. Wolf of Beach Haven-based k+co Living.
For the new-construction home that Harbaugh Custom Homes began in 2022, Wolf explains: “We were brought in to basically work with them from the ground up.”
“I actually found Karen on Instagram,” says Amanda, who especially admires Wolf ’s skill at combining textures, wallpaper and art in a one-of-a-kind setting. “I saw the photos that she was posting of her beach home on Long Beach Island, and I was really attracted to her design.”
While giving a nod to coastal—this is the beach, after all—Wolf wanted a design not anchored to the shore but more universal in appeal. The designer pursued what she calls a “sunshine and mimosa” style— bright, happy and cozy. Throughout the home, she explains, wide-plank oak floors lend character and varied tones of blue “weave through each space with a slightly different spin to each room.”
Towering ceilings with strategically placed beams dramatize the open format, which unites kitchen, eating area and great room. Though big on beauty, the 22-foot-tall ceilings challenged her design chops in the great room, where she worked to avoid a visual disconnect at the fireplace. Her decision to bump out the fireplace and raise it to the ceiling with a sandy herringbone tile created a focal point of grand proportions. She kept the surround a simple, concrete-like material so as not to compete.
Regarding a further challenge, she confides that finding center base for another hit— the driftwood-style Arteriors chandelier—“was not easy.” Yet none of that tension is evident in the neutral, calming design of the great room, where pops of island blue serenade taupe couches beside a white-washwood cocktail table. A yarn area rug offers another “hint of blue,” as does the Carol Benson-Cobb abstract atop the stairs. Embracing the unique, rope ottomans by Palecek are supersized and the carved end tables multi-dimensional.
The blues actually got their start at the kitchen island with the cool sophistication of Benjamin Moore’s Santorini Blue, which Wolf says serves as anchor. Ripple glass pendants deliver impact, she explains, while both woven stools and sink-area sconces resonate coastal. Wolf chose to avoid the “waning” white kitchen trend by featuring Shaker cabinets in a soft beige.
For counters and backsplash, the latest technology helped her one-up nature by imprinting porcelain with Calacatta-gold-style veining more realistic than stone. While today the sweeping drama of the customized wooden hood is a highlight, “we thought it was going to be a huge eyesore,” Wolf recalls. By boxing unsightly venting, she says, “we were able to make it work.”
The designer’s effort to achieve impact with lighting extends to the eating area, where Palecek’s coco-shell chandelier derives its beauty from coconut shells. A Hickory White ash table can be supersized for guests, its rope and mahogany chairs clad in performance fabric.
“We wanted to immediately establish a design sensibility upon entry into the home and create that sunshine-and-mimosa feel,” Wolf says of an entry foyer that impresses with Christopher Farr floral cork wallpaper and an RH whitewashed, beaded chandelier. The home’s connection with nature is also revealed here with soft organic sconces and a rattan looped mirror.
For homeowner Amanda, the primary bedroom inspires the sweetest design dreams. In this third-floor perch with amazing views, she says, “It’s just very soft and very serene, and when the sun is setting the whole room lights up and it feels cozy.”
For the beauty Amanda so admires, Wolf wrapped the room in blush-colored ombre wallpaper by York and added Schumacher’s cherry-blossom wallpaper at the desk area. Three-dimensional butterflies by Trudy Elliott are a joyful touch alongside the Bramble headboard in rattan caning like the nightstands.
Rope-embellished chairs inspire relaxation either in the bedroom or on the deck just outside.
In room after room, Wolf demonstrated ways to elevate. In a guest bathroom, for instance, she used a custom arch of glass tile in a fan shape for a “really spectacular wall” above the builder’s vanity. She also derived warmth from brass hardware and elegance from statuary marble tile flooring.
Comfortable living isn’t just for indoors. Wolf ensured that family fun could easily transition from the great room to the cabana area with outdoor floor pillows so that the kids could plop down and play games. “We wanted our outside furniture to coordinate with the exterior,” she adds, hence the color scheme. Tying in with the star of this yard— the in-ground pool—the outdoor kitchen is bright and blue with its three-dimensional tile.
“Our family loves the outcome,” Amanda says of the design. “She was able to take this home and make it very personal and cozy for our family. We can just go there and relax. It’s our retreat.”