DESIGN by KAREN WOLF INTERIORS
PHOTOGRAPHY by RAQUEL LANGWORTHY
TEXT by LESLIE GARISTO PFAFF
The decks were not an afterthought. When Valerie and Rich Falcone were working with designer Karen Wolf of K+Co Living to create a waterfront house on Long Beach Island, they didn’t just want to bring the outdoors in; they wanted to draw the inhabitants out. “We planned to spend as much time outside as in,” Valerie says, referring to her immediate family (two daughters, 10 and 13, and a black Lab) and the many friends and extended-family members who’d be visiting throughout the summer. So the decks comprise the same square footage as the actual house, providing ample opportunities for sunbathing, al fresco dining and taking in unobstructed vistas of sand, sea, sky and bay.
There are three decks in this reverse-living house: the family’s private deck off their bedrooms on the ground floor, a rooftop deck for watching sunsets over the bay and the main deck off the second-story great room, designed for family and guests and just right for all manner of vacation living. “We really wanted the outside to feel comfortable,” says Valerie. So Wolf provided cushiony chaise longues, a daybed swing, a firepit surrounded by outsized, comfortable chairs and a dining table that expansively seats 14. There’s also a pergola that affords shade during the hottest parts of the day and a counter that connects directly to the kitchen through transom-style windows.
Dedicating so much space to outdoor living meant that the indoor spaces required a highly creative use of space. “Literally every inch was used for dual or multiple functionality,” says Wolf. “In that way, it was almost like a cruise ship or a yacht.” There’s a bunk room, for instance, that sleeps 12, with three bunk beds, some of which contain storage drawers, running alongside each of two walls. A round table in the great room provides extra seating, with storage underneath; it’s where the girls do their crafting and the family works on puzzles, and the top can be removed, revealing a space for poker or bumper pool beneath.
Like the exterior spaces, the interior takes full advantage of the extraordinary views. In the primary bedroom, for example, the bed is sited to offer ocean vistas. Portholes in the bunk room serve a similar purpose. And in the great room, 12-foot-high windows open out onto the deck and the sea view beyond. “There’s no separation between the inside of the house and the deck space and the ocean,” says Valerie.
The colors and textures used throughout the house also erase the distinction between outside and in. “Everything in our color palette and our textures brings in the sand and the ocean and the sky,” Valeries notes, “so everything is blue or driftwood or white.” The sandy tone of the decking, for example, matches the pale wood flooring that is used in every room but the bathrooms. On the deck, white furniture offers a backdrop for cool gray-blue cushions and pillows. Those same tones predominate in the great room: In the kitchen area, a striking blue-and-gold range hood echoes the blue of the stove below it and the pale-blue quartzite of the countertops. In the living/dining area, where most of the furniture is white, blue makes an appearance in cushions, throw pillows and a gray-blue area rug.
The most striking use of blue is in the primary bathroom and the bathroom adjacent to the bunk room. In the former, deep-blue ombre tile surrounds the tub and the vanity; in the latter, a deep gray-blue is repeated in the vanity, the subway tiles surrounding the tub, and the dramatic starburst-patterned tile on the floor and tub surround inset.
The interior seascape is enhanced by the use of shell and mother of pearl, the latter particularly arresting in the dramatic chandelier over the dinner table and the fireplace surround in the primary bedroom. Though the designer and the homeowners steered clear of overtly nautical décor, they chose to display white coral statuary in the open shelving above the kitchen cabinets and thread thick, nautical-style rope through the upperbunk guards in the bunk room. Asked to describe the décor, Wolf tries out “classic coastal,” then “elevated nautical” and finally “timeless nautical.”
The décor, especially on the decks, is also distinctly resort-style—something the homeowners, who entertain all summer long, specifically requested. Wolf achieved that by choosing most of the furniture from only two different lines, as a hotel or resort might. “Consistency of décor on the exterior is what gives you that hotel feel,” she says.
But if guests sometimes forget that they’re not staying at a five-star hostelry, the house is happy to remind them. “We were looking to build a home that felt really calm and comfortable for the four of us, a place where we could spend our summers and create lifelong memories,” says Valerie. “But we also wanted it to feel that way when we hosted extended family and friends.” Thanks to a careful, two-year collaboration between creative homeowners and an inspired designer, the house is a thing of beauty that celebrates its setting and never feels less than welcoming.
For more incredible house tours, browse the April/May issue of NJ HOME.