DESIGN by MICHAEL ZIMAN AND DONNA AND VICTORIA GRIMES
PHOTOGRAPHY by LAINE DUPONT
TEXT by LESLIE GARISTO PFAFF
For 27 summers, Tom and Christine Christopoul lived happily in their 1960s-era beach house in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island, relishing its beachfront site and its stunning water views but aware that eventually they’d need to rebuild. “It was constructed in the 1960s and then added on to in the 1980s,” says Tom, “so it was a bit of a Frankenstein situation, and the construction quality was pretty low.” Three years ago, they decided it was finally time to build a new house worthy of its magical setting—a home that would feel contemporary, comfortable and cohesive.
To do that, they turned to Michael Ziman, president and owner of Ziman Development, builders specializing in elegant, sustainable construction on LBI, and to Donna and Victoria Grimes of Serenity Design. The lot size and zoning restrictions dictated a footprint only slightly larger than that of the original house; Ziman and the designers faced the challenge of creating sufficient space for the couple and their three grown children, as well as the guests they often hosted. The house features two large living spaces: a third-floor great room comprising kitchen, living and dining areas and a second-floor den, used mostly by the younger family members and their friends.
The 20-by-22-foot great room feels very spacious, thanks to a vaulted ceiling covered in white shiplap and a bank of floor-to-ceiling glass sliders that open onto an expansive terrace. A large, built-in bar at the back of the room adds visual appeal through its open shelving, but Victoria says it made furniture placement a challenge. The solution was to set a large, L-shaped sofa in the center of The solution: Set a large, L-shaped sofa in the center of the room, far enough away from the bar to allow easy circulation.
Christine worked closely with both designers to get a look that reflected her personal aesthetic, which may be why the overall design tends to defy stereotyping. Ziman describes it as a blend of “modern and beachy contemporary.” When asked to pin down a style, Victoria and Donna go back and forth: “Eclectic contemporary,” Donna says, then adds “coastal.”
“She’s got some Palm Beach-y things going,” Victoria says of their client.
“Eclectic fun,” Donna puts in, to which Victoria counters: “a little more sophisticated.” “Yes, definitely,” Donna agrees. “Sophisticated fun.”
That’s a perfect description for the dining chairs, their seats upholstered in a sinuous, blue-and-white fern pattern, and the powder room, with its charming, blue-and-white wallpaper featuring overlapping, rippling circles and a mirror that seems to be cut from a sheet of white coral. Christine, says Victoria, “really wanted the powder room to pop and be a little bit more exciting,” and even so, it blends with the rest of the house, with its white trim and white vanity, whose doors feature woven insets.
“We wanted everything to be cohesive,” says Victoria, citing the matte-finished, light-oak flooring installed throughout the house and similarly hued wood accents like the ladder in the bunk room, the open shelving in the great room and the floating shelves flanking the first-floor wet bar.
Woven textures also make an appearance throughout, from the pendant over the dining table that resembles an inverted clamshell and the rattan stools around the kitchen island to a pair of woven poufs in the living area and two outdoor sofas on the second-floor balcony. Most rooms feature large expanses of white and eye-catching blue accents, like the base of the kitchen island and the blue lines that shoot through the off-white of the sofa.
The vibe may be sophisticated, but everything in the house was designed for easy maintenance. “We were very deliberate about getting durable materials,” says Victoria, who notes that Christine got samples of all the proposed upholstery fabrics and smeared them with ketchup to make sure they’d be stain-resistant and easy to clean. The dark ChamClad soffits over all three balconies were designed to echo the black trim on the outside of the sliders, but they were also designed to last, constructed of recycled PVC (polyvinyl chloride) that’s not just sustainable but also virtually maintenance free. “It’s gorgeous,” says Victoria. “It doesn’t look like plastic or vinyl—it looks as if they literally have stained wood on the ceiling.”
Ziman chose a similarly low-maintenance product for the home’s exterior shingles: NuCedar, made of cellular PVC, is impervious to moisture and insects and reflects sunlight to minimize cooling costs. In fact, beautiful, easy-care surfaces are yet another design element tying the entire home into a cohesive whole, while ensuring that fun and family will trump upkeep for countless summers to come.