One of only 10 oceanfront estates in Orchid Island Golf and Beach Club, the gracious British West Indies-style home at 141 Beachside Drive, is an elite property by definition, but its virtues go far beyond mere location and inherent prestige.
Offered for $14.9 million by Cindy O’Dare and Clark French of Premier Estate Properties, the 6-bedroom, 9.5-bath, 13,040-square-foot oceanfront home is a masterpiece of thoughtful design and superior construction. Built in 2007 by respected island contractor Toby Hill, the three-story structure has a storm-resistant engineering design innovative enough to be written up in multiple publications; more than 1,700 yards of concrete and lots of steel went into its construction, according to the owner.
Nothing is more important that structural integrity for an oceanfront home in Florida, but that basic value quickly fades into the background as a visitor enters the compound and begins to take in the finely detailed and carefully wrought materials and architectural excellence that overlay the home’s rock-solid core.
“The owners were very involved with the design of the home from the very beginning, as was their interior designer, Jill Shevlin,” says O’Dare. “A lot of people bring in an interior designer at the end, after the home is built, which I think is a mistake. The interior designer is responsible for the final look of the home and having her involved from the beginning makes everything work together.”
O’Dare cites room proportions as an example of Shevlin’s influence in consultation with the owners. Though the house is quite large, none of the rooms seem cavernous or institutional. Instead, while spacious, they are also intimate and highly livable, with good flow from one part of the house to another.
O’Dare says the owners’ input extended to the way the house is sited on the 1.5-acre lot a few hundred feet south of the community’s magnificent beach club. The driveway is sloped up such that the main entry is into the home’s second floor, where the primary public spaces are located. From the motor court, several steps lead up to an elegant covered colonnade that extends along the north side of the pool courtyard to the front terrace and entry, which is well removed from the driveway.
The courtyard is probably the single most inspired stroke of the home’s design and orientation on the lot. Stretching between the front terrace of the main home and the guest house at the far end, enclosed the by colonnade on one side and by a landscaping and a wide masonry fountain on the other, it contains a pool that O’Dare says is the most beautiful she has seen.
“We could be in Beverly Hills right now,” she says, looking at the pool from the colonnade.
Slightly sunken, so that one goes down a couple of shallow steps to reach it, and surrounded by a grassy lawn and layers of lovely landscaping, the pool courtyard is sheltered from ocean winds making it usable most of the year. With curved sides a stone coping, it exemplifies the home’s estate-like quality, creating a sense of ease and aesthetic please as a visitor approaches the formal front entry.
Seen from the guest house at the far end of the swimming pool, the front entry presents three symmetrical arches supported by four columns with four slimmer columns above supporting the roof of a covered balcony. Through the arches, which open onto the front terrace, one sees two grand Palladian windows flanking a double entry with a Palladian top. The arched windows and doors perfectly echo the front arches and reveal another set of three Palladian openings on the back wall that in turn let in the ocean view.
The sense of formal symmetry is powerful but light because of the size of the delicately-mullioned openings and the sight of the sea sparkling in the background, a visual visitors pick up well before entering the house.
The sense of formal design is heightened by the two campanile-like sections of the house that flank the center section, rising slightly higher, topped with shallow hip roof lines and set off by matching Caribbean-style chimneys.
The front and back terraces are paved in limestone, a mark of high quality. Inside the floors are stone with inset mosaics in some places, hickory in others.
Going in through the double mahogany eight-light doors with fanlight above one enters a front foyer or gallery that opens into a combined living room and dining room space highlighted with a fireplace, high ceiling, and the fantastic view of the ocean through the tree sets of arched-top French doors. The doors open onto a covered terrace with an open terrace beyond.
To the left of the entry and living room is the kitchen, as beautifully designed and equipped as one would expect in a house of this caliber, and the oceanfront family room. The two spacious rooms are open to each other and the family room has a vaulted ceiling with pecky cypress beams that add to the tropical ambiance. The family room opens via French doors onto a covered terrace, next to the main back terrace.
To the right of the entry and living room is a first-floor oceanfront guest master suite with matching side terrace, a hall bath and the handsome main staircase.
The owners’ private quarters are at the top of the stairs on the home’s third level. There is a gallery overlooking the pool courtyard across the front that opens onto a limestone paved covered baloney connecting two wings. In the north wing is the owners’ suite with huge walk-in closets/dressing rooms equipped with built-in cabinetry and shelves and, in the case of her closet, a chaise lounge to relax in.
The dual bathrooms are expansive with top-of-the-line fixtures, including an oversize Kohler cast iron soaking tub and a glassed-in shower with a sea-view window.
The bedroom has a vaulted ceiling and two French doors that lead out onto a private covered oceanfront balcony.
The other wing is occupied by a classic dark wood office with a full bathroom, coffered ceiling and matching private covered balcony looking east.
The home’s first floor is occupied by a large entertainment/family room and two guest suites with full bathrooms and walk-in closets. The family room has an amazing tropical mural on the east wall that creates the illusion of looking out through palm trees at the ocean, the same as one does on the upper two floors. This level also has a beach bath and the three-car garage.
Though the first floor is partly below grade it is not remotely like a basement, having doors that open to grade on one side and full-size windows in the bedrooms. The driveway, which slopes up to the entry steps that lead to the colonnade, curves and slopes down to the garage. The walkway to the beach is right there, while exterior steps lead back up to the colonnade, where there is a summer kitchen overlooking the pool.
The guest house at the far end of the pool courtyard is a fun, somewhat more tropical space with two bedrooms and a small kitchen. There are built-in bunk beds with ladders and drawers, a popular sleeping place for the owners’ grandchildren, who also love to swim in the resort-like pool and run around on the grassy lawn that surrounds it.
Even though the owners are downsizing, they have no intention of leaving Orchid Island Club. They lived in an oceanfront condo north of the clubhouse before building their current house, and they plan to buy another, smaller home in the community when their estate home sells.
They say they have made too many friends, and enjoy the championship golf course, beach club and other amenities too much to leave.
