Down by the sea at the Coastal Living Ultimate Beach House

NORFOLK

Interior decorator Phoebe Howard, pictured at right, whose soft and soothing Southern style has been featured in national shelter publications for years, makes her recent decorating jaunt to Norfolk sound easy.

"I do love beach houses. I grew up on the beach and understand the beach. It's second nature to me. I can almost do it with my eyes closed," Howard said from Jacksonville, Fla., which is home base for her business.

When she was asked to decorate Coastal Living magazine's 2011 Ultimate Beach House in East Beach, it took only moments for her to get her bearings.

"I call it my spring point. With every job, I show up with a completely open mind and think about that region," Howard said.

"It was my first time in Norfolk. It's a Navy town, like Jacksonville where I'm from, and I was struck by the marinas and how much boating there was. I sat in the bay window, and a sailboat passed by, and that was it. Immediately, I started thinking boating and nautical, and nautical inspiration led me to blue and white."

The result, open to tours since late July, is featured now in the October issue of Coastal Living.

Those who want to see first-hand how she did it have only a few more weeks. The home - listed for $899,000 and designed by Mouzon Design, with construction by Simpson Builders - has a buyer, and the doors will close to the public Nov. 27.

Howard's color scheme begins through a vestibule in an open dining and living space.

In the dining room, the scheme is simply blue and white. In the living room, she added yellow pillows for pop. In the breakfast room, yellow takes a main seat the table.

"An easy way for somebody to understand it is that, in adjoining rooms, I like to carry a color and then flip it. Large colors and small colors, flip them. You want the colors to flow from room to room - not be a repeat but to have a harmonious flow," Howard said.

She carried her color scheme into sleek bathrooms and to the outside, using it on the terrace furniture.

Everywhere, scale works to excite the eye and keep it moving. Fat stripes of blue and white on dining room benches become moderate on living room chairs covered in sailcloth. Then, on corner window seat cushions, the same color pairing shrinks to pinstripes.

"Scale is probably the hardest thing for a nonprofessional to grasp. It's real important. It's either learned by a lot of school or by a lot of trial and error. It's scale and proportion. If you're unsure of yourself, then hire a professional," she said. "Every situation is unique; there are no rules."

Textural interplay heightens interest. Shiny nickel hardware and glass cabinet fronts in the kitchen contrast with organic bamboo window shades and a weathered finish on distressed hardwood flooring. In the living space, Howard used sisal rugs, linens and denims, weathered and distressed finishes, and occasional wicker, driftwood and touchable seashells.

"I like to use shells in decorating a beach house, but I like to use real shells. No shell fabrics, wallpapers or pictures of shells," she said, confessing that it's a deeply rooted affection. She was a shell collector as a child.

Horizontal pintucking on white linen draperies in the dining room was not a textural impulse.

"That came from my background as a seamstress," she said. "It was a detail that makes the curtains look fuller so you can use less fabric. It gives them volume. Just like stripes on a dress make you look big, horizontal stripes make curtains look bigger and fuller."

Less fabric means lower cost, an advantage that appeals to professionals who transform show homes as well as to do-it-yourself decorators at home.

"A show house is a good example of working to stretch the budget," Howard said. "You can see a lot of creativity there in how to stretch a dollar. You don't have unlimited budgets on these types of things."

Humor and whimsy, on the other hand, come more easily.

This time, the chuckle came from leather flip-flops.

"I think every room needs a lighthearted note, something that's funny or brings back a good memory," Howard said.

She stumbled on about 50 used pairs of iconic Bernardo sandals all in the same size and in every color of the rainbow.

"I wanted to buy all of them," Howard said, "but I bought five pairs. I think they make a great statement. I think if you want to put everybody off guard, then do something unexpected."

She framed the shoes in Lucite and hung them above the breakfast banquette.

Spiraling kudu horns flanked by creamware plates over the padded headboard of the downstairs master bed were another visual surprise.

"They're so pretty," Howard said. "I wanted international flair. I wanted to hang something that's three-dimensional. Another thing that's a takeaway from the house is to have a little fun with what you're going to hang on walls - the paddle mirror in the dining room, the monochromatic horns and creamware - that keeps it from being too 'in your face.' "

Howard created interest behind the kitchen, just beyond the dog-wash station and vibrant yellow powder room, by striping the stair risers to the second-floor landing.

"I love the striped stair risers! I had to fight for that. I actually had to pay for it," she said, recalling that she begged the painter, "Please, please, there's got to be a way to give this staircase personality."

She admitted, "I held everybody to the fire and got my way as usual. They were worried about them getting scuffed. The guy taped and taped to paint them. It took a lot of time, but it's so worth it in the end. It's a perfect example of how you can take a throwaway space and make a statement."

After the color scheme came to life, Howard layered her finishing touches.

Accessories are so important, she said.

Vignettes all over the house showcase her skill with choosing the right accent pieces - framed nautical maps and a mirror in the second, upstairs master with a frame sculpted to look like coral. Another spot is the view into the downstairs master bedroom.

There, she began with a large, bottle-green painting of a churning ocean. She added more shades of green with a sofa and chairs covered in a green and white Indian handblock print.

"Sometimes I have imaginary characters when I decorate a room," she said. "These were well-traveled, had a love of the beach and when they came home they were real grounded there."

A bouquet of silk hydrangeas in green and white evoke foaming water, while sand-colored pillows were a natural tie-in to the seagrass rug. Then she added a shell-filled glass lamp, a green glass ashtray and a pair of vases, the glaze caught in mid-drip.

"I just chose them because I like the shape," Howard said about the pottery. "Architecture and accessories make or break the house. Those are the things that bring it to life. Accessories are so important and can kill a decorating job. They need high consideration."

WANT TO GO?

What 2011 Coastal Living Ultimate Beach House

Where 4879 Coventry Lane in East Beach, Norfolk

When 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 27

Cost $10; children 10 and younger admitted free. Available at East Beach sales office, 4487 Pleasant Ave., Norfolk. Part of sales will be donated to St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children.

Info (757) 333-6650

STORY: Krys Stefansky, (757) 446-2043, krys.stefansky@pilotonline.com
PHOTOS: Thomas Slusser, Special to The Virginian-Pilot