38 NAPLES ILLUSTRATED
ABODE
To quell the enormous open floor plan, Wright selected a soft gray-
blue and white color palette with splashes of orange throughout to re-
flect her client’s love of bright hues. She replaced the dated white tile
flooring with maple hardwood planks and installed molding to bring
the main living area down to a more manageable scale, incorporating
three chair rails on the taller wall and two on the shorter one. She paint-
ed in shades of the same gray-blue between the rails, with the darkest
on the bottom and the lightest next to the ceiling.
For definition, Wright integrated a partial fireplace wall between the
living and formal dining rooms. To keep the divider interesting, she
plastered the upper portion with a Venetian faux finish, added wood
molding details to the bottom, and covered the double-sided, eye-level,
linear fireplace with quartz, which is a heat-resistant material.
The great room abounds with many artistic components, such as a
large cabinet with a mirrored door and signed Salvador Dali prints from
his Dante’s Inferno series. Seating pieces in the oft-used living space
were clad with performance materials, including the chenille fabric on
the swivel chairs next to the fireplace. “The great room furnishings are
forgiving and have no maintenance,” explains Wright. “If something is
spilled, it’s no problem. We are asked for performance fabrics about 90
percent of the time now. Our clients want to be comfortable and not
worry about their furniture.”
Before the renovation, the formal dining area had just one beam, butWright affixed two additional planks for consistency. The original patio
doors were eliminated in favor of sliders, which are augmented with a
custom cornice with a laser-cut pattern. All of the furniture is from the
client’s collection, and Wright simply reupholstered the dining chairs
in fabrics that complement those used in the living room, thereby
tastefully joining the two spaces in one visual narrative. A geometric
chandelier and artwork entitled Pod I by Shirley Kelley complete the
modern scene.The original great room measured 26 feet
wide by 45 feet long, so Wright broke it up
into a living room and a formal dining area
separated by a partial fireplace wall.