PHOTO GALLERY: Updated condo on Siesta Key
Larry and Joy Scott of Bath, Maine, had rented vacation apartments on Siesta Key for three years until, out of frustration, they bought a place of their own.
In the completely renovated, reconfigured and updated 561-square-foot condo at Sandy Cove are (left) interior designers Mark Dalton and Jessica Napoli and on the other side of the table, homeowners Joy and Larry Scott, who bought the unit this past spring. They stayed at their primary home in Bath, Maine while the renovation took place over five months. They arrived in late September for the big reveal and to move in. (STAFF PHOTO / THOMAS BENDER)
It is a place where they could bring their poodle, KC, and where they could come as often as they wanted during exactly the months that suited them, not just when a particular place was available.
Joy found the private neighborhood of Sandy Cove and knew immediately it was the place for them. A short stroll to all the amenities of Siesta Key Village, Sandy Cove has its own private beach as well as a long pier for fishing, plenty of green space, and condominiums that offer views of the Gulf, a large lake, swimming pool or tropical treetops. They twice tried unsuccessfully to buy there before the third time was the charm.
“Five days after it went on the market, we were able to make a cash purchase of a tree-top apartment that probably had not been touched since it was built in 1968,” said Larry Scott. “Fine with us. We were going to renovate to suit our tastes, and I didn’t want to deal with someone else’s previous changes. This way we could remove everything and start fresh. And believe me, everything needing removing.”
The living room in the Scott vacation residence which is only 561 square feet. The floors are engineered hardwood and the furniture is from Leather Gallery. (STAFF PHOTO / THOMAS BENDER)
The only drawback to the one-bedroom condominium was that it measured 561 square feet. That was it, for two people and a dog. The Scotts were coming from a 2,000-square-foot home in Maine that additionally has a separate art studio for Joy, who works in fused glass.
“We were determined to maximize every square inch of space within a design scheme that expressed our midcentury modern tastes,” said Joy. “We wanted smart hidden storage like you find on a boat. We also knew we needed interior design help, so I did research online and identified 10 possible Sarasota designers. I narrowed it down to four whom we interviewed, and from that group we chose Mark Dalton of Chic on the Cheap and his associate, Jessica Napoli. We just got each other immediately. I was finishing Mark’s sentences, he was finishing mine, and when he said he wanted to paint the ceiling of the condo black, I knew we were in business.”
Started in 1968 and built out over nearly a decade, Sandy Cove is the work of architect Frank Folsom Smith. There are 112 units in
The outside of the condo at Sandy Cove that homeowners Joy and Larry Scott call their private treehouse. (STAFF PHOTO / THOMAS BENDER)
Sandy Cove, ranging from one- to four-bedroom apartments. The units, with vaulted wood ceilings, nestle into the trees and mature, subtropical, barrier-island vegetation. Townhouses and condominiums range in size from about 600 square feet to about 2,500. Sandy Cove is a pet-friendly community.
The Scott renovation took five months, and for most of that time
remove everything and start fresh. And believe me, everything needing removing.”
The only drawback to the one-bedroom condominium was that it measured 561 square feet. That was it, for two people and a dog. The Scotts were coming from a 2,000-square-foot home in Maine that additionally has a separate art studio for Joy, who works in fused glass.
“We were determined to maximize every square inch of space within a design scheme that expressed our midcentury modern tastes,” said Joy. “We wanted smart hidden storage like you find on a boat. We also knew we needed interior design help, so I did research online and identified 10 possible Sarasota designers. I narrowed it down to four whom we interviewed, and from that group we chose Mark Dalton of Chic on the Cheap and his associate, Jessica Napoli. We just got each other immediately. I was finishing Mark’s sentences, he was finishing mine, and when he said he wanted to paint the ceiling of the condo black, I knew we were in business.”
Started in 1968 and built out over nearly a decade, Sandy Cove is the work of architect Frank Folsom Smith. There are 112 units in Sandy Cove, ranging from one- to four-bedroom apartments. The units, with vaulted wood ceilings, nestle into the trees and mature, subtropical, barrier-island vegetation. Townhouses and condominiums range in size from about 600 square feet to about 2,500. Sandy Cove is a pet-friendly community.
The Scott renovation took five months, and for most of that time the homeowners were in Maine. But they made a visit to pick out furniture at local sources, such as Leather Gallery, Rugs as Art and at Ikea in Tampa. Accessories are practically nonexistent, except for Joy’s fused-glass, 12-inch-square wall art pieces, which she created specifically for the Sarasota condo.
“I have a fear of clutter in this space,” said Larry. “So we’re trying to follow a rule that if one new thing comes into the house, two things have to go out.” There are no table or floor lamps; all lighting is mounted to the walls or ceiling.
Without changing the footprint of the apartment except for removing a knee wall in the kitchen, the design team managed to double the storage space, update everything, improve the lighting scheme and get rid of the interior perimeter soffits by removing all the air-conditioning ducts and installing a trim, wall-mounted modular LG Mini-split unit.
The designers reoriented the kitchen to make it linear, with a long island that doubles as the dining table. All the kitchen appliances are apartment-sized. “Surprisingly, they were difficult to source and quite expensive, compared to conventional appliances,” Larry said. “But we wanted the appliances to be high functioning, and to be fully integrated into the kitchen space and look their best, since you see the kitchen all the time.”
The couple splurged on a kitchen sink faucet that Larry Scott said was disproportionately expensive compared with everything else they bought. “But, we think of it as sculpture as well as a faucet,” said Larry. “And the hose feature is fun to use.”
Tucked behind sleek, white, high-gloss kitchen cabinetry is a laundry area with a stacked, full-size washer and dryer. All the kitchen furnishings and the island were custom made to fit the space.
The designers laid hickory engineered wood flooring throughout the apartment and painted the 10-foot tongue-in-groove ceiling flat black.
“It makes it literally disappear, thus making the rooms seem bigger,” designer Napoli said. Because we couldn’t install recessed lighting — there wasn’t room in the ceiling — we had to go with track lighting. But we managed to get black tracks with LED lights in a clear, white light. It reminds Joy of a New York art gallery, and she loves the look.”
The color palette throughout is black, white, gray and wood tones. Orange is the accent. Solid colors rather than pattern. Furniture pieces feature crisp, clean lines, and the look is sophisticated modern.
The doors to the bathroom and bedroom are pocketed to save space; each has a frosted glass inset to bring more light into the rooms without sacrificing privacy. “By taking the space of an existing closet, we were able to enlarge the bathroom to include a luxurious walk-in shower,” Napoli said. “It’s a big, comfortable bathroom for two and it has glamorous modern fixtures and oversized glass subway tile that makes the space seem even bigger than it is.”
The black platform bed in the bedroom is from Ikea. It features wide, pull-out, under-bed drawers for plenty of hidden storage. To visually increase the scope of the room, the designers mirrored the closet wall. There’s also a floor-to-ceiling window that floods the room with natural light and frames a leafy view of the outside. Above the headboard is
a shelf (lighted for reading in bed) to hold books, eyeglasses and such. It’s also a docking station for electronics.
While the renovation of their Florida getaway was in progress, the Scotts had absolutely no buyers’ remorse or second thoughts about how they were going to move around in such a tiny home. They had actually done it before.
“Eleven years ago, when I retired, we realized a dream to see America,” Larry said. “So we bought an Airstream, and, for two years, we lived in 160 square feet with our dog while we covered 40,000 miles. It was a wonderful experience, and we realized that we didn’t really need a lot of stuff to be comfortable and happy.
“So, we came to this vacation condo with an optimistic attitude and practical strategies to make our lifestyle work. But we were still nervous and excited to see what the designers could do with 561 square feet.”
In September, the Scotts drove to Florida for the big (or little) reveal.
“The first night we got as far as Savannah and fell into bed exhausted,” Larry remembered. “But Joy woke me up at 3 in the morning and said she couldn’t wait another minute to get on the road to Sarasota. So we got in the car.
“The minute we walked into this modern little treehouse, we knew we had made the right decision and that we had chosen the right designers and the right neighborhood to make our Sarasota vacation home perfect.
“Now we can come more often and stay longer.”
