Design & Dwell Homes Specializes in Beautiful Beach Getaway Homes
Are you ready for a home to call your own in “Louisville South” along Highway 30A? Design & Dwell Homes, based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has all the design expertise, furnishings, and decor to make your vacation home dream a reality. A perfect complement to their local interior design and decor business, Design & Dwell Interiors in Middletown, Design & Dwell Homes is owned by CEO, Interior Designer, and Expert Psychological Stager Wendy Anguiano. Wendy’s artistry and creativity are well-matched to her husband Nathan’s finely-tuned business acumen, as “a financial navigator and problem solver with more than 20 years of senior-level executive experience.”
Wendy Anguiano worked for fifteen years in the creative fashion industry and is an artist and marketing expert with several years of administrative experience. Design & Dwell Homes originated in late 2017 as a staging company with some interior design projects. That trend has since reversed with less staging and more interior design. “Most clients in Florida are purchasing a vacation home or investment property that is brand new and vacant, or they buy the house furnished but decide to get rid of everything and start over,” says Wendy. Design & Dwell Homes works with new builds, remodels, and redecorating projects.
19 Salt Box Lane in Watersound Beach, Florida, is a 5 bedroom/5.5 bath vacation home (with a carriage house) that sleeps up to twelve guests. “Light, bright, and airy,” the rooms feature large windows and a variety of decorative wood wall treatments painted in aquas, blues, whites, and off-whites. They provided perfect canvases for Wendy’s interior design brushstrokes. Considering the overall color palette, room flow, and textural elements, she adds pops of color, furnishings, and art to elevate the spaces with a dream-like quality ideal for the beach.
Upon entering the open-concept living room and kitchen area, Wendy noticed “the cozy feel to the home.” She brought in a coastal look of high-end luxury with “white, light, bright, and neutral tones, along with tans, greys, and pops of blue.” Quality furniture with wood to match the floors and the rustic feel of the fireplace provided additional seating. “If you sleep twelve people, you need to be able to seat twelve people.” Wendy also turned the previously unused window seats into bench seating with plush throw pillows and placed movable pouf ottomans on either side of the fireplace.
The first-floor guest bedroom with porch access and aqua blue beaded wainscoting inspired Wendy to lighten and brighten the space with mirrored nightstands to reflect light and layered white bedding with throws and pillows in soft colors. When it comes to bedrooms, “I do a walk-through assessment, room by room,” says Wendy. “I start with the furniture, from the bed and nightstands to lamps, art, and a chair.”
The second-floor primary suite with a private balcony and a large private bath features a focal point fireplace and a wall of windows. “I placed the bed so as soon as you wake up, you see out those windows, creating a luxury environment that is serene, soft, and inviting, relaxing, cozy, and comfortable. Small amounts of color (here purple, lavender, and shades of blue) keep it soft but mix it up to give each room its own distinct feeling.” The wavy blue pattern on a throw pillow evokes both the ocean and an agate pattern, which works perfectly with the bedside “rock” lamps. “Everything is intentional,” Wendy assures us, “for balance and to work together.” She chose the circular, mirrored wall art pieces and round drawer pulls to complement the round buttons in the tufted headboard. “I often do things in threes. Odd numbers seem more complete, if somewhat unconventional.”
Blue and white board and batten walls distinguish the adjacent king bedroom with private balcony and private bath. “I chose to keep it simple because of the texture on the walls - a simple, solid bed with no pattern and no texture and simple bedding with larger patterns that play into what’s going on with the walls,” says Wendy. The clear glass lamps keep it light, with black trim to provide some grounding. She chose a horizontal, wider art piece so as not to compete with the wall behind, which “is art in itself.”
Wendy’s designs for the carriage house furnishings included many durable, washable slipcovers to handle beachgoers returning to their home away from home after enjoying the emerald waters and white sand beaches. Although the overall impression is high-end coastal, “I want guests to feel like they’re at the beach, comfortable and laid-back.” Meanwhile, Design & Dwell Interiors in Louisville continues to grow with new hires, monthly warehouse sales in Bluegrass Industrial Park, and the ever-evolving Middletown showroom.
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