Michael Smith News>Elle Decor

Beauty and the Beach

Crawford and Gerber came to the project with very different ideas. "Rande is edgy, modern, and Armaniesque, and I prefer a cozier, more romantic feeling," says Crawford. "He hates the traditional Oriental rugs I love, and would have just carpeted the whole place. We each had to step out of our safety zones and find something we both liked." For help they turned to interior designer Michael S. Smith, an old friend of Crawford's who had collaborated with her on her previous places. He helped reconcile their tastes and had a few opinions of his own, too.This house is a "hybrid," says Smith. "CIndy's need for warmth and comfort permeates the place, but Rande's need for drama and sequence makes it memorable."The challenge was to convey spareness and simplicity while keeping the design earthy and romantic. Smith accomplished this by limiting the use of patterns, choosing quality pieces versus "fancy stuff," and allowing the architectural details to speak for themselves. In the living room, for example, the recessed squares in the stone around the fireplace add an elegant element, as do the shuttered doors in the bar and the carved moldings in the master bath. A white-gold-leaf ceiling in the dining room and bamboo shades in nearly every room let light play capriciously.The house reveals itself over time. "It may seem like a one-note idea of wood-and-white," says Smith, "but it's not. It's complex and sophisticated. You're forced into taking a second look." Each time you do, you discover another layer -- subtly textured fabrics or Venetian plaster on a wall that adds a quiet sheen, an earthy color on the ceiling, unusual Morroccan rugs that have a sense of history but are still beach appropriate, curtains that can transform a sunny room into a virtual tent. "The house is bigger than the sum of its parts," concludes Smith.