Tommy and Dee Hilfiger are no strangers to waterfront living. For years the designer couple took respite at a Golden Beach, Florida, home with 100 feet of ocean frontage, and they continued to retreat to a vacation home on Mustique, where the estate’s swimming pool laps up against the sands of the Caribbean.
Still, when the duo decided to decamp from their residence in Greenwich, Connecticut (AD, March 2017), and make a full-time move to Palm Beach, Florida, last year, they pondered a new kind of frontier. “We fell in love with this home and the fact that it was on the lake and on the lake trail,” says Dee, referring to the west side of Palm Beach overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, Lake Worth Lagoon. Once settled, the couple turned to AD100 designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard to help open up and reenvision the space. —Ariel Foxman
Jean-Eric Gnuva is as well-traveled as a worn-in passport. For years, the French businessman has crisscrossed the world in his role as a high-end residential property developer, becoming familiar with Paris, Monaco, New York, and more in the process. So when he decided to renovate his seaside home in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France, Gnuva’s first request for the interior designer seemed appropriate: “He wanted the space to feel luxurious, almost as if it were an ultra high-end hotel. ,” explains Jean-Charles Tomas, founder of his eponymous design firm and the designer tapped to spearhead the project.
“Jean-Eric had been living in the home for over a decade and decided it was time for a change,” Tomas says. After spotting the designer’s talent in various magazines, the home owner reached out via Instagram. And yet, being the level-headed businessman he was, Gnuva decided to start small. “Initially, the task was simply to renovate the kitchen,” Tomas said. Nonetheless, Gnuva was impressed with the work—so much so that he wanted more. “After the kitchen was done,” Tomas continued, “he asked me to redesign the rest of his interiors.” —Nick Mafi
